MISSOULA — Missoula City Council voted to amend its rules to reintroduce a public comment period at the beginning of its meetings during its meeting on Monday.
For the past two years, public comment on non-agenda items was at the end of the meeting — allowing members of the public three minutes to speak to the council about whatever they may wish.
The amendment to the city council rules reinstates a non-agenda comment period at the beginning of each meeting. The comment period at the beginning of the meeting will be limited to 20 minutes, with each commenter being allowed three minutes.
For sponsors of the amendment, Sandra Vesecka, Daniel Carlino and Bob Campbell, they said they hope that the additional comment period will make local government participation more accessible.
Council member Kristen Jordan was also a sponsor of the amendment, but MTN was unable to speak to her by the time of publication.
“The public is the reason why we have the government in the first place is to help the public. And if the public can't have their say until the end of the meeting time, it's been really frustrating for a lot of the public when they come,” Missoula City Council Member Sandra Vesecka said.
“It should be as easy as possible for people to come talk to their local government, and you used to be able to show up at 6 p.m. on a Monday night and say whatever you want to city council and to the mayor, and then after that got moved back to the end of the meeting, people would have to wait till like 9, 10, 11 p.m. to make their comment,” Missoula City Council Member Daniel Carlino said.
“It'll allow the opportunity for the public to come in and not have to wait through so many public hearings and be able to speak to us and engage with us. And I think it's a win for the community. I think the community has been asking for this for quite some time,” Missoula City Council Member Bob Campbell said.
The amendment passed unanimously on the council’s consent agenda. The reinstated public comment period will be in effect next meeting.