At the School Board Workshop on September 13th, school board members again broached the subject of citizens input during regular school board meetings. Karen Jordan, Public Information Officer for the school district came to the workshop with changes to the citizen input form that had been discussed previously. The school board members hashed out some additional changes and clarified their positions on the issue. When the changes were first proposed, it was expressed that citizens input at the end of the meeting would limit negativity, which tend to overshadow the positive accomplishments of the district. There is also worry in regards to swearing and inappropriate behavior.
Board Chairman Matt Foreman expressed concern in moving Citizens Input on general matters from the beginning of the meeting to the end of the meeting. He stated, ” I am concerned with respect to the fact that I did get a lot of communication from our constituents basically stating look- parents that show up with children are not going to wait until you are done with your meeting at 9:30 or 10 o’clock. And that is a concern for me.” Foreman explained,
“This was proposed to me before the meeting as a way to conduct our business in a more orderly fashion and I think it would accomplish that, but a lot of people believe that it’s actually being used as a mechanism to just wait people out.” He did believe that in the end they are giving a greater opportunity for citizens to voice their concerns as with the new rules they will be able to speak on agenda items at the beginning of the meeting, in the middle if there is a public hearing and at the end for general comment.
School board member Beth Naverud felt that citizens would be getting a better opportunity to communicate with the board since the board’s business would be concluded. “I don’t think that doing this stifles them,” she said.
“I think that it gives them a better opportunity to actually talk to us because we’re not pressed for that time as harshly as we are when trying to get the rest of our agenda through because we have time sensitive items… Pushing this portion to the back end will give us the opportunity to actually maybe talk with them at the end of the meeting. We don’t get the chance to tell them what we plan to do or what we think we plan to do… I don’t think doing this will hurt input. I think it will improve communication,” Naverud explained.
During public input on this matter, Shirley Miketinac of Brooksville stated, “Our comments are your business… You are our sounding board. You are closest to us and many times, yes we are speaking to Tallahassee, but you are our local officials so we appreciate you listening, we know you’re taking a lot of criticism and absorbing it, we appreciate that.”
School board member Gus Guadagnino stated, “I don’t think it’s mostly about negativity. I think it’s about conducting business orderly.” He explained that the citizens input in the beginning “kind of takes us off track.” He said that he wishes to hear citizens input whether it is grandstanding or legitimate, but the meeting would run faster and more efficiently if the general comments were moved to the end of the meeting. He proposed the use of a proxy to communicate concerns of those with children that cannot stay late.
Miketinac had a response for weighing order over citizens input, quoting Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, “They (the founders) did not exalt order at the cost of Liberty.” She stated that freedom of speech and the constitution do not require an orderly meeting.
Anthony Palmieri urged the board to leave citizen input at the beginning and give citizens the opportunity to speak on agenda items. He stated that this would result in greater transparency as often he has a question about an item and could use the opportunity for clarification.
The Board tentatively approved the discussed changes which includes moving general citizen input (3 minutes) to the end of the meeting.