Monday night saw our city council adopt a new approach to the way you and I can talk to council itself during meetings.

No longer can we simply walk up to the microphone and speak our minds when Mayor, Al McDonald asks if anyone present would like to make a presentation.  The rules are changing for the better.   The new policy says anyone wanting to make an unscheduled five-minute presentation now has to physically schedule it.  Council says you can do it my phone, email, or letter by noon the day of council meetings.  This is a great idea.

In my old position of news director at another station, I covered that local council for six years.  Every Monday, I knew my night wasn’t going to end until after 10:30 p.m. That was the minimum but it wasn’t because there was a loaded agenda, it was because of Councillors and residents repeating the same points over and over. When you’re being paid to cover council, it can get tedious to hear repetition like this and distractions easily set in – possibly causing you to miss an important point. This leads to less than impressed listeners looking for the story from the night before.

This simple rule change from our council is meant to speed the meetings along and help people get to the point. In the small time I’ve been here, I’ve watched a lot of council and noticed residents who came up to the mic all, for the most part, had the same thing to say.  I’m a fan of people getting to the point and cutting away the fat and that’s what council most likely trying to achieve with the rule change.

You may think it infringes on your right to speak but council is still letting to address them, you just have to plan it first.

You may not like it but I agree with the city.

~Tom