The December 7th Urbana City Council meeting demonstrated that the Council and City Clerk are still confused about their own public input rules during meetings. Council member Jared Miller was trying to propose a new type of agenda item where individual Council members would be able to bring forward their own matters of concern at meetings, rather than being restricted to discussing only what Mayor Marlin and her staff put on the agenda.
The new public input rules posted on Urbana City Council meeting agendas are rather clear:
“The presiding officer or public body members shall not enter into a dialogue with citizens. Questions from the public body members shall be for clarification purposes only. Public Input shall not be used as a time for problem solving or reacting to comments made but, rather, for hearing citizens for informational purposes only.”
However, City Clerk Phyllis Clark said that not only was it entirely appropriate for Council members to respond to residents during public input, but that it was their right to do so. Jared Miller then indicated that the new rules were in conflict with Clark’s claim, and the Council meeting proceeded without any resolution.
Historically, Clark’s description has always been the case at Urbana City Council meetings – aldermen were free to respond and engage with the public. The practice of public engagement has only recently been challenged by Mayor Diane Marlin, who produced new rules as a tool to silence public speech which she found disagreeable (article on the passage of new public input rules on October 12th, 2020).
The exchange between Miller and Clark can be seen here:
-Christopher Hansen, Urbana