REMINDER OF PUBLIC HEARING regarding City Utilities proposed operating plan (budget) and their proposed natural gas rate increases

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 19, 2008, at 5:30 p.m., is the scheduled public hearing of the City Utilities proposed budget. This is the time scheduled for the public to come and address the CU board and the City Council.

There will also be a joint study session of the City Utilities board and the City Council.

The hearing and study session will be held in the CU training center classroom at 301 E. Central.

View CU's preliminary 2009 Operating Plan and Natural Gas Rate Proposal overviews at the City Utilities Web site.

- 2009 Operating Plan

- Natural Gas Proposal

The next opportunity for the public to speak to Council in a public setting will be at the first reading of the bill recommending approval of the City Utility budget, when it comes before Council. That date is September 15, 2008. Two weeks later, Council will vote to either approve or not approve the CU budget.

Following is the rest of the schedule as it appeared in the News-Leader:

- Aug. 19-27 -- Reviews/study sessions as needed with CU board and City Council.

- 3 p.m. Aug. 28 -- Board votes on proposed budget, CU board room, 301 E. Central

- Aug. 29 -- Budget filed with city clerk

- 7 p.m. Sept. 15 -- First reading and public hearing of proposed budget, Springfield City Council, Old City Hall, 830 Boonville.

- 7 p.m. Sept. 29 -- City Council votes on proposed CU budget, Old City Hall, 830 Boonville

Council Bill 2008-132

...and a refresher course on procedure for addressing the Council

Item 13 is Council Bill 2008-132 and regards the city budget, for public hearing:

"PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD FOLLOWING SECOND READING BILLS. NOT ANTICIPATED TO BE VOTED ON. A special ordinance adopting a budget for the City of Springfield, Missouri, for the fiscal year July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009 and providing that certain amounts shown in the budget document are appropriated for the various departments specified in said budget, and declaring an emergency."

The Council may decide to hold the public hearing over but aren't required to do so. That means if you have a comment on the city budget, tonight will be the night to address council about it.

Since it is an item on the agenda, it isn't necessary to do anything other than show up, fill out a card (found in the back of the pew in front of you) and submit it to the City Clerk, Brenda Cirtin.

There are two times when it is necessary to contact the City Clerk on the Friday before the Council meeting to speak to an issue. The first is when the bill is going to be read for the second time (meaning public hearing is closed), unless the Council has decided to continue the public hearing beyond the first reading. Unfortunately, in the case of a second reading bill, the Council has already heard the public and should you choose to speak regarding a second reading bill, under "petitions, remonstrances, and communications," generally you'll be called upon after the Council has already voted on the bill. The other instance in which you'd need to contact the Clerk on the Friday before the Council meeting is when you want to address the Council on an issue that is not appearing on the agenda at all.

Examples:

The bill regarding the budget will be read for the first time tonight so the public may address the Council simply by filling out a card provided at the back of the pew in front of them and submitting it to City Clerk Brenda Cirtin before the bill comes up for reading.

The bill highlighted in the previous post, 2008-116, regarding the 1/8 cent sales tax revenue for transportation has already been read, the public hearing has not been extended by the Council, therefore the public hearing is closed. You may submit your name to the Clerk the Friday before the meeting and address the Council about it but you'll likely be addressing them after they have already voted either for or against the bill. You'll have your chance to make a further statement in this specific instance when you vote for or against the extension of the 1/8 cent transportation sales tax.

Suppose you want to address the Council tonight about the Pythian Castle or tell the Council what your favorite flavor of ice cream happens to be, in that case, you would have needed to have submitted your name to the Clerk last Friday by 5:00 p.m. to get listed under "petitions, remonstrances, and communications," if you didn't, tough luck, submit your name the Friday before the next meeting because that's the rule. You would not be recognized tonight unless you submitted your name to the Clerk last Friday because there is no bill on the agenda regarding the Pythian Castle or ice cream. (Now, could you submit your name to speak under Bill 2008-132 and then spend your time talking about the Pythian Castle and/or ice cream? You could try it. I suspect you'd get called down by the Mayor and reminded that this bill is regarding the budget, not the Pythian Castle and not belgian chocolate, and advised to follow protocol to speak to an unrelated issue.)

Now, regarding items found on the "Consent Agenda," that's a whole 'nuther thing. There are procedures for speaking to items on the consent agenda. Maybe I'll post about that another time.

City Connect Provides Valuable Research Links

City Connect, the city's semi-blog,* has provided the following links at their website under the heading of "Talk to Council About the Budget on March 31" :

> Video link of the meeting today at the Council luncheon

> The city email address that citizens can use to communicate their ideas on the budget

> The budget discussion schedule

> The current year's budget

> Links to specific pages in the current year's budget that will be helpful to the public

These are the tools you need to comment or make recommendations for the future budget. You have 13 days to prepare to address Council at the March 31 meeting at Council Chambers from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. if that is the way you choose to share your ideas. You know what to do. :)

* I consider it only sort of a blog because readers cannot post comments there. Readers can privately email questions and comments but there is no comment section. What's a blog without a comment section!?? :0

Recommended Reading 3

Will the City ask for public input about guidelines for public input?

Read the article in the News-Leader but pay particular attention to the right hand column "More About This Story" where past public comments are outlined. See if you think the past public comments are unrelated or inappropriate to a School Board meeting.

I'm recommending this in light of the recent suggestion by Mayor Carlson that maybe the Council needs to form a Committee to look at rules pertaining to what the public should be allowed to comment on at City Council meetings under "petitions, remonstrances and communications."

Carlson:

"I don't want to be arbitrary in enforcing the rules but at the same time, I think we need to know what they are and maybe have a Council committee look at, as we come forward, because it seems like we're getting more and more of these things and that may be fine, and we may decide that we wanna be here a lot later for everybody to come talk about whatever they do. Frequently, we have people come and talk about things that have nothing to do with city government, for example."

Carlson said he has:

"...different Council people telling me different things. Some Council people say, uh, "you ought to be able to talk about anything," other people say, "there oughta be some rules around here," and if we wanna have rules, fine, if we don't wanna have rules, fine, I just think we need to get on the same page."

On occasion there is a gentleman who addresses Council only to advertise his personal interests, he does his best to tie it in by suggesting the City should take action to promote his interests but it's mainly an advertisement. It would be unfortunate if one man who has probably appeared 2 or 3 times since April 2007, or a total of 10-15 minutes, gave Council an excuse to limit others from addressing the Council about issues of concern they have with the City.

Something I thought was rather important was left out of my current City Council Roundup column at Community Free Press - Midweek. It was probably edited out before I read the proof and okayed it and I just missed it but I thought it was important in light of supplimentals found at the website. The leed in the section about rules for addressing Council that was removed:

"According to City Clerk Brenda Cirtin the city's guidelines for addressing Council have evolved over the years. The roots for the guidelines are found in Chapter 2 (Administration), Sections 43-45 of the Springfield Municipal Code. As the guidelines have evolved, addressing Council about issues not on the agenda have changed to that of simply registering with the City Clerk by 5:00 p.m., the Friday preceding the Monday meeting. The current guidelines do not indicate the registration must be done in writing, as stated in the code."

You can access the supplimentals at the Community Free Press - Midweek website. They are:

Municipal Code Chapter 2, Administration, Sections 43-34

A Citizen's Guide to Addressing Council, from the city's website

Public Hearing Procedures, a handout available at all Council meetings

It seems counterproductive to me that at the same time the City is seeking public input in so many areas, the Council and School Board are discussing restricting established public speaking venues. In fact, as I was getting ready to post this entry I received a news release from the City that they'd like public input on the proposed speed limit reduction for residential streets.

If the Council decides to form a Committee to study the guidelines for addressing Council do you think they'll seek public input about whether public input should be allowed on topics not on the agenda or will the Committee, formed by elected officials, "represent us" in that regard?

Related: busplunge: "Shut Up! You're Distracting Me!" School Board Wants To Limit Public Input At Board Meetings

Related: School board seeks more public input written by Kris Callen, president of the Springfield Board of Education, excerpt:

"To the News-Leader's credit, they were the only media to cover the retreat with a reporter present for a portion of the evening. With that presence, readers should expect accurate headlines and complete coverage. And while the retreat was posted as an open meeting and patrons could have attended, we have no expectation that most citizens would choose to spend their entire Thursday night attending a four-hour meeting. This leads to a more important reason for accurate and complete reporting. Citizens rely on the media for correct information regarding the work of their public entities and boards when they cannot or choose not to attend in person. We do not believe this occurred in this instance and hope that future articles and headlines will more accurately reflect the true nature and extent of the discussion."

Related: from KSGF's Vincent David Jericho Program, February 05,_How can we make dialogue between parents and Springfield Public Schools healthier, Tuesday, February 05, 2008, Guest: Dr. Ridder- Springfield Public Schools