Spokane City Council considers limiting public comment time at meetings

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane City Council is proposing several changes to how its meetings work, including how people can give public comments, with some council members saying the changes would make meetings more accessible.

Currently, people can give two to three minutes of public comment for each agenda item at city council meetings. The proposed rule would move public comment to the beginning of each meeting and ensure everyone gets a chance to speak before anyone is allowed to give multiple testimonies.

Council members believe their meetings are not accessible enough to the public. One of the biggest proposed changes is a resolution that would move public comment to the beginning of each meeting instead of during each agenda item.

“4% of the people, 21 people, accounted for 50% of the testimony we heard. So if someone is coming to testify for the first time ever at a city council meeting, they might have to wait for someone to testify one, two, three four, five times in one meeting,” said Councilmember Zack Zappone.

Under the proposed resolution, each person wanting to give public comment would have a chance to talk once before anyone is allowed to give multiple testimonies.

“It just shifts the order and says all testimony will be at the beginning, so it’s predictable. And everyone is going to testify at least one time before someone speaks a second time. That’s also a rule we follow as council-members, the famous Robert’s Rules of Order,” Zappone said.

Some residents worry that changes to the rules around public comment could affect people’s ability to have their voice heard on multiple issues.

“In our current climate, most people’s conception of civic engagement is ranting at each other on social media, so I find it’s a small miracle that we get the attendance we do and I would like to encourage, not curtail civic engagement,” said Robert Teal, a Spokane resident.

The council will also vote on potentially moving its meetings from Mondays to Wednesdays. Council members hope that will give the public more time to look at meeting agendas and stay up to date on what the council is voting on.