Cape Council considers moving public input time
Those looking to speak during public input at Cape Coral City Council meetings may need to wait until near the meeting’s end to be heard on matters not on the agenda.
After a lengthy discussion Wednesday, the elected board supported moving public input time from near the beginning of meetings to the end, right before council member reports, and to require residents fill out a comment card to drop into a speakers queue.
Also by consensus, the board supported moving the time for its regular meetings from 5 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The proposed changes will be brought back to Council at its June 4 meeting for a vote. The new time is proposed to start after the council comes back from the summer hiatus.
Councilmembers Rachel Kaduk brought the topic of the meeting format forward, as she wanted to discuss public comment cards, and move public input to the end of the meetings.
“I attended other meetings, and they all use a public comment card to capture information, so you have a way of contacting them,” she said of individuals who speak. “I thought it would be beneficial to talk about it.”
The comment card would include name, address, phone number and email address to allow council members, and city staff, to follow up with any questions the speaker may ask during citizen’s input. There was discussion that a comment card box will be available for citizens to place their cards, which will then be collected by the city clerk before citizens input.
Many council members agreed that it is a great idea.
Councilmember Keith Long said his reasoning behind the comment card was more of a queue system for him, so they could eliminate attendees having to stand 15 to 20 people deep for their three-minute input. With that said, he would support it either way.
The earlier start time was also addressed, as the Council meetings typically last three hours, potentially pushing citizens input back to 7 p.m., instead of shortly after the start of the 5 p.m. meeting.
“We only had 20 odd more residents come and speak in 2024 than we did in 2023 and that was the time at 4:30 p.m.,” Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra said. “We have less people speaking at 5 than we did when we had individuals coming in at 4:30.”
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