Editorial | How important is citizen input?
Cape Coral City Council imposed new procedures for citizen’s input Wednesday night.
After some debate as to whether it might better serve the public by keeping citizen’s comment near the start of the meeting before Council votes on its often resolution-crammed consent agenda, the elected board voted 6-2 to move the time allotted for open input to the tail end of its sessions.
Council members Jennifer Nelson-Lastra, who proposed a compromise — keep a shortened citizen’s input period prior to the consent agenda and move the current hour allotted to general topics to the end — and Dr. Derrick Donnell dissented.
We thank them.
The change makes things more time-consuming for those looking to get involved in their city government and that is not a good thing.
Nor is it practical if citizen’s input is to be an important part of the decision-making process.
The purported logic that those voicing opinions on Council actions after Council votes could prompt a revote with a different outcome fails the sniff test which is still tainted with stench of a little-noticed, no-discussion-by-council consent agenda item that gave the mayor and council members a Christmas present of a respective $5,000 and $3,300 hike in monthly renumeration in 2023.
It took voters ousting five incumbents in November 2024 — including one who had not even been on the board when the stipend was approved — to overturn the controversial increase that was a public input topic for months.
Let us point out that public comment after a vote isn’t public comment — it’s public protest.
As Council should have learned.
Two, we laud the concept of a responsive staff and Council and so have little issue with Council’s decision to implement speaker cards so that those speaking may — at least in theory — be contacted later with answers to questions that could not be addressed at the meeting.
We wonder, though, whether Council was actually listening to comment — in this case staff comment — made at Wednesday’s meeting.
Two things stood out.
One, City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said he would not be keeping staff through public comment if it were moved to the end of the meetings. Waiting through what could be an hours-long meeting would not be a good use of staff time.
Two, he addressed state statutes as they pertain to public records. It seems that residents sometimes submit questions as a public records request and get upset when they don’t get the response they are expecting.
Mr. Ilczyszyn is correct — the city has no statutory requirement to answer questions; public records are documents which Mr. Ilczyszyn said the city does produce.
Let us say from experience that the process can be …… cumbersome. And that’s being kind.
The question comes down to how important is citizen input.
The answer comes down to how it is prioritized.
In terms of Council’s agenda, it now comes last.
Breeze editorial