NOTICE RE: CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF MARCH 11, 2019

The City Council meeting held on February 25 attracted a record number of people to the City Hall council chambers. The number of citizens who showed up overwhelmed the council chamber’s maximum capacity. The number of citizens who wished to speak at that meeting also challenged the procedures normally used for conducting the citizen’s comments portion of the meeting. The city administration has reviewed the conduct of the meeting in an effort to ensure that future meetings, where big crowds are anticipated, are run smoothly, with due consideration for the safety of all persons in attendance.

At the meeting on March 11, there will be the normal citizen’s comments period from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. In order to accommodate people wanting to speak and to avoid the situation that occurred on February 25, where hundreds of people spent all day in line at City Hall waiting to register on the sign-up sheet for public testimony, the administration will be following the procedures set out below. These changes are being implemented for the March 11 meeting only.

1. The sign-up sheet will be available at the City Clerk’s Office on Monday, March 11, from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and again at 6:00 p.m. upstairs in City Hall. City Hall will be closed on Monday at 5:00 p.m. The doors will re-open for the meeting at 6:00 p.m.

2. At the meeting, names from the sign-up sheet will be selected on a random basis (using a random number generator), so everyone who signs up will have an equal chance of being called during citizen’s comments.

3. Seating in the council chambers will be on a first-come, first-seated basis. Overflow seating will be set up in the former FMATS conference room, just down the hallway from the council chambers, where the meeting will be broadcast. If the capacity of both areas is exceeded, attendees will be asked to stand in the upstairs hallways in single-file along only one side of the hallway to allow free movement in the hallways.

We appreciate your understanding and patience during this time as the City does its best to safely accommodate every citizen who wishes to participate in local government.