How to focus on city business

many locals feel that public comments detract from city business, create a hostile atmosphere, and serve as only a venting tool. What will you do to help the city council conduct city business While still permitting limited public comment?

— Sydney Jacobs

Responses

Dan Shahin

Many locals think that public comment is a vital and important part of civic discourse. As evidence of that, I will cite the dozens of people who came to City Hall to protest the attempted removal of Zoom as a method of public comment.

Not even one person spoke in favor of removing Zoom — including the two City Council members who put it on the agenda! Without that public input, there is a real chance we would have lost an important tool for increasing public engagement on the issues we all care about.

If anything, we need to expand public comment periods, not restrict them. The two separate public comment periods we have now should be combined and moved to the beginning of Council meetings, with a full three minutes per comment for anyone.

If an issue is receiving so much public comment that it takes up a significant portion of a Council meeting, that’s an indicator that the issue in question is extremely important to the public, not something that should be suppressed.

When those moments arise, we should consider forming committees, or even holding ad hoc town hall meetings, so that the opinions of the community — all voices — can be heard. Those meetings could deal with important issues and bring findings back to the Council to inform policy decisions.

Robust public discourse should never be treated as an inconvenience. Rather, it should be treated as a vital piece of local governance that we need to celebrate, never denigrate.

Kimberley White

Public comment is an important part of our democracy, and I believe people should be able to come to the Council and speak passionately, disagree with us, and criticize decisions. That is part of the job of being an elected official and as I shared in a prior, what I signed up for. But public comment also needs to be a place where everyone can participate and do so safely.

I would not start with the idea that we need to limit public comment. If we want our Council meetings to be accessible and we want robust community engagement, having a room full of people who want to participate is a good problem to have. It would give me nothing but great joy to see our Council chambers filled with people who care enough about their community to show up and participate in their local government.

Public comment can also be a place where people come to vent. I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing. People sometimes need to express their frustration to the people they elected, and part of our responsibility as elected officials is to listen. I also believe that listening to the public is part of doing City business. Public comment can provide information and perspectives that Council may not otherwise have. What’s important is that public comment does not become an excuse to hijack a meeting or prevent the Council from conducting the business we were elected to do.

As I shared before, I have presided over challenging and sometimes heated Council meetings. I have used breaks and recesses when necessary to give people an opportunity to step back, calm down and de-escalate. I have already had the opportunity to put that balance into practice as Mayor.

To me, the answer is not less public participation. It is good meeting management, clear expectations, and applying the City’s existing rules consistently and fairly. The goal should not be to eliminate public comment, but to make sure it serves its purpose while allowing the Council to conduct the business residents elected us to do. I want people to know that they can come to City Hall, speak their minds, disagree with us, be heard and even vent when needed. That is not a problem, that is democracy in action.

Abigail Strickland

Hi Sydney-

I personally find public comment to be such an important part of hearings- if not the most important part. The City Council is elected by residents, to serve residents. While public comment can be heated and it may seem like folks are venting… well there is a lot to be vented about! And rather then view their comments from a place of annoyance- I think we should be grateful they made the effort to come to the hearing and participate at all.

While City staff may be the experts, mistakes get made, details missed, and there are times that a single public comment changes the whole trajectory of a project or hearing item. Public comment is not a “box” to check when conducting city business, it is the heart of it.

I am happy to talk more about this- you can email me at abbiestrickland2026@gmail.com and visit my website at www.abbiestrickland.com.

Blase Bonpane

Nice, Sydney.

Got something to say ? Bring it!

Council members can keep frustration lower by being more responsive and welcoming.

Some council members and others need to stop implying we can’t hear about or respond to state and federal issues. We don’t live in a vacuum. We live in an interdependent ecosystem biologically and politically. This is physics. Just as water travels the world, so do policies. If we sit back and watch our taxes go to Gaza genocide and endless Iran war it’s not here in the form of Federal Grants for Arcata roads, trans and special ed health care seniors, school food and climate and water resilience development. Sorry! I’m not buying the gag order on keeping silent about state and federal local interfaces that many local candidates do. (Look how few even mention ICE or cuts to Medicare or catastrophic social inequality brought by regressive deregulation or other gorillas in the room). Peaceful always but Its not time for passive pastoralism.

I’m a political scientist, not a political silentist. Peace and Conflict Studies with Honors UCB. MPA from the Evans School at UW. Lecturer, Researcher, Resorationist, Teacher of Decolonization, lifelong learner from Hoopa and other tribes.

Arcata is legendary for innovations and resistance against social inequality because we welcome criticism and input. Council is your closest line of democratic representation. Bring it to me and I will carry it as far as I can. Engaged democracy is fulfilling and fun. Corrupt Billionaires and those that gloss them over kicking out the press like Trump did this week just aint!

Want to rant?! Come to the No Kings 4 protest October 17th! Ill sing you a classic civil rights or union hymn like I do at many of these -or I’ll help turn your rant into a new classic! We will be the new Phil Ochs, the new Sweet Honey in the Rock.

I love seeing schools and community groups preparing folks for ICE terrorism (not as far away as it seems from our bubble). I love seeing school communities preventing fighting among ourselves with Restorative Justice Practices in all public institutions. I am there at Sunnybrae Site Council and will be there if elected to Council.

Be the Humboldt you wish to see in the world.Let’s Go! There’s my rant on rants.

Solidarity,

Blase Bonpane for Arcata