Fixing Public Comments, part 1

Previously recorded Carpentersville Village Board meetings are shown each Friday on Comcast Cable channel 17 at 7:00pm. While perhaps not as exciting as the WWE Smackdown! or Ghost Whisperer, it can be entertaining nonetheless.  If you cannot make it to the regular Board meetings, this alternative can help you stay aware of what’s happening at these meetings.

As I was watching this week — and, for some reason, the meeting from 3 weeks ago was broadcast instead of this week’s meeting — the public comments portion made me pause and think … what is the purpose for public comments and what should be allowed?

There were at least two people who came to speak who began their comments by attacking members of the Board; one leveled a personal attack against Paul Humpfer, the other against Bill Sarto. (In fact, Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski may also have been personally attacked, though I cannot now recall the exact details.)  While both commenters were stopped and called to order, I personally think that these residents should not have been allowed to continue.  Showing disrespect for the Board and the audience needs to be stopped.  By allowing members of the public to kick off their comments with some personal attack or aside, then merely calling them to order and allowing them to continue, a bad precedent has been set that allows someone to come up and make quick jabs, then go on talking about what they came to speak about.

The Village Board needs to discuss and establish this rule to begin to restore some integrity to the public comments portion of the meeting.

This is not about censoring people, not giving them adequate time to speak, or moving the comments portion to a later time in the meeting; this is about creating a proper atmosphere of respect and decorum.

[In part 2, to be posted tomorrow, I plan to talk about what should be acceptable to be discussed before the Board.]