Opinion: Commission needs to honor the public comment time on the agenda

By Charlene Sims

Journal co-publisher

Am I dreaming? I watched the video of the Linn County Commission meeting of May 26. Then I watched it again. No, I wasn’t dreaming.

The meeting lasted only 35 minutes with two commissioners, Jim Johnson and Jason Hightower, in attendance.

Often, there are things I would like to write opinions about from the commission meetings, excessive executive sessions for questionable reasons, taking comments on their phones during the meeting, intentionally not enforcing the zoning regulations, are just a few. But I try to just let my reporting of the words and actions of the commissioners tell that story.

However, at Tuesday’s meeting the commissioners showed blatant disregard for the people they represent.

The public comment time at 10 a.m. is standard on the commission’s agenda. However, with an otherwise light agenda, the commissioners finished with other matters early and called for public comment at 9:25 a.m.

One person, an attorney for a solar farm development company was already waiting to speak and was ready when the public comment section was called prematurely. After the comments, the commission, minus its chair, approved a resolution amendment and they adjourned the meeting at 9:35 a.m.

So much for anyone else that might be coming to speak at 10 a.m.

But maybe, the commissioners were already aware of what the commenters speech was going to be about and wanted to get it over as soon as possible.

Granted, the public comment sections of the agenda tend to be relatively brutal for the commission. Charges of problems with the county fire department, or in this case with a high voltage line, often don’t portray the commission in a positive light.

In the past, commission Chair Alison Hamilton has called for a recess to fill in the gap around the public comment section of the agenda. That seems like a good alternative to simply adjourning ahead of the scheduled time.

The commission needs to make that a standard practice, or set the public comment time for earlier in the meeting.

To handle it like they did on Monday is a backhanded way of preventing constituents from speaking what is on their minds.