AURORA | City council is again tweaking the public comment rules to remove the time limitation on the comment session at the end of regular meetings.
Council meetings have two public comment sessions on every agenda, including one session at the beginning of the meeting and another at the end. Currently, both sessions are limited to one hour and each speaker is limited to three minutes.
On Monday, the council advanced a change, sponsored by Councilmember Alison Coombs, to limit the first comment session to 30 minutes and remove any time limit on the second session. The three-minute limit per comment will remain unchanged.
“We’ve been extending our time limit on public invited to be heard pretty consistently,” Coombs said. “I’m OK with continuing to do that, but I understand that folks would be supportive generally of having a shorter period at the beginning of the meeting and then unlimited public invited to be heard on non-agenda items at the end of the meeting. That would then not put it at the whim of council for there to be that unlimited public comment period.”
Public comment sessions have been regularly extended beyond the hour limit in recent months because of an increase in the number of people speaking, particularly about opposition to data centers and continued protests against the Aurora Police Department.
City Attorney Pete Schulte said city staff appreciate the council trying to strike a balance between allowing time for civic participation and completing the business on the agenda.
Councilmember Françoise Bergan voiced her appreciation of the proposal, while only Councilmember Gianina Horton objected, though she did not say why.
The timing change also follows other adjustments to the council’s public comment rules that passed earlier this year, including prioritizing speakers 18 years old and younger and implementing a potential ban for speakers who continuously go over their time limits.