AURORA | Members of the public who want to speak during the newly-limited open public comment period at the start of Aurora City Council meetings are being invited to sign up and reserve space in advance.
Aurora’s City Council voted in March to limit public comment on non-agenda topics to one hour at the start of their regular meetings. Previously, meetings included two unlimited open comment periods — one at the start of the meeting and one at the end.
According to a city press release, an online form will be available at AuroraGov.org/PublicComment starting at 8 a.m. the Friday before the council meeting in question. It will close at noon on the day of the meeting.
Speakers will be assigned spots on a first-come, first-served basis. While the public can also sign up to speak on agenda items, the council did not vote in March to cap public comment on agenda items, which remains unlimited.
The public will be able to sign up to speak for the first time ahead of the council’s April 11 meeting. Individual commenters can speak for up to three minutes either in person or remotely by calling 855-695-3475 and entering *3 to reach the operator.
Council meetings are held in the Aurora Municipal Center, located at 15151 E. Alameda Parkway. Meetings can be viewed live at AuroraTV.org, on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/theaurorachannel and on local Comcast channels 8 and 880.
More information about public comment can be found at AuroraGov.org/PublicComment or by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at 303-739-7094 or CityClerk@auroragov.org.
Who wants to be there to watch that circus freak sideshow
Now, after two years, the socialists and far left progressives do not have power of leadership anymore in the City of Aurora, its a “circus freak sideshow”.
I watch now as I watched then, just to be informed on my Cities activities.
They can limit our right to participate but they can’t limit our access to the ballot box. At least, not yet.
Perhaps council should limit their own right to speak. How many times do their “debates go round and round. Every session, before they are finished beating a long dead horse at least three of them will preface their continuing remarks with “I would like to reiterate, again, my position …” Here’s a hint, if you are reiterating something you are now boring everyone, if you are doing so yet again, A third time learn to stop yourselves.
I still have not read the reason to further limit public comment by the Council. This passed in March with the new conservative majority wanting to limit public comment. This as we emerge from pandemic and so many things have changed and many suffering, and Aurora has a lot of stimulus $ to use and the public should be heard from more than ever. Since no good reason is given, it looks like the conservatives decided they just don’t want to hear from the public or work very hard. They answer to us Aurorans, but they don’t seem to understand that.
All this to try and invent reasons to represent people from speaking out against their bad policies. This is basically the city allowing the Council to vet the people allowed to speak directly, taking direct control over who can and cannot speak. This is a thing the average citizen should be outraged over. If they, as public servants, get the right to pass laws however they want to, we as the public have the right to let them hear about it. Period. End of story.