(The Center Square) - Spokane Valley is considering changes to the city council’s governance manual that could require residents to reserve their comments for the end of meetings, often late in the evening.
After being briefed by City Manager John Hohman, the council discussed the modifications on Tuesday. If approved during an upcoming meeting, the changes would mark the second time the council has modified the manual since January.
Among the updates are simple language changes, a section requiring a “church leadership group” to plan invocations rather than city staff, and updates to the social media policy. However, some revisions shift the meeting format and when public comments are allowed.
Typically, the Valley hosts formal council meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, with informal or study session meetings happening on the other Tuesdays. Hohman said the two have blended, and with that, they want to clarify the order of business.
“You’d have the pledge of allegiance, you’d have invocation, you’d have public comment,” he said. “However, the public comment would be moved more towards the back of the meeting, consistent with a variety, pretty much all of our surrounding jurisdictions.”
In the past, the council would hear public comments toward the beginning of meetings, which start at 6 p.m.; however, if the council approves these changes, it would move public comments toward the end of the meetings, which usually end anywhere from 8 to 10 p.m.
The revisions also removed a section that allowed residents to speak on an agenda item out of order at the mayor’s discretion if that person had to leave early. This means that residents would have to wait until late in the evening on a weeknight to testify before their elected officials.
While Spokane also reserves an open forum for the end of its regular council meetings, it provides several other opportunities. Throughout the meetings, residents can comment on the consent agenda, an ordinance’s first reading, final readings, hearings, and more.
The Valley also allows for public hearings but wants to schedule those to follow action items rather than the beginning of meetings, when the hearings and public comments usually occur.
Councilmember Al Merkel questioned why they would schedule public comments for the end of the meetings. He told The Center Square that many residents work the next day, have kids, or have schedules that conflict with testifying late on a weeknight.
“If I understand correctly, we pushed public comments after action items and non-action items, so at the very end of the meeting, we’re going to have [public] comments; that’d be like now,” Merkel said at around 9 p.m.
Mayor Pam Haley explained that some citizens raised issues with the fact that it’s hard to comment on non-action items at the start of the meeting when the presentations happen later.
Councilmember Rod Higgins said they’ve changed the format in the past, but in his opinion, reserving comments for the end of the meetings worked best. However, Councilmember Ben Wick pushed that keeping them at the beginning provides structure, whereas reserving them for later limits residents’ ability to testify, as not all can wait until 10 p.m. before heading home.
Merkel asked whether they should let the residents decide through a poll, as it’s their comments.
“Because this is the Governance Manual, and we’re the governance board,” Councilmember Jessica Yaeger replied, “so this is our rules for our meeting.”
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