Rocky Point BOE Institutes New Rules for Public Comment Session

At the August 26, 2013, BOE meeting the Rocky Point Board of Education announced the following new rules for the Public Comment sessions of BOE meetings.

1.       At the opening session, comments or questions can only be made about items listed in the Agenda for that meeting. All other topics must wait for the closing Public Comment session.

2.       Each speaker may have only three minutes to speak. No one in the audience may yield his or her time to the speaker.

3.       When making a comment or asking a question, the speaker may not refer to any person by name or title.

These are the only ones I can remember, and since they have as yet not been posted anywhere, if anyone remembers any others, please comment here.

Granted the July 11, 2013, meeting was chaotic---there were about 200 angry people demanding answers to recent events, and the Board needed to take better control. However, announcing new rules at 7:00 pm and putting them into effect at 7:05 pm without giving people a chance to get used to them only strengthens the idea that this Board doesn’t want community input.

But let’s consider how these rules will work.

1.       Only items on the Agenda can be addressed. This would only work if the Agenda were put up on the website in a timely manner. More often than not, it is posted the day of the meeting, sometimes not until the midafternoon.  This gives people very little time to look at the Agenda and decide if they have a question. For example, last’s month agenda had 248 pages of explanatory material on the website.  And, of course, if you do not have a computer, you will not see the Agenda until you walk into the meeting. Someone did get up at the closing session and ask that the Agenda be posted at least on the Friday before the meeting. I hope the Board does this.

2.       I don’t think the three-minute limit is necessarily a problem. Hopefully, should some issue warrant more time, the Board would be flexible.

3.       The rule that disallows any comment that can identify a person—by name or title--is really problematic. I can see not using a person’s name, but not being able to use a title means we cannot ask a question or comment about a position held by only one person. We should be able to use the terms president of the Board, superintendent, or any other specific administrative or instructive position. Can you imagine not being able to question or comment on what the president of the United States or the senior senator from my state is doing? This is ludicrous in a democratic society where everyone should be accountable. I therefore ask that the Board reconsider this rule and allow reference to any position or title.

The rules governing how an organization conducts its meeting should make the process more effective, efficient, and equitable and promote an atmosphere of cooperation, not just impose control. Two of the rules that I mention just don’t do that. If anything, they say that this Board doesn’t want input from the community.

If this environment doesn’t change, then the only recourse may be to vote this Board out and replace them with people who want an atmosphere of cooperation and transparency as well as input from the community.

I encourage everyone to attend BOE meetings. It is our district, paid for with our tax dollars, and we also need to have some control over how our district is run.