Fargo City Commission discusses possible removal of public comment periods from meetings

(Fargo, ND) -- The Fargo City Commission is looking at a proposal that would remove the public comment period section of their biweekly meetings.

The proposal was one of many presented to commissioners on Monday, in front of a filled city hall audience. The main suggested policy would restrict public comments to strictly agenda items at the top of the meeting, with an opportunity to speak on any topic at the end of the meeting. However, City Administrator Michael Redlinger discussed a "piece of feedback" he received that would remove public comments from the commission meetings in lieu of quarterly non-voting public forums.

Both Arlette Preston and John Strand voiced concerns about the removal of public comment periods.

"To eliminate them or push them off into public meetings is squelching the voice of the public, and why would we do that. Who wants to do that," said Commissioner Strand after hearing the proposals. "I'm not on board with that at all, I thought we all agreed on that. Now we are seeing proposals that completely upend that."

"Twenty minutes at the beginning of the meeting is not that much time," said Commissioner Preston.

Commissioner Denise Kolpack and Mayor Tim Mahoney voiced opposition to the current way public comments are utilized at commission meetings. 

"To me, this is not working, "said Commissioner  Kolpack. "Having a different approach where we can have a conversation and have feedback and have staff there to answer questions -- and we can attend and hear the information -- not only is going to be more instructive for the public... but we can also track trends and current issues and work on problems more quickly with a dialogue that includes a conversation, which is not happening now."

"You oftentimes don't get answers to questions that are asked," said Mayor Mahoney, "In an open forum in which you would have a town-hall meeting, people can get answers because staff would be there to give the answers. What's wrong with the dialogue right now is that people get to do their complaints but they get no answers. So in some ways [the proposal] is an effort to get better communication."

Commissioner Dave Peipkorn did not speak on the matter on the meeting, but did vote against moving the discussion to a separate commission meeting in a 4-1 vote.