Public Comment Back to Start of Macungie Council Meetings
Council's split vote means taxpayers will again be able to comment at the beginning of Macungie Council meetings though Council President Jean Nagle wanted to keep it at the end at least through the end of the year as a "trial."
With all members present, Macungie Council voted Monday to restore the public comment segment of its semimonthly meetings.
The vote was split 4-3 with Debra Cope, Joseph Sikorski, David Boyko and Christopher Becker in favor. Nay votes were cast by President Jean Nagle, Vice President Greg Hutchison and Linn Walker.
The restoration will begin with the Oct. 15 meeting.
In typical fashion, the discussion was neither easy nor short. Public comment for the meeting never began until 11:45 p.m.
Nagle said no fewer than five times that she wanted to keep public comment at the end of the meeting at least until the end of the year on a trial basis.
Cope said that when she voted to approved the meeting guidelines in January, and then to amend them in May, that she was under the impression Nagle could change the order of a meeting only to move up "confirmed appointments." They include speakers or petitioners who are attorneys or engineers who charge by the hour to appear before council for whatever reason.
All council members agreed moving such appointments to the beginning of the meeting makes sense.
"The intent of allowing for a change in agenda order was not to push the public back, but to bring special items up," Cope said.
Boyko agreed.
"Moving public comment to the end of the meeting disenfranchises people..." he said.
"You changed the agenda order passed by this council," he said, "And you willy-nilly take away the chance for some people to speak. People shouldn't have to wait. It's not right in my opinion."
Cope persisted.
"This is the public's time. I have an issue with it if it's done to push people back," she said.
Becker said if the borough is paying someone to attend council to give a professional opinion then they should speak first. He also said that in the coming months there will be difficult budget talks as council prepares for the 2013 budget. Some nights it will be important to talk about the budget first.
All agreed to that, as well.
But Becker was not comfortable with pushing public comment to the end of the meeting for good
Former council member Dorothy Kociuba said the move, "Is Jean's way of avoiding unpleasantness. To make your job easier is not the way to go. Your responsibility is to listen to the concerns of the borough," she said.
Tim Romig, who owns a business in the borough agreed with Kociuba.
"By pushing citizen input to the end of the meeting you show us where we count," Romig said to Nagle.
"Mrs. Nagle, call it what really is: your attempt to stifle descent," Romig said.
After several attempts to make a motion that would cover all the bases -- at least for now -- Sikorski made a motion to keep public comment at the beginning of the meeting but it must be restricted to comment on non-agenda items, he said. Comment on agenda items would be restricted to after council finishes its discussion on each issue.
Ron Beitler
8:42 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
If I wouldnt have had to wait til midnight to say this last night... I would have brought this up during public comment... but there is a RenewLV event tonight at the Macungie Institute!
"Residents concerned about how the East Penn region will continue to grow over the next 20-50 years are invited to express their concerns at a public meeting tonight (tuesday) at 6 p.m. at the Macungie Institute.
"Lets determine our future by choice, not by chance," is the guiding principle of the "Envision" meeting.
The meeting is the second of many meetings to be held this fall throughout the Lehigh Valley to get peoples' opinions on what kind of quality of life they want to have once the current building boom is finished. The population of the Lehigh Valley is expected to KEEP growing as New York and New Jersey discover our quality of life. And we want to make sure we don't destroy that quality of life with overdevelopment, congestion and loss of our beautiful open space. RENEW Lehigh Valley, a consortium of local officials and citizens, is sponsoring the meetings.
If you care about where we are going and what we are becoming, please attend and speak your piece, this event is designed to compile public sentiment.
Ron Beitler
9:25 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
To clarify, I'm happy the council voted 4-3 to move comment back to beginning. And this is exactly why. I really wanted to attend last night and encourage council to attend tonight's Envision meeting during non agenda comment. (which I'm happy to hear Chris Boehm the manager did as part of her report! Since I think these meetings are important) I didn't attend the meeting, because with the swapped public comment, the last two meetings I went to the comment on non-agenda items happened between 11pm and midnight. I'm a night owl... but even for me midnight is pretty darn late!
John Rogers
1:16 pm on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Seems the old guard lost this one. Could there be light at the end of a long, dark tunnel? I certainly hope so. Only time will tell.
Carl W
12:34 am on Wednesday, October 3, 2012
There's a fright (ad). Chuckie Dent for Mayor!! (Gas prices in Macungie $19.95, for the ailing oil companies). LOL
get real
11:42 pm on Friday, October 5, 2012
Nagle should contact her long time friend Lucy Ackerman to see if there are any houses for sale in her neighborhood because her days on council are numbered. Nagle is a perfect example of what's wrong with government, and i believe Macungie residents are finally ready and willing to take back their town.