Police Contract Public Testimony

[Alison Alter]

Dear colleagues,

I am glad that we were able to set aside the 13th to hear public testimony and consider the police contract on a single day. I understand that we set a start time of 3 PM to allow those who cannot attend in the evening to speak to us before traffic gets bad. On the flip side, I am hearing from people who want to testify but can't be at City Hall until after 5 or 6. They are seeking clarity on whether they can come later and still be able to speak. It is my understanding that it was our intention to accommodate as many speakers as possible and thus they would be heard.

I also think it would be useful for us to decide how we want to allocate speaking time. Our current rules make splitting testimony over multiple times a bit more complicated wrt who gets 3 minutes etc.

Regards,
Alison Alter

[Steve Adler]

Thank you, Council Member Alter, for raising this issue.

We want to take as many speakers as we can, and we can certainly take more after 5pm if they are unable to be here before then. I would suggest we follow the usual public hearing rules in which the first 20 speakers get 3 minutes each and everyone thereafter gets 1 minute. We could then start again at 5pm with the first 20 speakers at that hour receiving 3 minutes and then the subsequent speakers would get 1 minute.

I understand some members also need to leave by a certain time. We will work through those issues as well.

[Steve Adler]

Colleagues,

As we discussed in today’s work session, we will follow the usual public hearing rules in which the first 20 speakers get 3 minutes each and every one thereafter gets 1 minute. We will start public testimony following the 3pm staff briefing with 10 speakers at 3 minutes, then 1 minute thereafter, and start again after dinner with 10 speakers at 3 minutes, then 1 minute thereafter.

Mayor