A package of changes to how commission meetings in Rehoboth Beach is on hold, after some of its provisions met with opposition from commissioners.
At her first meeting as mayor, Susan Stewart last month telegraphed that changes to how meetings are run would be coming. Because those are administrative changes and part of her powers as mayor, Stewart can impose them without a vote from commissioners.
But the actual package of changes sparked dissent from some commissioners and members of the public. The most contentious point is a change to how public comment works, limiting public input on agenda items to one period at the beginning of the meeting, and adding one comment opportunity at the end of the meeting for items not on the agenda.
Commissioner Craig Thier said he thought the current process, with more chances for the public to weigh in during meetings, was more open.
“I appreciate the deliberation that occurs - the current process where an item is introduced, we discuss it, we then go to the public, give the public the opportunity to comment to us, then it comes back to us for more deliberation and a vote,” he said. “I appreciate that.”
In introducing the changes for discussion however, Stewart said the goal was efficiency and shorter meetings, not limiting public comment.
“This is not to shut down public comment,” she said. “It's not to make people jump through hoops. It's just a way of trying to bring us into this century and make productive conversations.”
Thier suggested that if the commission wants to make meetings more efficient, there are other changes commissioners could undertake, like instituting a consent agenda, where commissioners approve multiple non-controversial items with a single vote.
“What can we do to streamline these meetings, making not just our lives easier, but making the public's lives easier without taking away transparency, reducing transparency, and reducing the opportunity for public comment?” he asked.
Speaking later during a public comment period, Rehoboth resident Carolyn Diefenderfer suggested that limiting public comment to a period before commissioners discuss and deliberate could mean the public wouldn’t have full information about the issues at hand, especially if people are making a presentation to commissioners.
“People will make a presentation and it'll be said that it'll be embedded after the fact,” she said. “Well, the public can't comment on something that's not there.”
Commissioner Patrick Gossett agreed that the proposed rules would impact the public’s role in commission business.
“It's sad and disappointing to me that we feel we need to impose these types of rules,” he said. “And unfortunately, these in my opinion will restrict public input.”
Gossett also said that he believes the new rules are sparked by the behavior of a handful of disruptive commenters, including one commissioner, implying that Commissioner Suzanne Goode was the impetus for some of the rules. Goode was often cautioned by former Mayor Stan Mills for straying from the topic at hand in order to air grievances about city staff and budgeting. During last week’s meeting, she was similarly warned by Stewart.
Stewart however, denied that the new rules were directed specifically at Goode or anyone else.
For her part, Goode criticized one of the proposed rules that empowers the mayor to turn off the microphone of a commissioner who strays from the agenda item under discussion.
“It's a slippery slope to have the mayor, as it were, according to these rules, determine what is germane to the topic we're discussing,” Goode said.
Following the discussion, Stewart did not give any indication of when the new rules would be implemented, saying that the next step is to take the comments from the meeting “under advisement.”
The commission next meets on October 16.
