Mayor Sheckles proposes changes to council procedure, public input

Mayor Bill Sheckles answers questions about the proposed municipal order, “Legislative Body Meeting Conduct.” Click image to enlarge.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, 11 p.m. — Bardstown Mayor Bill Sheckles introduced a municipal order at Tuesday night’s Bardstown City Council meeting that would change the public’s opportunity to speak at future council meetings, and give the mayor the authority to place limits on the time the council has to debate an issue.

The measure was in part a response to events that took place at the Oct. 8th council meeting when audience members made public statements without being recognized by the mayor.

Sheckles said the municipal order, “Legislative Body Meeting Conduct,” was to help the council members conduct a meeting if he was unable to attend.

But the proposed municipal order didn’t settle well with most of the council, whose concerns focused on time restrictions on the council’s debate and unnecessary restrictions on the public’s opportunity to speak at meetings.

Councilmen Bobby Simpson, left, and Tommy Reed look over a rezoning ordinance during the Oct. 22nd meeting of the Bardstown City Council. Click to enlarge.

In the past, members of the public could attend a council meeting and had an opportunity to speak, Councilman Tommy Reed noted. The first item on every council meeting agenda has for many years been the same: “Recognize Individuals or Delegations.”

However, that line was missing from Tuesday’s agenda. The omission was either a mistake, or it may signal a shift in policy on public input during council meetings.

Sheckles defended the changes the municipal order would enact and denied it would prevent people with legitimate complaints from speaking before the council.

“If anyone has a specific complaint or specific problem or issue they want to bring before the council, they can call and request to get on the agenda,” he said.

“I’m not going to have anymore of those situations like the young lady who came last time and wanted to upstage this meeting,” Sheckles said, referring to comments at the Oct. 8th council meeting by Angela Zizzo.

When Rizzo and her husband raised their hands to speak at the end of the council meeting, Sheckles refused to recognize them. When she asked again to speak, Sheckles told her she was not on his agenda.

With Louisville TV cameras rolling, Zizzo rose and spoke despite Sheckles’ persistent announcements “You are out of order!” Zizzo spoke on the controversy regarding the handicapped ramp built for a young girl with a physical disability. She ended her comments by calling Sheckles a liar.

Sheckles said he wasn’t going to deny anyone an opportunity to speak, adding that he also had no intentions of letting someone speak to the council about an administrative issue, citing another incident at the Oct. 8th council meeting when a representative for the annual Turkey Kick event asked Sheckles about their application for a special event liquor license.

“He wanted to bring it up to the council and it wasn’t a council decision, it’s an administrative decision,” Sheckles said, adding his intention wasn’t to censor anyone who wished to speak before the council.

Reed was concerned by the  order’s time limits for council discussion. Roberts Rules of Order give the members of the legislative body the power to end debate or limit the time of debate on a matter, he said.

“Different ordinances and different agendas require different types of debate,” Reed said. The authority to limit debate should rest with the legislative body and not be an arbitrary number set in a municipal order.

Councilman John Royalty said in his 10 years as a councilman the current way of doing things has worked well. “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

“With some of this, I feel like we are dissociating ourselves from the public and their input,” Royalty said. “We are employed by the people and I don’t like the way this reads. I read a lot of things that are controlling and restrictive.”

Council Francis Lydian said he also had problems with placing time limits on debate.

Sheckles said the presiding officer — the mayor or mayor pro tem — should control the time limits in a council meeting. “This is just standard legislative procedure and many of you have never seen it,” he said of the municipal order. The text in the order was adapted from the Kentucky League of City’s “City Officials Legal Handbook.”

Royalty said he didn’t like giving anyone the power to restrict council discussion. “If we’re debating a $40 million budget, I don’t like the idea of someone saying ‘you have 3 minutes here or 5 minutes there and then you can’t discuss it anymore.'”

Sheckles said the council did not have to vote on it at that meeting, and suggested reviewing it at the council’s Nov. 5th working session where they could change or delete parts of the order they did not like.

After the meeting, Sheckles was asked how the municipal order would specifically address the “outbursts” by member of the public at the Oct. 8th council meeting.

“It wasn’t necessarily specific for that,” he said of the order. The guidelines are designed to give the council something fall back on the mayor is unable to preside at a council meeting.  “It’s for the council’s benefit, not mine,” he said.

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