New Year, New Approach to Council Meetings?

The New Brunswick City Council will discuss the possibility of limiting public comment to 10 minute sessions per speaker in the new year, councilman Kevin Egan said Friday at the council's reorganization meeting. 

Currently, time limits do not exist on remarks made by the public at the twice-monthly council meetings at city hall. The council plans to discuss limiting comments to 10 minute turns per person to make meetings more efficient and to allow more people to speak, Egan said.

The council's final meeting of the year on Dec. 30 lasted over three and a half hours, largely due to the public comment portion of the meeting, Egan said. 

As a result, the video of the meeting posted on Vimeo is incomplete, as the tape ran out, according to the mayor's office.

No official timeline for this plan was mentioned. It came up for discussion after being questioned by city resident Charlie Kratovil, a council meeting staple. 

Egan said the idea was not to limit public speech. Anyone who gets up and talks for 10 minutes would probably be able to get up and speak again after letting someone else have a turn at the microphone, he said. 

Councilman Glen Fleming said he wants to see more people be able to voice their thoughts at meetings in an orderly fashion. He claimed people have contacted him to say they wish to address the council, but the microphone has been "monopolized," preventing them from having a chance.

The next New Brunswick city council meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15 at city hall.