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Comment heated on rules of public comment
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
WARM SPRINGS - Bath County supervisors voted Tuesday to impose new rules on the two public comment periods normally held during each regular board meeting.
Under the new rules, citizens wishing to speak during the public comment period must signup in advance. Each citizen must give his or her name, voting district, and topic about which they wish to speak. Each person will be limited to a total of three minutes unless additional time is requested and granted by the board.
During the first public comment period, held near the beginning of each meeting, citizens will be limited to addressing items on the board's agenda. This is the only time the public has to speak on many items on the agenda since only scheduled public hearings require the board to hear public comment. Many agenda items are discussed and decided without additional public input.
Supervisor Stuart Hall challenged the board on this issue during debate over the proposed changes. "If you had implemented this," Hall said, "half-a-dozen people with good input would not have been allowed to speak."
Other board members were quick to point out the rule changes would not prevent the board from accepting or soliciting input from staff or members of the public at any point. The motion passed 4-1, with Hall voting against the new rules.
In recent months, issues such as property reassessment have filled the courtroom with citizens ready to comment on a range of subjects. For many meetings, the public comment and subsequent board comment periods have consumed half the meeting time.
The proposed rule change is designed to encourage public participation, not limit it, said all four of the board members supporting the measure. "We should not restrict anyone from speaking," said Millboro supervisor Carol Hardbarger.
Hardbarger supported the proposed rules presented by chairman Jon Trees as away to bring more order to the comment period and allow more people to speak. "I think what Mr. Trees is giving will encourage more people to speak," she said.
Hall said he would rather have two meetings a month as was done in February and March than restrict or structure the public comment period. He cautioned Trees on moving forward with the action. "I've seen this tried before. The chair that brought this up lost his job in the following election," Hall warned.
The 30 or so citizens remaining for the second public comment period weren't enthusiastic about the changes. The second comment period followed immediately after action to approve the rule changes which will go into effect next month.
Resident Rocky Phillips, like most of those who spoke on the matter, said he "had no problem with signing in." Phillips, however, did not like the idea of a three-minute time limit. Sometimes, he said, he has too many things to say to cut his comments to three minutes.
Retired sheriff Jimmy Bryan asked, "How is it going to shorten the meeting?" Bryan did the math and said even at three minutes, the meetings would still be long considering the number of items on the agenda and the number of people attending. Bryan was also critical of the restriction requiring citizens to speak only on agenda items at the first public comment period. "It looks like you are trying to keep the people (who want to speak) until last so they go home," Bryan said. He said it looked like Bath government was "coming down to a dictatorship."
Resident Carl Chestnut, said he didn't mind signing in, but added, "Maybe I don't want to sit here all night."
Most of the comments revolved around how the county will deal with the coming budget. The board has said a tax increase is necessary since the reassessment was cancelled.
Chestnut said he was glad supervisors threw out the property reassessment that almost neared completion recently. He told supervisors they should "put that nickel back on" and then cut spending to balance the budget. The "nickel" Chestnut referred to is the cut in the tax rate from 50 cents per $100 of property value, to 45 cents made after the last reassessment.
Resident Nancy Smith said, "Nobody seems to understand" how the public corporation taxation works.
The county receives a large portion of its revenues from the Dominion Virginia Power pumped storage station. Using a complex process, the state department of taxation fixes a percentage of value on which the pumped storage station is taxed each year. That percentage is designed to match the ratio between assessed value and fair market value of all property in the county. For this budget year, that percentage is 67 percent. Estimates for the coming year place the percentage as low as 50 percent, meaning a substantial reduction in county tax income from the facility.
Supervisor Percy Nowlin explained the process briefly, and the board voted to have county administrator Bonnie Johnson look into adding an explanation to the advertisement of the budget.
During the first public comment period, Trees had to use the gavel frequently to bring order in the crowded district courtroom. Disruptions also continued to occur during the regular session of the meeting. The Code of Virginia gives the board chairman the authority to ask the sheriff or a deputy to remove anyone from the meeting for being disruptive. At a couple of points during the five-hour meeting, Trees seemed balanced on the edge of making that call. At the end of the second public comment period, most people left even though the board had not finished its business. The meeting adjourned shortly after midnight.
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