New County Board to Meet Online and Take Up Rules Changes to Promote Transparency and Expand Public Participation - Heidi Wegleitner, County Supervisor, District 2
New County Board to Meet Online and Take Up Rules Changes to Promote Transparency and Expand Public Participation
--Heidi Wegleitner, County Supervisor, District 2
Progressive Dane County Supervisors have been working with the Policy Committee on County Board Rules changes in advance of Tuesday's Organizational Meeting. Under the rules, the first meeting of the County Board term is where supervisors are sworn in, County Board officers are elected, and the board takes up ordinance amendments to Ch. 7 of the Dane County Code of Ordinances--the County Board Rules. I'm pleased to report success on a couple of ProDane priorities, which were approved by the Executive Committee and included in the proposed Ordinance Amendment 1 (OA-1): (1) Standing Committee meetings will be audio-recorded and posted publicly online with meeting minutes; and (2) Persons using interpreters while giving public comment will be provided with double the time for commenting. Further, while our proposals to provide free child care at budget meetings and require community engagement plans for standing committees were not included in the Executive Committee recommendation for OA-1, the County Board chair is supportive of these ideas and is committed to working with County Board staff to pursue them. Supervisors Kilmer, Chawla, and I are planning to move two amendments to OA-1 at Tuesday's meeting to expand public comment opportunities to the County Board.
The first would allow public comment at the County Board budget meetings which take place after the Personnel & Finance Committee (P&F) provides its budget recommendation to the County Board. A good deal changes in the budget between mid-October-- when the last public hearing under current rules is held-- and mid-November when the County Board. In mid-October, no committees have voted on amendments yet. In late October and early November, P&F hears from all the standing committee chairs on their recommendations and has to make tough choices about which amendments stay in and which ones get cut. It is important for the public to provide input to the full board on the P&F recommendation and any amendments that may be pursued on the county board floor.
The second amendment would allow the public to comment to the county board on issues not on the agenda. Recently, activists advocating for release of persons in county jail due to the threat of COVID-19 exposure were ruled out of order at a county board meeting because their testimony was not related to the agenda item for which they registered. The current county board rules do not allow for general public comment on issues not before the board. This is different than the committee rules, which allow this comment. Our second amendment would provide up to 2 minutes of public comment on issues not on the agenda.