Dist. 204 debating ‘public comments’ timing

The Indian Prairie District 204 school board has been having a somewhat contentious discussion about, well, discussion.

At issue is whether to allow public comment at the beginning of school board meetings instead of the end. It also underscores a simmering debate on whether a board member has the right to ask for an agenda item that isn’t on a master action plan set by the board.

Board member Dawn DeSart complained it took several requests for the public comment issue to be placed on the May 23 agenda. “I was denied until I invited you to seek legal counsel,” DeSart said to board President Curt Bradshaw during this week’s meeting.

But Bradshaw and other board members said DeSart wasn’t respecting rules the board established to make sure they stay focused on specific issues that the group as a whole picked to address. If all added issues to the agenda each week, “It would be a free-for-all and chaos,” Bradshaw said. “I have seven items I would have loved to put on the agenda, too.”

Board member Christine Vickers said the agenda needs some balance. “The schedule is great,” she said, “I totally support that, but you have to be flexible; not everything fits on a schedule.”

DeSart said she brought up the public comment issue because people have said they would prefer non-agenda public comments to be at the beginning of school board meetings. Right now, people have to sit through what could be several hours of a meeting before being able to speak their minds.

“Nobody has come up to me and said, ‘I love public comment at the end of a meeting,’” DeSart said. “I think it is just being responsive to our taxpayers.”

She likes the practice of letting the public speak about agenda items right before the board discusses them.

Board member Lori Price said she worries hours of public comment on a hot topic at the beginning of a meeting could keep the board from conducting business.

“I think we do need to be able to hear the public but I think we have to put some parameters around that,” she said.

Vickers disagreed, saying the board should be respectful of the public’s time. “It’s our obligation to sit here and listen because we are public officials elected by these people,” she said.

In the end, board members agreed to take up both the agenda setting and public comment issues in July when they meet to set their goals for the next year.