Orange County NC Website
13 <br /> 330 Perdita Holtz: You mean at the planning board meetings or at neighborhood information meetings? <br /> 331 <br /> 332 Lamar Proctor: Planning board meetings. <br /> 333 <br /> 334 Perdita Holtz: Just to point out that if you do attend a neighborhood information meeting,you are attending as a planning <br /> 335 board representative,you do not speak for the board. No one member speaks for the board.As far as limiting public <br /> 336 comment,yes, local governments can limit the amount of time that is spent on particular items and a 3-minute time limit <br /> 337 is pretty typical throughout North Carolina. <br /> 338 <br /> 339 Delores Bailey:When we are at a community meeting, do we have to acknowledge that we are planning board <br /> 340 members? <br /> 341 <br /> 342 Perdita Holtz: It would be good to do so,just to be open and transparent about everything. <br /> 343 <br /> 344 Charity Kirk: I'm fine with the three minutes. <br /> 345 <br /> 346 Adam Beeman:That was going to be the first one I tackled,the three minutes. That should be non-controversial. <br /> 347 <br /> 348 Melissa Poole: We thought it had been formalized. <br /> 349 <br /> 350 Statler Gilfillen: Once in a great while,there might be one speaker that for good reason we might want to listen to longer. <br /> 351 Can a member of the board raise the point"can we have a vote to let this person speak another three minutes?"Can we <br /> 352 do something like that procedurally? <br /> 353 <br /> 354 Perdita Holtz: If you look at page 86, number 3 says that the time allocations in 1 &2 may be modified at a meeting by <br /> 355 an affirmative vote of the majority of the board members in attendance at the specific meeting. <br /> 356 <br /> 357 Statler Gilfillen: So that's built in? <br /> 358 <br /> 359 Perdita Holtz:You would have to make a motion,second and vote to allow extra time. <br /> 360 <br /> 361 Adam Beeman: If we codify 3 minutes and if you choose to let someone else,you would have to ask us all to let <br /> 362 someone speak longer than 3 minutes. <br /> 363 <br /> 364 Charity Kirk: Why do we need to codify 3 minutes since we've been doing 3 minutes? <br /> 365 <br /> 366 Melissa Poole: We thought we had voted on it, and we thought it was codified but apparently it is not,just like the 10 pm. <br /> 367 We voted on all this during COVID when we were going until 11, 11:30, 12 am meetings. So,Adam and I are the only <br /> 368 ones here now that were there then and we thought when we had proposed and voted on it, it had been adopted in but <br /> 369 apparently it wasn't formally adopted in. <br /> 370 <br /> 371 Charity Kirk: So what happened to that and why are we... <br /> 372 <br /> 373 Perdita Holtz: What happened with that is for the first time ever, the planning board had people en masse attending a <br /> 374 meeting.There were hundreds of people who wanted to speak, and it was during COVID, and it was online, and we <br /> 375 suggested that the 3-minute time limit that the BOCC observes would also be what the planning board observes.The <br /> 376 board voted to agree that that would be what happened.There was no mention at the time of formalizing it into the rules <br /> 377 and procedures,just like the start time,you don't have to formalize it but when you ask"what is the benefit of doing so?" <br /> 378 it's kind of what Melissa just alluded to, that eventually you get to the point that only 1 or 2 people were around that <br /> 379 remember what happened in the past. If it's not written down,you end up going through the same cycle of"how do we <br /> 380 handle this?" <br /> 381 <br /> 382 Charity Kirk: Okay, I'm all for 3 minutes and I'm all for all for a 10 pm stop time unless there is a vote. <br /> 383 <br />