Orange County NC Website
Approved August 2 , 2023 <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 />