[Transport] MON. - RAD to vote on RESTRICTING PUBLIC COMMENT

[Glenn A. Walsh]

Late Monday afternoon, the Board of Directors of the
Allegheny Regional Asset District [RAD] is scheduled
to vote on a staff recommendation that they institute
a deadline whereby people who wish to make public
comments at RAD Board meetings must register at least
24 hours in advance. Practically speaking, since most
RAD Board meetings occur on Monday [or on Tuesday, if
there is a Monday legal holiday], people would have to
register by the end of the business day on Friday.

This action is being proposed by the RAD staff. The
first I learned of this proposal was on April 24, when
reviewing the draft agenda for the April 30 meeting,
posted on the RAD web site.

If approved by the RAD Board, this would be in
addition to the onerous requirement that only five
people can be scheduled to speak during the
only-fifteen minutes reserved for public comment. We
need as many people as possible to testify against
these two provisions, in the RAD Public Comment
Policy.

Here are the facts:

1) Vote on 24-hour registration provision scheduled
for RAD Board meeting THIS MONDAY, April 30, 2007 at
5:00 p.m. EDST. The meeting will be held in a
lower-level conference room of the Allegheny County
Social Services Building [formerly the United Way
Building] at the foot of the Smithfield Street
Bridge--One Smithfield Street at First Avenue in
Downtown Pittsburgh.

NOTE THAT THE PUBLIC COMMENT SEGMENT IS AT THE VERY
BEGINNING OF THE MEETING, SO YOU MUST ARRIVE NO LATER
THAN 5:00 p.m.--TO REGISTER FO SPEAK, IT WOULD BE BEST
TO ARRIVE BY 4:45 p.m. Here is a link to the agenda
for this meeting, which includes a copy of the CURRENT
Public Comment Policy:

<
http://radworkshere.org/boardmeetings/agenda043007.html
>

If approved, the 24-hour registration notice would,
most probably, take effect with the next RAD Board
meeting, which would be on Tuesday, May 29 [day after
Memorial Day legal holiday].

2) The 15-minute reserved time period, although in
their current policy, has been rarely enforced--up
until now. However, it is in the policy and could be
enforced at anytime. Combined with the 24-hour
registration requirement, this could effectively
discourage people from even attending a RAD Board
meeting, if the office secretary tells a caller that
the five public comment slots are already filled!

3) The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act REQUIRES that anyone
and everyone, who wishes to comment on an agenda
action item, be permitted to speak before the action
is taken by the public body. If the 15-minute public
comment period is ever enforced, considering that
sign-up to speak is on a first-come, first-served
basis, this could stop other people who wish to
actually comment on an agenda action item--which would
then be in direct violation of the letter-of-the-law.

4) The current RAD Public Comment Policy states that
anyone, who does not fit within the fifteen minutes
allocated for public comments, can be deferred to the
public comment period of the next meeting. Although
this provision is permitted in the Sunshine Act, it
would mean that some people would have to wait a
month--and often longer [as the RAD Board does NOT
meet every month]--to provide their public comments to
the RAD Board. Of course, this could be very
discouraging to many members of the public, and the
issue they wish to comment on may be outdated by the
time of the next meeting!

5) About ten years ago, the Pennsylvania General
Assembly amended the Sunshine Act to provide that no
public action can be taken without being proceeded by
a period of public comment. As a practical matter to
implement this provision, most public bodies have
provided a general public comment segment at the
begining of each public meeting. Although some public
bodies do have a requuirement that speakers must
register in advance, the RAD Board is the only public
body I know of that limits the public comment period
to fifteen minutes--hence, at three-minutes per
speaker, only five people could speak [out of a total
Allegheny County population of more than 1.2
million!].

6) The 15-minute public omment limitation took effect
in late 2001, shortly after the August 27, 2001 RAD
Board meeting. At the August 27, 2001 RAD Board
meeting, 11 members of the public testified in
opposition to a Children's Museum request for $4
million in RAD capital funding.

Testimony from these 11 members of the public [members
of Friends of the Zeiss] delayed the RAD Board
meeting, including the annual budget hearings
scheduled for that evening. This, apparently,
embarrassed the RAD staff as certain "high-profile"
civic leaders, such as then-Carnegie Institute
President Ellsworth Brown, had to wait longer to begin
there budget hearing testimony.

Apparently, this was what instigated the 15-minute
public comment time limit. My response to this
so-called "problem" is "Welcome to Democracy." Under
no circumstances should public comment be limited,
simply so certain "high-profile" civic leaders do not
have to wait--to beg for RAD money [which is,
essentially, what these leaders were at the meeting to do!]!

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh at planetarium.cc >
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