Cobb commissioners delay vote on limiting public comment

Citizens from across Cobb County used nearly all of their allotted 60 minutes of public comment Tuesday to blast a proposal that would limit their ability to directly speak to county commissioners at their meetings.

Cobb commissioners public comments — *“There should be more access, not less access,” East Cobb resident Hill Wright said.*

A proposal to cut total public comment time to 30 minutes and to limit individual speakers to three minutes was pulled to allow for more consideration, board chairwoman Lisa Cupid said.

The proposed changes drew the opposition of the head of the Cobb Republican Party as well as the local SCLC chapter, and individual citizens, some of them from East Cobb.

The changes would have revised a 30-year-old policy of allowing up to 12 speakers to speak for as long as five minutes each.

In an agenda item, the county said the existing policy was formulated before such forms of communication as e-mails and social media.

But some citizens said those electronic communications often don’t get a response, and they were critical of the proposed changes that would push all public comments to the end of meetings, after commissioners had taken votes.

“This is the one time that we citizens can look all five of you in the eye and tell you what we think, give you feedback and advocate [against] what we feel are bad policies,” East Cobb resident Hill Wright said.

“Yes, there’s e-mail, there’s other communications, but it’s not like standing up here and letting you know. It’s not the same as a room of people showing up to let you know. This is really how our government should work.”

Another East Cobb resident, Christine Rozman, called the proposed changes “a real assault on our freedom of speech.

“Every encroachment on our freedom is starting to add up. People are waking up,” she added, alluding to protests in Europe, Australia and elsewhere over COVID-19 restrictions.

“We don’t trust you now and maybe that’s what you don’t want us talking about.”

To change the public comment policy, four of the five commissioners would have to approve it. But commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Nottheast Cobb was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

In her weekly newsletter, District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson said the following:

“I wanted to let everyone know your voice was heard regarding the proposed policy change for public comment. The agenda item was pulled off the list and will go back into review. As I shared in my meeting preview, the intent of the change was for streamlined meetings and identifying consistency with other counties. It was initiated several months ago with that goal in mind. The changes proposed, however, do not get us to that place. Let us know your thoughts as public comment is a great avenue for those to be heard, but we did find a disconnect in individuals speaking and then leaving without any resolution to their issues as we cannot respond to public comment. Many areas are under review in the policy, and I am sure many of you have thoughts on those as well. So, please keep sharing as we all work to come up with policy that best represents and addresses the needs of the community.”

The public comment proposal will likely be taken up at the commissioners’ next voting meeting on Aug. 24.