Board Meeting Help

Submit a speaker card

Review the board agenda to see if your comments apply to an agenda item or not. See instructions above about how to find board meeting information, which includes links to agendas

• SUBMIT IN PERSON NOW ONLY: Submit a printed speaker card in person to the Board Secretary to the prior to the start of the board meeting.

More Details About Making a Public Comment

Tips

• Ideally, prepare and practice your comments ahead of time, including timing yourself to make sure your comments are less than 3 minutes long. Keep in mind that board meetings are recorded and will be made available to the general public. At the last meeting, comment length was shortened to 2 minutes so be prepared to speak less than 2 minutes.

• Arrive at meetings BEFORE the start time. The public portion of regular meetings typically starts at 6:00 pm so arrive with plenty of time to park, find the meeting location, fill out a speaker card (see samples above), and present it to the Board secretary before the meeting starts.

• Then, just have a seat in the audience until the "Communications from the Public" section of the agenda. When public comment time begins, the names of the 3 next speakers are generally called so that people can line up "on deck" to save time between speakers.

Usual Public Comment Rules

Length of comments allowed:

• An individual speaker may not exceed a total of three (3) minutes on all items. [Be prepared to speak less than 2 minutes]

• If the assistance of an interpreter is needed, the speaker's comments will be translated to English and the time limit for all items addressed shall be six (6).

• Time may not be ceded from one person to another.

Regarding comments ON agenda items:

• Comments from the public on agenda items are heard toward the start of the meeting for a total of 30 minutes, and if necessary, continued at the conclusion of the meeting.

• If a member of the public wishes to speak to an item at the time the item comes up for action, please indicate that on the Speaker Card and you will be given an opportunity to speak prior to the action being taken if the total public input on that item has not exceeded 20 minutes.

Regarding comments NOT on agenda items:

• If public comments on agenda items do not exceed 30 minutes when heard toward the start of the meeting, the Board President may allow an exception for public comment on non-agenda items to be heard at this time).

• Otherwise, persons wishing to address the Board on any item(s) NOT ON the agenda may do so at the end of the business meeting. 

Other general rules:

• Public input on any one item may not exceed 20 minutes.

• An individual speaker may be required to stop speaking if the subject matter is not within the jurisdiction of the Board or the subject matter is legally not appropriate. If a member of the public wishes to speak to an item at the time the item