Public Comment at the Board of Library Trustees and Board Committee Meetings
Revision Control
Originally Approved by LPLD Board March 17, 2011
Reviewed by LPLD Board March 20, 2014 - no changes
Amended by LPLD Board November 22, 2021
Section 4.07 of the Library’s bylaws provides for public comment at meetings of the Board of Library Trustees and its committees as follows:
(b) Citizen participation
As part of its agenda, the Board shall provide a period at the designated place on the agenda for citizens’ comments. Interested citizens may be required to sign in to indicate their desire to speak. By majority vote at any meeting, the Board (or a Committee) may set a common limit on the amount of time each citizen will be given to complete his/her comments.
A person addressing the Board shall limit comments to items within the jurisdiction of the Board of Library Trustees.
The following guidelines and considerations either (1) further explicate the basic policies articulated above, or (2) additionally govern public comment at Board and Committee meetings:
• Public comments are permitted during the Public Comments portion of the Board meeting Agenda.
• The Board President (or Chairperson at a Committee meeting) may grant a request to address the Board during other portions of the meeting.
• The Board President (or Chairperson at a Committee meeting) will ask if anyone wishes to address the Board (or Committee) and, if multiple visitors wish to speak, determine the order in which speakers will be recognized.
• Each speaker shall provide his or her name and may provide his or her address and his or her group affiliation (if any), but this is not required.
• Comments should be as brief as possible and to the point, not exceeding three (3) minutes. Additional time is at the discretion of the Board President.
• An immediate response from the Board (or Committee) regarding any comment is not required.
• Decisions regarding whether or not (1) to require visitors to sign in to indicate their desire to speak, (2) to impose a common limit on the amount of time each citizen will be given to speak and how long any such time limit will be, and/or (3) to permit visitors to speak more than once at a meeting will be based on such considerations as the length of the Agenda, the number of citizens who wish to speak, the importance and immediacy of the other business that the Board needs to conduct at the meeting, and (4) any other factor(s) that the Board (or Committee) deems to be in the best interests of the Library. Such decisions will apply equally to all visitors at a given meeting.
• Individuals will not be allowed to speak a second time until all visitors who wish to speak have been permitted to do so.
• Meeting minutes are a summary of the Board’s (or Committee’s) discussions and actions. Requests by speakers or visitors to have written statements, correspondence, or other documents appended to the minutes will be rejected. Suggestions that the minutes allude to such documents and that these documents be made available by the Library for public inspection will be considered.
