Board of Supervisors Public Comment Policy

Public Comment Policy for the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors 

The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors welcomes public comment during most regular meetings. In general, individual Board members do not respond to public comment during a meeting or hearing. The following are guidelines for the public comment period during Board meetings. These guidelines may be amended by the Board at any time. 

Time: The time for public comment at Board meetings will be toward the end of the meeting after the completion of the regular agenda items. The period of public comment is generally limited to no more than 30 minutes total for all speakers. Individual speakers must first state their names and addresses for the record prior to beginning to address the Board. Each individual speaker may speak up to 3 minutes. Our clerk will start the timer after the speaker's name and address has been provided, and speakers should conclude their remarks when time is called. If a large number of speakers are expected on a particular topic, the Board may limit or expand the total time for comment and/or may reduce the time allotted for each speaker and will announce this change in advance. 

Topics: All comments should address a matter related to the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors. The Board requests that comments related to an individual matter be directed to the appropriate staff, and not shared at a public meeting where the disclosure could be defamatory or could violate applicable confidentiality requirements. 

Decorum: Speakers will present their comments from the podium and are encouraged not to engage in personal attacks. The Board expects that each speaker will be courteous, modeling for our citizens how one can respectfully disagree with others' views. Speakers will address their comments to the entire Board and not to one individual Board member, a county employee, or the audience. 

Accommodations: To ensure all citizens have an opportunity to speak, any person with a disability who needs accommodation to provide public comment is requested to contact the Board office at 712-328- 5644 at least 3 business days in advance of a meeting to request assistance. If a speaker addresses the Board in a language other than English and has an interpreter, the speaker will have 3 minutes to speak and the interpreter will have up to 3 additional minutes to translate the comments for the Board. 

Order of Speaking: Individual speakers may sign up in person at Board meetings (on a form provided in the Board room) and will be called to speak in the order in which they sign up. As a courtesy to other citizens wishing to be heard, individual speakers should confine their remarks to a single topic. 

Recording: Since recording is not required by the Iowa Code, the public comment portion of the Board meeting will not be recorded or streamed by the Board. Requiring speakers to state their names and addresses prior to addressing the Board raises legitimate privacy concerns. Further, this minimizes the chance for widespread dissemination of potentially defamatory and/or confidential information. 

Initial Notice: The Board Chair will read the following statement before opening any public comment period: 

The Board will now allow up to 30 minutes for comments from the public. The Board will call speakers to the podium in the order in which they have signed up on the form provided. Each speaker is limited to no more than 3 minutes for speaking, must speak from the podium, and must first state his or her name and address for the record. Comments should be directed to the Board as a whole, and should refrain from personal attacks or from addressing individual employees or citizens. Comments should also be limited to one topic. Detailed information about the public comment policies is available upon request. 

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