Muncie City Council president changes back public comment rules after community pushback

The Muncie City Council president has changed back the rules for public comments that received a large pushback by community members in February.  IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.

In January, newly-voted-in council president Republican Jeff Green changed the rules on public comment at council meetings, to begin in February.  They include moving public comments from the end of meetings to the beginning, restricting each speaker to two minutes instead of the long-accepted three minutes, and allowing no comments during the first reading of an ordinance.

The Muncie public pushed back at the February council meeting, speaking for more than an hour– two minutes or less at a time – overwhelmingly asking for those rules to be changed back.

At Monday night’s meeting, Green did, in a 34-second statement that received audience applause.

“The way we have been doing things, we’re going to change it again tonight, going back to the old former format.  Public comment will be at the end of the meeting, three minutes will be given to each person.”

Some community members, like Chip Taylor, said they appreciated the change.

“I used to teach public management, I always told my students, like, ‘Nothing wrong with trying new stuff.  There’s nothing wrong with figuring out, maybe, the old way worked, too.’”

Green says the council will also now add each person’s name to the official council minutes when they come up to speak.

Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host.  Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.