School Board must make it easy for public to comment
By JEFF WEBB
Published April 4, 2004
What's wrong with this picture?
You can walk into the School Board office in Brooksville and request the minutes from a meeting, for example, and you don't have to give your name, address or telephone number. You don't even have to tell them why you want the documents.
School officials have to show them to you within a reasonable amount of time. That's the law. And it is a very good law.
But, starting Tuesday, if you attend the actual meeting and dare to address the board, you will be asked to fill out a form that includes your name, address, telephone number and a brief description of what you're going to speak about. And you have to turn the form in to the board chairman 15 minutes before the meeting.
To use the Southern vernacular, that don't hardly seem right.
The difference between the amount of information you have to supply to view public records and to participate in public meetings is that the law is much more specific about the records. Meetings have to be conducted in view of the public and properly advertised.
But the governing entity has the authority to set the rules. The law says it is their business meeting, not the public's.
But that doesn't mean they should make it more difficult or intimidating for the public to participate.
But that is exactly what the School Board is doing, taking its cue from rules the Hernando County Commission has had in place for several years.
Still, the County Commission only requires visitors to fill out a form if they want to speak during a legally advertised public hearing or to comment about an item on the consent agenda. Those who want to speak during the 30 minutes set aside for public comment are not required to complete a form or give the commission any notice of what they will say. That system seems to work well.
But the School Board is asking that those who wish to speak at any time during the meeting, including the "citizens input" portion of the agenda, to fill out a form. What's more, they want speakers to write down their telephone numbers on a piece of paper that will become an archived public record. That's just not necessary, and anyone who doesn't want to share that information shouldn't have to.
"Unlisted" or "private" should be an appropriate response to the request for a telephone number, and "undecided" should be a sufficient reply to that request to describe your comment.
Asking residents to fill out their forms 15 minutes before the meeting also is awkward, if not unreasonable. What if you attend and don't plan to address the board but something comes up during the course of discussion that piques your interest? That's a circumstance for which the board should prepare.
This new policy probably won't make much difference at most School Board meetings. That's because at most meetings there are only a few people in attendance who don't have to be there.
But wait until one of the hot-button subjects comes around - such as school prayer, including homosexuals as a group of people who cannot be discriminated against, or redrawing attendance zones - and the meeting is standing-room only. Watch the board backpedal from its policy then.
Board Chairwoman Sandra Nicholson says she will be "flexible" in applying the new rules. That's somewhat reassuring, but if she deviates from it to accommodate one person, she's obligated to do the same for the next. At that point, the rules aren't rules any more.
The School Board, along with all government boards and agencies, should be doing all they can to make it easier, not more difficult, for the public to participate in their meetings. This could be a step in the wrong direction.
