Hamilton County residents can still speak before the County Commission concerning items not on the agenda without providing a week’s notice to commission staff.
Last week commissioners voted on a resolution that, among other procedural changes to County Commission meetings, would have required citizens wanting to speak on items not on the meeting agenda to inform commission staff a week in advance of their intention to speak and the subject on which they wanted to comment.
A sentence stating “the discussion of matters previously addressed to the commission may be denied due to repetitiveness” was removed from the resolution “because of the difficulty of determining what repetitiveness is,” Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor said at the April 17 meeting.
Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, proposed an amendment that would restrict citizens from speaking more than once a month at commission meetings on items not on the agenda.
Taylor advised against the amendment, which failed when put to vote.