CORTLAND Leader tries to shorten remarks

The city council's president is 'out of line,' a councilwoman says.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CORTLAND -- Just shut up, put a lid on it, keep quiet -- enough already!
City council President Frank Stocz, after 15 years as a city lawmaker, has put his foot down and instituted a time limit on those who want to address thecouncil.
The time limit on talk also includes the council members.
Stocz announced the two-minute time limit before last week's council session.
Some Cortland Council sessions can go as long as two hours. It's not unusual for members of the public to debate and argue with one another without getting permission from the chair to express their opinions.
Stocz said he took the unilateral action after discussing it with some council members and Law Director Patrick Wilson.
The veteran councilman said he made the decision to increase the efficiency of meetings.
"There is constant chatter in the audience between people. It's rude to everybody," Stocz noted.
Members of the audience talk and lose focus of the topic at hand, he pointed out.
"I'm not going to just slap people down," Stocz said, adding that he'll rely on his common sense. "There will be flexibility."
The decision to limit discussion wasn't a knee-jerk reaction, Stocz noted.
Wilson explained that it's his opinion that the city charter allows for people to speak on issues. The council president, however, has the authority to impose "reasonable limitations."
Opposition
Councilwoman Deidre Petrosky's comments were cut off by Stocz at Monday's meeting after two minutes as she talked of the council's failure to create a commission to oversee historical preservation in the city.
Petrosky said she has asked for a formal opinion from Wilson.
"I think he [Stocz] was out of line," she said.
Petrosky points to the city charter that allows council -- and not its president -- to impose reasonable restrictions on speaking by the public. No mention is made of restricting council members from speaking.
During the first meeting of the year, Petrosky said, the council adopted Robert's Rules of Order as the authority by which meetings are conducted.
To her knowledge, nothing in the parliamentary procedure book allows the council president to take the action he did.
Petrosky said that if meetings have run long, it's because of the inexperience of Councilman John Caparanis in running meetings. Caparanis is council vice president and sits in for Stocz when Stocz is absent.
"I thought I ran a very professional meeting, and most people would agree," countered Caparanis, who ran previous meetings this year and noted that he has chaired many meetings in the community and in the military.
Nonetheless, Caparanis said be believes the time limit should be three rather than two minutes.
"Seems like there's a segment of Cortland City Council that wants our meetings to end at 7:30 instead of hearing what our constituents and residents have to say, and the ordinances and resolutions on the floor," Caparanis said. "A time limit for comments is probably a good thing, but giving a resident just two minutes to speak is way, way too short of a time frame."
One citizen speaks
Stocz said one of the people who takes up council's time is Karen Reel, head of the Cortland Homeowners for Responsible Development.
He claims she took up 45 minutes of a meeting earlier this month.
"I'd like to see her energies focused in the right direction," Stocz said.
"It didn't surprise me, not in the least," Reel said of the time limit being imposed, although she denied occupying 45 minutes of a meeting.
Reel was soundly defeated last November as a write-in candidate for a seat on council. She has argued against what she terms "bad development" and spending money to improve water volume on the city's south end before a study of the city's overall water system is completed.
Reel said she will continue to ask questions at council meetings and send e-mails to get her opinions across to city officials and residents.
The city charter, Reel claims, does not allow for restriction. She may file a lawsuit to get a legal opinion on the issue.
She said some council members and the administration "don't want a room full of residents questioning what they do."
In the alternative, Reel said, she will work around the restrictions.
"What else can I do?" she said. "This is a sorry state of affairs."
yovich@vindy.com