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Mill Creek MetroParks says new policy is not meant to discourage public comment
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mill Creek MetroParks leadership says a new policy restricting public comment at board meetings to current agenda items is not intended to limit residents’ ability to address the board.
“A public entity like Mill Creek MetroParks is never going to eliminate public comment,” said Executive Director Aaron Young. “We serve the people. But in an effort to serve the people in as efficient and accurate a way as possible, we needed to develop policies that allow us to do that.”
Young, who announced the new policy at a board meeting Tuesday, said the policy was developed after the board was criticized for not doing a good job of taking residents’ concerns into consideration. He said this policy addresses that issue by giving him, board members and staff advance notice of topics “so we can have some educated dialogue.”
“It’s by no means an attempt to limit public comment. ... But we also can’t sit there for five hours every night,” he said. “Showing up to discuss an issue that no one is aware of ... is something that we’d like to limit so we can provide as accurate of information as possible.”
A question some residents have raised is how they will know whether they want to participate in public comment if agendas are only available shortly before meetings begin.
“They are always free to call and ask to be put on the agenda to address the board,” Young said.
Members of the public are free to add topics to the agenda right up to the meeting time, though he would prefer notices a week before the meeting.
Tuesday’s announcement followed a lengthy discussion about the levy renewal with additional millage. The board of park commissioners decided, in a 3-2 vote, to put the issue on the November ballot.
Some members of the public, who represent a wildlife group formed as a response to the park system’s euthanization of 238 geese last summer, said the public-comment policy will impact their vote on the levy.
Members of that group, Save the Wildlife in Mill Creek Park, frequently have spoken during the public-comment time at board meetings since last June.
“I think that’s a bad thing they’re doing there,” said Chance Metz of Austintown, who is a member of the wildlife group and who attended the most recent board meeting, of the new policy.
“I would consider that censoring,” he said. He said it’s one of several reasons he likely will not vote for the levy.
Other people made similar remarks in comments on the group’s Facebook page. One post, added to the page hours after Tuesday night’s meeting, reads: “They want our dollars, but not our 2 cents.”
Asked whether the decision had anything to do with the wildlife group, Young said no. “I would wholeheartedly argue it has nothing to do with any particular interest group,” he said.