This morning, the NEW Board of County Commissioners for Manatee County held our first strategy session. I’ll go over the plans and priorities of the board in the next Substack, but today I wanted to go over some changes (technically, proposed changes) for how we’re going to do things in 2025.
For too long, rules and procedures were changed against the best interest of the community and, at times, against other commissioners. This has led to less transparency, less board unity and less of a voice for the people.
I campaigned on giving a voice back to the people of our county and I plan to keep that promise.
Agendas have been getting out to the public later and later, depriving you of having time to review and comment on issues important to you. I sat for hours with staff and tasked them with coming up with the logistically earliest time to complete agendas, brief commissioners and get these out to the public.
Last year, Land Use briefings were 3-4 days before the meeting and Regular briefings were occasionally the day before. Going forward, land use will be briefed 10+ days ahead of the meeting with agendas going public immediately following. Regular agendas will be briefed and released to the public over a week before the meeting. This additional time will give both commissioners and citizens adequate opportunity to review, comment and ask questions before being asked to vote on issues affecting our community.
Additionally, as can be seen in proposed 4.4.3 below, there will be NO agenda items added last minute. Items will not be held to slip in under the cover of darkness the day before a meeting. There is now a hard deadline. Further, these agenda items will not be approved to be added to the agenda if they don’t meet a reasonableness test for minimum information provided to fellow commissioners, staff and the public. If you can’t reasonably determine what we’ll be discussing, did we really give you notice?
If a commissioner does plan to deviate from the noticed agenda, they will now need a supermajority (2/3) vote of the board to entertain a non-agenda item. Per Section 7.2 of our Board Rules, we are to follow Robert’s Rules of Order. Adjusting the agenda is a suspension of the rules and Robert’s Rules requires a 2/3 vote to suspend. Our BOCC will be no different. This supermajority rule will also be enforced if any commissioner attempts to Call the Question to shut down discussion.
After we improve the way we distribute agendas and conduct our meetings, we need to fix how we stifle public involvement.
Going forward, there will be no deadline for write-in comments. In today’s electronic world, there is no reason to shut these down days ahead of meetings. You can submit your comments for the record at your convenience.
Additionally, I am adding a second future agenda public comment period to the end of meetings. This will be held regardless of whether we exhausted the initial 30 minutes. This will give more opportunity to those that can’t make it, in person or on the phone, at the beginning of the day.
As for public comment, our quasi-judicial land use items are very detailed and applicants are afforded ample time to present their case. The public is already at a disadvantage without legal representation and experts. Therefore, I have expanded the speaking time for quasi-judicial comments to five minutes, from the previous three minutes. Hopefully this give some of you more time to express your views without feeling rushed. Of course, the 10 minute option with signatures will still be available.
However, regardless of time allotted, some of you simply want to be on the record with your opposition - or sometimes support (it happens). Therefore, we’re adding a Waive in Support/Opposition option. You will now be able to simply fill out the form stating your position, rather than approaching the podium. The Chair will read all submitted names and their position into the record from the dais so you’ll be accounted for and in the permanent minutes. This will also be helpful for anyone who has to leave before an issue is up for discussion and still wants to be on record.
Third, to further expand the public voice, we need to fix our advisory boards and how they’re included in board decision making.
We will be seating all our vacant board positions and further creating new, more-inclusive task forces, so that our county can better utilize the collective knowledge and skillsets of our residents.
To make sure we’re getting the best advisory board members, and their voices are being heard, two new sections have been added to our agendas.
Immediately following public comment, there is now an “Advisory Board Comments and Updates” section. Any advisory board (or eventually, task force) can request up to five minutes to present updates or suggestions publicly to the board.
Also, all agenda cover pages now include a section asking of there are any applicable advisory boards for the topic to be discussed. If there is, it should ideally be brought to them first and their comments and opinions recorded on the cover sheet. If commissioners are unsure about an item, it can now be voted to send to that advisory board for review and comments prior to bringing it back for a more-informed board vote.
Hopefully these changes make for more dynamic and involved advisory boards and further increase their participation in county decisions.
Finally, regardless of what we do in our meetings, there are still many of you that need a voice outside of the chambers.
The board has collectively decided to fill the previously-approved positions to ensure each commissioner has an aide. The hope is that these aides will be an extension of the commissioner and give you another source to contact. They will be attending meetings and events when commissioners have conflicts. They will be holding office hours. I truly believe this change will make your district (or at-large) representative much more accessible to you going forward.
The county is also working on space and logistics to have outside office hours throughout the county. This will enable you to find your representatives closer to home in your district without having to trek all the way downtown and through the gauntlet of security doors for a preset appointment.
Overall, the goal of this board is to make your commissioners, and your government, more available to you in 2025 and beyond. I, and your board, hope these changes give you the voice and the involvement you have been deprived of for too long.
Tuesday was a great meeting and the above changes to how we’re going to conduct ourselves, while significant, are just the tip of the iceberg. To watch the full State of the Chair presentation, you can see the video below.
To read about my priorities, and those of the rest of the board, stay tuned for the next article later this week.
Spot On Response To The New Board Electoral Mandate And Empowering The Community Members
The absolute best meeting that I have seen in years. Commissioner Kruse your changes in agenda, meeting procedure, and citizen comments prove that citizens opinions are valued. We would like to see the same emphasis put on written comments attached to the agenda. We would like to see those citizen comments attached to the link for citizen comments on the agenda instead of being mixed with other updated items. We would like to see items citizens suggest for future agenda actually added at some point to an agenda or workshop for discussion. Today's video had issues and was not posted on the agenda for easier public viewing (it was on a different link?) it also did not have the phone number posted at the bottom of the video so viewers did not know that was even an option until after lunch. We do like that you will have a second public comment time at the end of the meetings so that the public can come later in the day.
We do not always feel that our county government is working in the best interest of the citizens in this county. We would like to see an organizational chart added to the county website. We would like workshops on Code Enforcement and storm-water management.
Outstanding comments from Commissioners: Kruse, Siddique, Dr. McCann, and Felts. (Felts- who was right on target with citizens the entire meeting even those not in her district!.) We appreciate the efforts on reverting to the old wetlands text amendment - which if you are reverting to the original text which was approved by the county attorney at that time, why would it need to be reviewed again by a different county attorney? It would not be a waste of tax payer money should we be sued over reverting back to the original text. We appreciate the comments on Strategic Planning- if you want to know how the county is doing you should ask the citizens. I am sure they will tell you what does not work. If there was a way to submit comments on services and interactions with county staff and departments that could actually be pulled up and reviewed by commissioners, staff, and the public, that would be a great place to start. Mostly citizen comments are hidden from public view unless they are attached to the agenda and the citizens are no longer trusting of staff when they ask for our opinion.
Overall, outstanding! We appreciate your efforts and look forward to actually seeing some change!