Unfriendly Meeting Agenda: June 4, 2014
I'm disappointed the June 4, 2014 Harbor District meeting agenda includes Public Comment at the end of the meeting. Standard practice by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and other public agencies is to hold Public Comment at the beginning of the meeting, not the end.
I'm also disappointed that Item 19 "Commissioner Agenda Setting" is not included near the beginning of the public meeting. With the board majority enforcing a self-imposed 10:00pm "hard-stop" it will be impossible for Commissioners to place items on a future agenda and impossible for the public to comment on items not included on the agenda.
It's unlikely the Commission will be able to hold Closed Session and cover all 19 agenda items before 10:00pm.
Meeting Location:
- Sea Crest School Gymnasium
- 901 Arnold Way
- Half Moon Bay, CA 94109
Meeting Time:
- 6:00pm
Link to Board Packet PDF -file takes time to load
Please attend the meeting
From the Brown Act:
54954.3 (a) Every agenda for regular meetings shall provide an
opportunity for members of the public to directly address the
legislative body on any item of interest to the public, before or
during the legislative body's consideration of the item, that is
within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body,
provided that no action shall be taken on any item not appearing on
the agenda unless the action is otherwise authorized by subdivision
(b) of Section 54954.2. [...] Every notice for a special
meeting shall provide an opportunity for members of the public to
directly address the legislative body concerning any item that has
been described in the notice for the meeting before or during
consideration of that item.
Those two provisions taken together mean that all regular meetings must allow public comments on items not on the agenda, but special meetings only need to allow comments on items which are on the agenda. Of course, any public-friendly agency will generally allow non-agenda comments at most special meetings.