Plan to limit public comment dies

By John Labriola - The Citrus County Commission on Tuesday decided to maintain the current public participation procedures for its meetings, rejecting Commissioner Jeff Kinnard's proposal to eliminate the first Open to the Public period at the beginning of meetings when residents can address commissioners on any topic.

The decision to drop Kinnard's proposed ordinance came after the commission received some 100 or more emails denouncing the idea, which he first proposed at a meeting last month.

"Today, I'm prepared to say we need to keep the Open to the Public the same," said Commissioner Diana Finegan. "At the end of the day, we want to serve the public the best way we can serve them."

Finegan said she would be open to suggestions on giving residents a specific time on the agenda to speak so they don't have to wait through hours of "time certain" items before addressing the commission, as happened on Tuesday. 

A number of residents who came to oppose Kinnard's move had to leave before they could speak because of lengthy agenda items including a nearly 2-hour discussion on ambulance services that was allotted only five minutes on the agenda. 

"I've stood there for four hours to speak on this today," said Ronda Warrick of Floral City. "This shows us our comments are very low on your priority list, and how you proceed with this will verify your priorities."

County Administrator Steve Howard said he would schedule a commission workshop to discuss changes to the meeting structure.

You may email your suggestions to commissioners below: 

Rebecca Bays <rebecca.bays@citrusbocc.com>, Diana Finegan <diana.finegan@citrusbocc.com>, Janet Barek <janet.barek@citrusbocc.com>, Holly Davis <holly.davis@citrusbocc.com>, Jeff Kinnard <jeff.kinnard@citrusbocc.com>

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