The Portage City Council delayed action Tuesday to sign off on policies and procedures already implemented in the clerk-treasurer’s office and a new policy on public comment at its meetings.
Clerk-Treasurer Liz Modesto said the State Board of Accounts has dinged the city six years in a row on internal controls, leading to the implementation of the new policies and procedures in her office.
The corrective plan was approved by the SBOA and follows best practices for municipalities, she said. The resolution is for the council, as the city’s fiscal body, to sign off on what’s already implemented.
“We’re trying to be transparent and let the council know exactly what is going on” in the clerk-treasurer’s office, Modesto said. The council hasn’t approved anything like this in the past.
The SBOA is in the midst of conducting its annual audit for the city, and Modesto hoped to provide them the approved resolution to show the city’s commitment to meeting the state requirements.
“It took us a long time” to write up all these up, she said.
City Attorney Dan Bortnicki urged the council to take action on it. “The legislative body controls the purse strings,” so the council has oversight over some of these processes.
“These are a great idea,” he said.
Councilwoman Gina Giese-Hurst agreed. “I have gone through it, and I am very impressed with the work on it,” she said.
Council members Bob Parnell and Melissa Weidenbach said they wanted more time to look at the resolution before approving it. They received it Monday.
Modesto said if the council fails to approve the resolution, the SBOA could recommend a state takeover after deeming the city’s finances unauditable.
Council members Ferdinand Alvarez, Collin Czilli and Giese-Hurst, the three Democrats on the council, wanted to move forward. Victoria Vasquez, Penny Ambler, Parnell and Weidenbach prevailed in hitting the brakes.
The proposed policy on public comment, drafted by Bartnicki, would have members of the public sign in at the podium, listing their name and address, before speaking. Nonresidents would have to wait for residents to have their say first.
The rules would be announced before the speakers begin, and the rules would be posted at the podium as well.
To keep the meeting moving along, remarks would be limited to 2.5 minutes, and speakers would be encouraged to not make the same points as others before.
Public comment would be encouraged before any final action by the council.
Responses by the council or city officials might be made after the meeting to address individual concerns. That would allow them time to think about the issue and possibly do some research before responding.
“I did a lot of background work on this,” Bartnicki said.
“This is not curtailing in any way the right for people to speak and control their First Amendment rights,” he said.
“We all have things we need to do with families and things we need to get to,” so the goal is to run more efficient meetings. The rules incorporate advice from the Indiana Public Access Counselor’s office on how to conduct orderly meetings.
Giese-Hurst noted that multiple speakers might reiterate others’ points, but as they keep speaking, they might have other things to say.
Alvarez asked who the timekeeper would be. “We’ve been quite liberal about public comment,” he said.
Czilli asked if the rules would also apply to other city board and commission meetings.
“That’s a really good catch,” Bortnicki said. The Redevelopment Commission, for example, doesn’t announce a public comment period unless there’s a public hearing on an issue, he noted.
“I can take that back to the drawing board and amend it,” he said.
The vote to send the proposed policy back for revisions was unanimous.
Both resolutions, ratifying the clerk-treasurer’s office policies and procedures and the public comment policy, will be brought back up at the council’s July meeting.
With little comment, the council approved rezoning land for the TimberStone subdivision, including a small parcel carved out for a future fire station.
Ambler and Weidenbach voted against the rezoning for the subdivision. Ambler, who lives in the area, said traffic on Airport Road and nearby traffic arteries is already bad.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
