Until now, allowing the public to speak was not mandatory under law. Now it is.
Simply, the law requires all government meetings (city councils, county commissions, school boards, hospital districts, public colleges) to open up their meeting to public comments in a much bigger way.
Under the new law, a person can speak to a government body at the start of the meeting, at the end, and most important, before a vote on every listed agenda item.
This is huge. If you want to talk on Items 1, 4, 6 and 9 on the agenda, just raise your hand. Governments can’t stop you. Well, if they do, they are in violation of the new law.
Even better, the law makes it clear that governments cannot block criticism by their constituents. More on that later.
Sure, this is going to lengthen meetings. This also gives government gadflies the chance to poke their heads into every agenda item, if so inclined.
But what this really does is weaken the authoritarian style of government we have now where constituents can speak but may not participate in actual discussions.
“A government body may not prohibit public criticism of the government body, including criticism of any act, omission, policy, procedure, program or service.”
Double wow. Amazing this must be placed into state law, but here it is.
HB 2840 is a license to speak up, talk more, get involved and be a better watchdog.
That's pretty awesome! Not to compare, but I think Florida already has that. All decisions and discussions are governed by what we call "Sunshine Laws," which means they must be done in a public setting (among some other things). But this is great. Every state should have this... it also makes for fantastic YouTube videos.
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