VP wants to let public speak on issues just before board votes

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The Clark County School Board’s meeting room was filled with angry parents determined to prevent two tiny rural campuses from being closed. But with a few choice words before opening the floor to public comment at the Jan. 22 meeting, School Board Vice President Carolyn Edwards stanched the controversy.

Edwards announced that when the board took up the proposal later in the meeting she would be recommending a one-year moratorium on the closing of Lundy and Goodsprings elementary schools.

Sensing the tide was in their favor, many people who had signed up to comment chose not to, and instead let a few representatives state their cases.

The discussion ended with School Board President Terri Janison praising the public for its restraint.

“This could have been a really ugly situation,” she said.

The vote was unanimous.

Edwards believes more School Board meetings would end amicably if the process for hearing public comment were revised. She has proposed a return to the format used by other elected boards in Southern Nevada, which allow the public to speak following the panel’s discussion of each agenda item and before it’s put to a vote.

“We will get more pertinent public input, and we would be providing people a better opportunity to contribute,” Edwards said Monday. “Right now, people spend a lot of time shooting in the dark, trying to cover every possible scenario, because they have no idea what the board is going to say or what we’re thinking.”

At Thursday’s School Board meeting, Edwards will ask her colleagues to try out the proposed format for a few meetings before making any permanent change.

In 1996 the School Board limited public comment to one hour before the start of the meeting’s business. Before that change, public comment was taken as each agenda item was considered.

The rules were revised again in 2007 — each speaker was allowed three minutes instead of five, no matter how many agenda items he wished to address. The School Board also lifted the mandate that public comment wrap up within an hour.

Mary Jo Parise-Malloy, co-founder of the advocacy group Nevadans for Quality Education, said her organization has pushed for a return to the old rules.

“I know some people are afraid it will make public comment run on too long, but it might help,” Parise-Malloy said. “There are times when we might be able to help add something to the conversation.”

That’s what Edwards said she wants more of — a conversation rather having the public run through a laundry list of comments, some pertinent, some not, hours before the actual vote occurs.

The proposal could extend the School Board’s already lengthy meetings, because individuals could opt to sign up for two minutes of remarks for every agenda item. Additionally, people who enjoy the convenience of saying their piece early in the evening would have to wait until the board takes up the item.

The proposed changes appeal to Karen Gray, a longtime School Board observer who is a familiar face at the podium during public comment.

“It’s easier to speak at the time that the board is actually considering something, instead of before it’s even on the table,” Gray said. “You hear the discussion first, rather than signing up to speak and having no idea if the board is going somewhere completely different from what you might think.”