Members of the Blytheville City Council are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. today in the Blytheville District Courtroom to discuss the rules of order and procedure in their meetings.
At Monday night's Personnel Committee meeting, most Council members seemed to agree that audience members should be allowed address the full Council on at least agenda items.
However, that may no longer be the case.
A memo dated Feb. 5 from city attorney Mike Bearden to Mayor James Sanders and Council members said, at the conclusion of Monday's meeting, he was told to prepare changes to the resolution he previously submitted.
The regular meeting time stayed the same, but the Pledge of Allegiance was added to the agenda and the agenda deadline was changed to noon the Friday before the Council meeting.
Regarding the Public Notification and Participation section, Bearden was told at Monday's meeting to use language from the 2003 ordinance that allows members of the audience, after being recognized by the mayor, to speak at the Council meetings on any agenda item that was being considered by the City Council.
Bearden wrote: "I received a telephone call from John Musgraves on Tuesday, February 5, 2013, at approximately 11 a.m. that the section should not be changed, and should be left like it is pending a meeting this Friday afternoon of the City Council to consider the resolution without the changes regarding members of the public being allowed to speak on agenda items."
This morning, Musgraves said earlier this week he spoke with fellow Council members Tommy Abbott, Missy Langston, Stan Parks, R.L. Jones and Kevin Snow after the issue was discussed at length Monday night.
"We're going to keep everything the same," Musgraves said this morning.
Abbott, Jones, Langston and Snow confirmed Musgraves did call them, though Snow and Jones indicated the conversation was whether they could make tonight's meeting.
Langston said Musgraves called Tuesday to get her opinion, and she believes there are better options out there.
"That is not what I had hoped for," she said.
Snow said it is his understanding that the only changes to the current rules will be adding the Pledge of Allegiance and changing the deadline for agenda items.
Snow indicated if someone sees an agenda item they want to speak on, they could go through the mayor's office to request to be put on the agenda.
He pointed out that in many cases, citizens could get quicker results by going through their Council member or the proper committee, instead of waiting for the next Council meeting.
The current proposal allows a Council person to place an individual on the agenda, though it says Blytheville citizens wishing to address the City Council regarding agenda or non-agenda issues should use the following procedure:
-- Discuss their concerns with their City Council member.
-- If the Council member is unable to rectify the situation or satisfy the concerns, the Council member will refer the issue to the appropriate committee and ask the chairman of that committee to put the individual on the committee's agenda.
-- If the committee is unable to rectify the situation or satisfy the concerns of the citizen, the chairman or the citizen's City Council member shall request in writing or by email, to the mayor, to place the citizen on the agenda of the next regularly-scheduled Council meeting.
"The procedure makes sense, although we have to find a better way to let citizens speak," Langston said, noting she will be unable to make tonight's meeting because of a scheduling conflict. "I think there has to be a better solution. Maybe we could talk to some other cities to see what works for them."
Abbott told the Courier News this morning that he hasn't made up his mind, but plans to study the issue before tonight's special meeting.
"I'm sure there will be some discussion about it tonight," Abbott said.
He added: "If we allow people to speak, it will be in a controlled environment."
Jones said he was under the impression that citizens would be allowed to speak on agenda items without going through a process.
"When I left the meeting, I thought we were going to allow the people to talk on agenda items, the things we were going to be voting on," Jones said.
A message left for Parks this morning was not immediately returned. Monday, Parks said citizens may get better information at the committee meetings because they have access to department heads.
Also during Monday's meeting, Musgraves said there needs to be structure to Council meetings. Jones argued that there is a structure in allowing citizens' comments, and if people take time out of their schedules to come to the meetings, they should be allowed to speak for five minutes. Monday night, Abbott said he believes citizens should be able to speak on agenda items.
"My concern is for us to get into a situation to where we've got a lot of disorder," Abbott said then.
Bearden's memo said the only changes he made regarded the order of business, and deadline for agenda items. "All other sections of the resolution, including the right of members of the public to speak at a City Council meeting on agenda items, would be left as it presently states in the resolution I have given all of you."
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com