We Get Letters: We Must Oppose Efforts to Thwart Public Participation in Our City Government

At last Monday’s City Council meeting, I and many other community members were shocked to hear Mayor Gordo announce that live public comments on matters not on the Council’s agenda would no longer be heard for the first 20 minutes of Council meetings.  Rather, he announced that those comments would be pushed to the end of meetings “to allow the Council to complete its business in a timely manner and in order to allow the public to contribute to . . . matters that have been agendized.”  For those who are unaware, the rule at least for many years has been that members of the public can give live comments at Council meetings on non-agendized matters for the first 20 minutes of each meeting and at the end of the meeting, if necessary to accommodate all speakers.  Since the Council must stay for the entire meeting, including public comments, the Mayor’s first stated reason for this new rule makes no sense.

As for the second reason, Mayor Gordo stated that “people are being denied the opportunity to participate on matters on the agenda” because the meetings run many hours and speakers cannot wait that long for the agendized item on which they want to speak to be discussed.  While the Mayor stated he had heard from members of the public on this, it is doubtful that these purported members are complaining about the 20 minutes that members of the public are given for non-agendized items at the beginning of the meeting.  Rather, it is the hours and hours of discussion and debate by Councilmembers on agendized matters that causes community members to wait.

The right to petition the federal government for a redress of grievances is so critical to our democracy that it is in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.  By pushing all public comments on non-agendized matters to the end of the meeting, Mayor Gordo is thwarting the ability of community members to petition our Council on matters of community concern that need to be agendized at Council meetings (the Mayor decides what matters will be agendized).  In the three years I have actively participated at Council meetings, community members have pleaded for many critical matters to be agendized — matters like the urgent need for more interim housing for our 300 unsheltered residents, more affordable housing for the likely thousands of residents who cannot afford to live here, or urgently needed protections for renters.

Another worrisome development came to light when Mayor Gordo said that he was following the “ad hoc committee’s” recommendation to move all speakers on non-agenda matters to the end of the calendar.  Who are these persons?  Do we now have a “shadow government” on certain matters comprised of only certain councilmembers?  Certainly, Councilmember Kennedy knew nothing of this new edict prior to Mayor Gordo’s pronouncement and opposed it at the meeting.  This “ad hoc committee” is inconsistent with Mayor Gordo’s promise, as a candidate for mayor, for more transparency in our city government.

Please write Mayor Gordo and request that he abandon this new unfair and unreasonable rule and instead stand by his statements, as a candidate for mayor, supporting public participation in our city government.  (See, e.g., Mayoral Candidate Victor Gordo Talks About Development, Transparency, Social Justice and Consensus Building – Pasadena Now.)  Additionally, please write all councilmembers and urge them to stand with the community and oppose this unfortunate new rule.

Sonja K. Berndt
Pasadena

Got something to say, email Managing Editor André Coleman, at andrec@pasadenanowmagazine.com