City Council Weighs Public Comment

By Dave Freneaux

    Central's City Council spent the majority of the two hour meeting Tuesday night discussing rules governing Public Comment.  An ordinance change was proposed and then amended several times which would remove the requirement for the public to fill out comment cards prior to speaking on agenda items.  The lengthy discussion which followed can be seen online at wwww.CentralSpeaks.com.  At the top of any screen, click on the CentralSpeaksTV icon and choose the Council meeting of 1/25/2011.  The end result of the discussion and votes was a seemingly unanimous desire to generally return the Council to the procedures which have been used in practice for the past several years.  The public will still be required to fill out a card in order to speak on issues in the public comment period after the Council business has been completed.

    In other business, the Council approved additional funding for the office of the Chief of Police for facilities, furniture, insurances and security.  Funding was also approved to acquire a new 2011 police cruiser via a grant, which cost the department approximately $600.