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The City Council welcomes citizen participation at its regular meetings, and provides opportunities for citizens to address the Council during a meeting. The first opportunity, listed on the agenda as Citizen Participation, is a 30-minute period for citizens to address to the Council on issues not scheduled on the agenda. In addition, citizens may speak during each scheduled item on the agenda. However, it is important to note that the City Council agenda contains a "Consent Agenda," which consists of Ordinances on First Reading and Second Reading that are considered routine, routine administrative actions, and items of no perceived controversy. Prior to adoption of the Consent Agenda, the Mayor will ask if there are any members of the audience, or the Council, who wish to remove an item from the Consent Agenda for individual discussion. All items removed from the Consent Agenda will be considered at the end of the meeting agenda.
At its January 4, 2000 regular meeting, the City Council adopted Resolution 2000-6 establishing guidelines for citizen participation at City Council meetings. The substantive portion of Resolution 2000-6 states:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS as follows:
Section 1. That the regular meetings of the Council will be governed by the following rules of procedure, subject to such modifications as may, in the judgment of the Mayor or a majority of the Council, be necessary in order to accommodate exceptional circumstances:
a. Citizen comment, both during the "citizen participation" segment of each meeting and with regard to agenda items, will generally be limited to a maximum of five (5) minutes per person. If, in the discretion of the Mayor, the number of persons wishing to speak during citizen participation would unduly prolong that portion of the meeting, the Mayor may reduce the time allowed for individual citizen input.
b. Citizen comment on items not being presented for Council’s consideration on that meeting’s agenda will be limited to a total of thirty (30) minutes and will be received at the beginning of each meeting.
c. The time limits for individual citizen comments regarding agenda items will be established by the Mayor prior to each such item. In order to determine the amount of time to be allotted to each speaker, the Mayor will ask for a show of hands by all persons intending to speak to the item. If the number of persons indicating an intent to speak to an item is twelve (12) or less, each speaker will generally be allowed five (5) minutes. If the number of persons indicating an intent to speak to an item is thirteen (13) or more, each speaker will generally be limited to three (3) minutes per item. However, the Mayor may increase or decrease the time limits per speaker as he or she deems necessary to facilitate the City Council=s understanding of the item, or to allow the Council to consider and act upon the item in a timely fashion. Any determination of the Mayor with regard to such time limits may be overridden by a majority vote of the Council.
d. All items on the consent agenda that are removed from the consent agenda, either by a member of the public or a member of the City Council, will be considered at the end of the meeting agenda.
e. Council meetings will begin precisely at 6:00 p.m. Proclamations will be presented prior to the meeting at approximately 5:30 p.m. or such earlier time as may be necessary in order for the presentation of proclamations to end by 6:00 p.m.
f. No more than two (2) ten-minute breaks will be planned per meeting. All Councilmembers and staff will return to their seats in the Council Chambers at the conclusion of each ten-minute break. The Mayor will resume the meeting at the prescribed time.
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