PC 012512 - Laserfiche WebLink

applicant or appellant and another ten minutes for the appellant or applicant, and five minutes for public speakers. He indicated that he thinks that is fine when the Commission does not have a large agenda or a controversial issue with a room full of people, but when there is a large agenda or a room full of people and a lot of speakers, he would like to limit the speakers, other than the applicants or appellants, to three minutes each. He pointed out that the City Council does this and that on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Trials Committee, the audience who would like to comment on items not listed on the agenda are encouraged to limit their comments to three minutes. He commented that the Commission usually gets a lot of the same discussion over and over, and people want to pound the same message across. He added that the other side is that it is very hard to keep those speakers to five minutes, so if they are given three minutes, they will probably end up with five minutes. Commissioner Narum stated that the Commission has done that routinely. She noted that as Chair, she did it for the Housing Element Update meetings. Commissioner O'Connor agreed that it has been done before. Chair Pentin stated that he did not want to start it without first informing the Commissioners and that he just thinks it is important to have that flexibility. He noted that he did not do it tonight but that he will also try to keep comments to five minutes. Commissioner Blank noted that he thinks Chair Pentin did that well. Commissioner O'Connor asked Chair Pentin if he stated that the applicant gets ten minutes, everybody else gets five minutes, and the applicant comes back for another ten minutes. Chair Pentin clarified that when there is an appellant and an applicant, both receive ten minutes each, and when they are given the chance to come back, they receive five minutes. He noted that that is what he did tonight for the Lopezes. Commissioner Blank asked Ms. Harryman if there is any case law in California that reflects if three minutes is reasonable in terms of public comment and what happens if the Commission decides to make it two minutes or five minutes. Ms. Harryman replied that she was not certain but that she could look into it. She added that she knows cities vary in the amount of time and that from her own experience, she does not know of many cities that allow less than three minutes. She noted that usually three minutes is the minimum; the Commission could probably go less than that but she is not suggesting that. Commissioner Blank inquired if that would be difficult to research. Ms. Harryman replied that her preference would be that if the Commission is interested in limiting it to below three minutes, then she would research it. PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, January 25, 2012 Page 17 of 19