No more WAITING 4 OR MORE HOURS to speak for 60 seconds AT CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS

 "Thank You Natalie!"  

link:  sign this petition.  

Not knowing when, or whether, or how long the wait will be to speak during open mic at city council meetings is BLATANTLY DISRESPECTFUL and wrong.  It should be formally, legally, changed to recognize, respect and honor the people who volunteer their precious, valuable time and energy to participate in our democratic, free speech, process. 

our current system is of the council, by the council, for the council. 

we need to return to,  -of the people, by the people, for the people!

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it was during our very hard; very long; very time and life consuming 

NOTonNOBLE 

protest we experienced the following:

open mics at city council meetings were:

1.  on what days? at what times?   it was difficult to even access basic information

2.  open mics were sometimes suddenly canceled 

3.  open mic times were arbitrarily changed

4.  open mic times went from 2 minutes, to 1 minute even when there were only 12 people..

but the MOST GRIEVOUS practice 

is that the city council members could  (and did) talk for as long as they wanted; with enormous amounts of repetitiveness, intentionally droning on and on,  

causing anyone who showed up for open mic to wait

and wait...   and wait....   and wait...   FOR HOURS!  -The majority of these people already working full time, taking care of children, parents, commuting long hours, having to skip dinner and hire child care to even show up.  Already going way out of their way to arrive; to attend, TO SHARE 60 seconds of something very important to them, which they took the time to write in advance.

We suggest the following in rough draft form:

An easily accessible and very clear communication regarding set days and times for open mics.

That open mics be made available every city council meeting.

That there be alternating times;  day time availability; evening availability

i.e., Tues 7pm, open mic,  [first come, first serve/listen; a maximum time of 1 hour]

       Weds, noon, open mic...

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i further share, from our experience, having witnessed and sat through numerous city council meetings; that the length of your current meetings are very much self-inflicted.

if you had time limits, per council member, 

the same way open mics are restricted to 60 seconds, and force the speaker to edit accordingly

if you gave yourselves time limits per subject, this would also force you to pre-consider; force you to prioritize and organize your thoughts before you speak, 

which would save enormous amounts of time that is currently wasted

and help you to demonstrate the efficiency you desire from others. 

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selah! & amen