By:  Progress for Westhampton Beach

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 and the first matter taken up was the last item on the agenda.   

The village attorney requested the matter of Public Meeting Procedures be considered by the Board of Trustees.  After sitting through the public hearing on the matter of the local law to create the position of Police Commissioner he suggested the Board implement rules that are successfully used at public meetings conducted at other municipalities so that each person’s right to be heard would be protected.¹⁾“The application of parliamentary law is the best method yet devised to enable assemblies of any size, with due regard for every member’s opinion, to arrive at the general will on the maximum number of questions of varying complexity in a minimum amount of time and under all kinds of internal climate ranging from total harmony to hardened or impassioned division of opinion.”
[Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised [RONR (11th ed.), Introduction, p. liii]

This brought to mind a quote that has been attributed to Barry Goldwater “to disagree, one doesn’t have to be disagreeable.”

With respect to public hearings

• Mr. Angel suggested that people who wished to speak sign up on a list or a card with their name and address so that when the public hearing was opened each person could be called to the podium to be heard in the order in which they signed up.  This would insure that everyone who wanted to speak would be certain to have the opportunity, and no one should be able to insist on speaking without having gone to the podium where he could be seen and heard by all.

• Comments from speakers should be addressed to the Board collectively, and that it is improper to request an individual board member to give a final opinion on the the question presented by the hearing while the hearing is still open.  The Board has yet to deliberate on facts and opinions presented at such a hearing and any final expression on the issue would be premature.  However much a Trustee might be swayed by the passions of the moment, it is appropriate to leave room for calm reflection.  In the end, each member of the Board of Trustees bears the responsibility for the decision made after the hearing. 

With respect to work sessions

• The Board might consider having a comment period at the close of a work session.  Interjections by the audience during discussions by the Trustees can be disruptive to a productive meeting.

• Individuals who have an application or matter directly under consideration by the Board could make such presentations as the Board requests during the meeting in support of that particular business.

At the public hearing on February 5th those who actually went to the podium to speak to the Board of Trustees, for the most part, demonstrated the decorum appropriate to a public hearing, they were able to disagree without being disagreeable.

After the village attorney concluded his proposed changes to meeting procedures the Board continued with the evenings agenda…

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