The City Council of Atlanta’s decision to limit the amount of #publiccomments they accept is commendable, once you take into account the strain that was previously placed on city resources.

In the past, Atlanta City Council always accepted public comments at their meetings. There was no limitation on the time this would take for the Council to hear them. It wasn't uncommon for the public comments period to last for hours, and it makes a lot of sense that people want to have a voice in how their city is run. When the City Council is taking up a hot issue, residents are usually more than ready and willing to speak their minds to their elected officials. The meetings are often packed with many citizens who want to have their say. 

July 2020's meeting was certainly no exception to this rule. Rayshard Brooks died less than a month before the meeting, and with citizens still reeling from the effects of that case, the Council was voting on whether or not they should pass the Rayshard Brooks Bill. So it wasn't exactly a surprise that so many people wanted to make statements about what they wanted the city to do regarding Atlanta's police budget. Over 24 hours of comments, though? How could you expect anyone to keep their attention on the matter at hand for so long?

Dedicating an unlimited amount of time to listening to people's opinions is strenuous, and it puts too much of a burden on the city's limited resources, not the least of which is the City Councilmembers' time. Yes, they are hired to do the job, and their commitment to public service is something they appear to take very seriously. But the last I checked, they all had families and non-Council responsibilities to attend to. In this case, they showed up for a meeting they assumed was going to be fairly routine. Then they were essentially held captive by their duty of listening to ALL of the public's concerns. 

There have been attempts in the past to limit the time for comments and introduce new rules, but more still need to be put in place. For instance, in 2018, Atlanta's City Council introduced some limits for the speakers. The elected officials were limited to 10 minutes at a time, while former elected officials were allowed to speak for only six minutes. Other residents were limited to two minutes. The changes were aimed to dissuade elected officials from coming before the board with time-consuming and overly lengthy statements.

Despite the limitations that were put in place before, the city has continued to struggle with the issue of subject and timeframe of public comments. The earlier regulations were not enough because they never stipulated the number of people who could contribute to each session. Therefore, although there was a time limit per contribution, there was no limit on how many people would be able to make comments. Some issues have a much higher number of contributors than others, and this has caused some meetings to run extra long. This is why the Atlanta City Council agreed to limit the amount of time that would be spent on public commentary in their remote meetings. Councilmember J.R. Matzigkeit sponsored the measure.

During July's meeting, the City Council listened to 1,251 messages, which consumed many hours and left much less time for City Councilmembers to conduct their regular business. The excessive number of comments just piled more pressure onto the city's resources. When there are so many comments, the city's two-person IT Department gets overwhelmed. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the new legislation that will ensure that comments are not taken until up to an hour before the meeting.

When the resolution was passed, City Council did not stop listening to the citizens they represent. There is just a rule in place now that comments for remote meetings have to be made via voicemail between 4 to 7 p.m the day before the meeting. Comments about topics that have nothing to do with the issues that are being discussed that week will not be heard. This legislation is a critical tool for ensuring that the city's leaders have enough time to really consider residents' needs and wants, and it makes this possible by relieving them from the pressure that comes with a barrage of unrelated comments. 

People are always saying they want government to be more efficient, and this is how it's done.