Legal Documents of Sweetwater
Code of Sweetwater
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Code of Sweetwater
Title 1 General Administration
Chapter 2 Mayor And Board Of Commissioners
Title 1 General Administration
Chapter 2 Mayor And Board Of Commissioners
Sweetwater
Title 1 : General Administration
Chapter 2 : Mayor And Board Of Commissioners
1-204 : Order of debate and public comment.[5]
- Any proposed ordinance or resolution properly on the agenda of the board of commissioners ("board") may be considered and debated by the commissioners, with or without a motion on the floor regarding such proposed ordinance or resolution. Upon consideration of any proposed ordinance or resolution of the board, the first person to be recognized by the mayor shall be one of its sponsors. The second shall be the chairman or one (1) spokesman of the same committee to which the matter has been referred, if any. A commissioner shall speak no more than once on the same subject until all commissioners have had the opportunity to speak on it. The mayor, his authorized representative or any director shall have the privilege of the floor for the purpose of discussing matters under consideration by the council.
- Any resident of the City of Sweetwater may address the board about any actionable agenda item when the following procedure is observed:
- Any resident wishing to speak shall complete an Application to Comment on Actionable Agenda Item(s)5 at least three (3) hours prior to the meeting. A copy of said form is attached to, and is part of, this ordinance.
- Each resident shall be permitted to speak for five (5) minutes and shall not have more than one (1) time to speak, except that the chair may allow two (2) minutes to the proponent for rebuttal. The resident speaker may yield their time to a non-resident member of the public subject to the same rules that govern the resident speaker. Residents may not aggregate their time to allow a non-resident member of the public, or any association or group they represent, to speak longer than any one resident.
- When a number of persons desire to speak to an issue, each side shall be limited to three (3) speakers and a maximum speaking time of fifteen (15) minutes. Persons desiring to speak may request the council to extend the time limit.
- The board may extend the number of speakers or the time allowed for speakers by a vote of majority of the council, or set a public hearing on the matter.
- All speakers and members of the audience and commissioners shall remember that the meeting is a board meeting. All persons are to show proper respect to each other and shall maintain the proper decorum in the meeting at all times. Persons who fail to observe the rules as to proper decorum shall not be permitted to speak, may be removed from the meeting, and may be cited by the board to city court for violation of this ordinance.
- When a public hearing has been once afforded to the proponents and opponents on an issue and there are persons desiring to speak on the subject, the mayor shall ask for the council to state its pleasure on further public debate.
- Subsection (2) of this ordinance shall govern all meetings of the Sweetwater Regional Planning Commission, the Library Board, the Tree Board, and all other commissions, boards and committees to which the Tennessee Open Meetings Act applies unless they have adopted their own public comment policy that complies with Tennessee Code Annotated, § 8-44-112. (as added by Ord. #1028, Dec. 2023 Ch8_08-05-24)
Footnotes:
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The Application to Comment on Actionable Agenda Item(s) is available in the recorder's office.
Date Last Updated: 08/05/2024
Codification Date: 03/01/2004
Officials at Date of Last Codification:
Mayor - Doyle F. Lowe
Vice Mayor - Sam Moser
Commissioner - Lamar Hughes
Commissioner - Johanna Jinks
Commissioner - Alan Richeson
Commissioner - James A. Stutts
Recorder - Sonya Crush
City Attorney - John Cleveland