BRADENTON — A commissioner’s proposal to amend the Manatee County Commission’s rules on public comment during board meetings never proceeded to a vote after it became clear there was no appetite for such action among commissioners.
Manatee County Commission Chair Tal Siddique added the agenda item to Tuesday’s meeting under commissioner agenda items, hoping to make the case to the board that adjustments to the amount of time allotted per speaker for public comment might streamline meetings and help ensure proceedings would not run exceedingly late into the evening, as they did during a recent land use meeting that did not adjourn until nearly 1:00 a.m.
Siddique proposed several potential changes to public comment policies that would have impacted both citizen comment times and those of applicants. The drafted revisions may have also effectively created an arbitrary distinction for individuals perceived as providing “technical or professional” comments, deeming them worthy of additional time…