Citizen comment changes not well received

When borough council reorganized in January one of the things they looked at were ways to improve the flow of their monthly meetings.


Last month, borough council changed some of the rules how they will entertain citizen comments at the beginning of the meeting. In the past during that portion of the meeting, there was debate among members of the council, staff and Mayor Leo Lutz and citizens. With the change, council will wait until after a citizen speaks and if they (the council) wants to answer a citizen’s question and make a comment, they can, or just move on.

It was a topic of conversation at Monday’s meeting between citizens and members of the council.

The citizens, who spoke didn’t like the change and some on the council said they weren’t sure about the change, but were willing to give it a chance to see if it works.

“We don’t want this (citizen comments) to turn into a question and answer session. If at the end, if staff and the council want to respond, they can,” said Mary Wickenheiser, council president.

The first to speak against the change was Tony Mosteller, a resident of the 800 block of Locust Street.

“That is something else,” Mosteller said, adding there is an election next year and a number of residents will be voting for him on the ballot.

Two former members of borough council also spoke on the issue.

Frank Doutrich said he’s not against the change “as long as everybody is for it.”

“I like the open dialogue,” Doutrich said.

Doutrich said he felt the change was allowing the council to “be selective on who they wanted to speak (at meetings) and what and who you want to answer too.”

“The format sucks,” Doutrich said.

He also questioned why the meetings are no longer tape recorded. He was told that because of the new public records law, meetings haven’t been taped in more than a year.

Wickenheiser after Doutrich spoke defended the change.

“This was how it was when I first came on council back in 2000,” she said. We should try to do this again.”

Councilmen Mike Beury said, “I am not happy with it either, but I am willing to give it a shot.”

Mary Barninger, council’s vice-president said she was vocal about the change.

“I am not convinced it is right to provide the citizens with answers that might not be what they need or want to hear,” Barninger said.

Another member of council, Kelly Murphy, said he was also “not comfortable” with the change, but it shouldn’t become an issue at every meeting.

Another former member of the council, Vern Detz said during his questioning of the council said he didn’t like the fact that he would ask a question and may not get an answer.