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Petition on public comments

May 1, 2019

Dear Elk Grove residents,

Thank you for considering signing this petition to the Elk Grove City Council to change the Council’s rules on public comments to allow a speaker to yield 2 minutes of his or her time to another speaker, with up to 4 speakers allowed to do so. You can sign the petition on the form at the bottom of this page. You can download a copy of the proposed ordinance from this page. Feel free to ask any questions. Mark at KeepCellAntennasAwayFromOurElkGroveHomes dot org.

Have you noticed that on this 5G issue and some other complex issues that are currently on the table in Elk Grove there is a lot more to say than you can say in 3 minutes? 3 minutes is all we get, twice a month, to speak to the City Council during public comments. However years ago the City used to allow speakers to yield their time to another speaker so that the latter speaker could have more than 3 minutes to speak. The Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Trustees allowed this as recently as 2016 and may still.

This petition is to support an ordinance that the Council can pass to amend its rules for public comments so that a speaker can yield 2 minutes of his or her time to another speaker, giving up (or yielding back to the Council) the other 1 minute. A total of 4 speakers can each yield their 2 minutes to another speaker, who in that case will have a total of 11 minutes to speak (the original 3 plus 4 times 2).

You can download the proposed ordinance here.

Draft ordinance on sharing time during public comments ADownload

Not everybody is equally comfortable speaking in public. Not everybody is equally informed on the issues. But they know leaders in the community who are both comfortable speaking in public and well informed. This will give us more time to present our information and recommendations. It will also give the Council more opportunity to learn from us. We know that they often do not read emails that we send them, especially long ones. But these are complicated policy issues.

What will be delivered to the Council is the proposed ordinance and the brief message shown in the form farther down on this page, along with your name and other information you provide.

After signing this please share it with other Elk Grove residents.

Remember that your name and whatever other information you enter on the petition will be presented to the City. The petition and the names added to it will be public records. Whatever you don’t want shared as a public record, do not enter on the petition.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask Mark at KeepCellAntennasAwayFromOurElkGroveHomes dot org

Thank you!!

April 30, 2019 Dear Elk Grove City Council, I support the petition to change the Council's rules for public comments to allow a speaker to yield 2 minutes of his or her time to another speaker, and yield the other 1 minute back to the Council, so that the latter speaker may speak for longer than 3 minutes. Up to 4 speakers would each be allowed to yield their 2 minutes, giving the latter speaker a total of 11 minutes to speak (the original 3 plus 4 times 2). This will give residents more time to present complex issues and information and recommendations to the Council. It will also give the Council more opportunity to learn from its residents. It will also serve the interests of transparency and participation in our City government. I live in Elk Grove and I am one of your constituents. Please adopt this ordinance ASAP. Thank you.
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We ask for your email address so that we can get in touch with you and ask if you really intended to sign this petition. The next question asks if we have your permission to share your email address with the City so that the City can notify you of updates on the development of the City's new cell antenna policy.