General Rules of Procedure for Town of Catskill Council Meetings
Guidelines for Public Comment:
The Public shall be allowed to speak only during the Public Comment period of the meeting or at such other time as the majority of Council shall allow.
1. Speakers must give their name and address and organization, if any.
2. Speakers must be recognized by the presiding officer.
3. Speakers must limit their remarks to 5 minutes on a given topic.
4. Speakers may not yield any remaining time they have to another speaker.
5. Council members may, with the permission of the presiding officer, interrupt a speaker during their remarks, but only for the purpose of clarification or information.
6. All remarks shall be addressed to the Council as a body and not to any member thereof.
7. Discussion between speakers and attendees of the public meeting is not allowed. A speaker may disagree with or support prior speakers in comments directed to the Town Council.
8. Comments must relate to the purpose of legitimate town business at a Council meeting.
9. Speakers should present their remarks in a courteous manner and may not make personal comments about public officials, town residents, or others.
10. All speakers will observe the commonly accepted rules of courtesy, decorum, dignity and good taste.
11. Any speaker who disregards the directives of the presiding officer in enforcing the rules, disturbs the peace at a meeting, makes impertinent or slanderous remarks, or generally conducts themselves in an inappropriate manner, shall be barred from further participation and will forfeit any balance of time remaining for their comments.
12. After a final warning, if a speaker refuses to step down, the Town Supervisor shall request the removal of the speaker from the meeting room. The authority for this action is section 240.20 of the Penal Law.
** The foregoing procedures may be amended from time to time by a majority vote of the Town Council.
This procedure was discussed and adopted at the Re-Organizational meeting of 2008.
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