Akron City Council is already getting negative feedback on its proposed rules — just introduced Monday — for speaking to council.
Councilman Mike Williams and other critics say the guidelines, which basically maintain the speaking opportunities council now allows, don’t go far enough to comply with a charter amendment approved by nearly 82 percent of voters last November. That amendment said council shall adopt legislation “to permit public speaking in council meetings.”
“This public comment period is seriously insufficient based on the ballot language,” Williams said during a Rules Committee meeting Monday.
Former Councilman Ernie Tarle, who circulated petitions for a charter change last year requiring a public speaking period, called the proposed rules “down-right disrespectful.”
“I think the people have spoken,” he said. “I think they are spitting in their faces. Shame on them.”
The proposed rules would make permanent a speaking period council has been offering at 6:30 p.m. on Mondays, which is a half-hour before regular meetings and is attended by at least one council member and representatives of the administration.
The guidelines also would continue to allow people to speak during committee and regular meetings with the permission of the committee chairman or council president, and to submit a written request to the council president to speak to council on issues not pending before council.
Council President Marco Sommerville said the majority of council normally attends the public speaking period before council meetings. He said there are times when no one from the public shows up for these periods. He thinks the current options give residents ample chances to have their concerns addressed.
“We feel the way we are doing it has worked and we don’t need to change it,” he said.
A public hearing on the proposed rules will be held at 1 p.m. Feb. 28. Council doesn’t meet next Monday because of Presidents Day.
The proposed guidelines also cut the amount of time before requests to address council must be submitted from 12 hours to eight, which means they can be turned in on the day of the meeting, rather than the Friday before.
“We made that easier,” Sommerville said. “There may be times from time to time that needs to take place.”
Council put the amendment on the ballot partly as a pre-emptive strike against a potential legal challenge by Tarle, whose petitions for a charter amendment requiring a speaking period were rejected because they lacked the required affidavits. Sommerville said at the time that — if Tarle sued — voters would at least have a choice between the two charter changes.
Law Director Cheri Cunningham said the proposed rules on public speaking comply with the charter amendment and the legislation that put the amendment on the ballot. The legislation said “public speaking shall be in accordance with the rules of council” and council “may impose reasonable limits on speaking and may restrict speakers to matters within council’s authority.” The ordinance required council to adopt legislation on public speaking by March 1.
“This is consistent with the charter and with what other cities do,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham plans to share with council information on the speaking rules in other communities by the end of next week.
A Beacon Journal survey of 19 communities and agencies in the Akron-Canton area last fall found that Akron was the only one that didn’t have a public speaking time during its regular meetings. The other big cities in Ohio were split — with Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo not having comment periods during regular meetings and Canton, Columbus, Dayton and Youngstown having them.
Warner Mendenhall, an Akron attorney who led an unsuccessful recall attempt against Mayor Don Plusquellic in 2009 and has participated in several ballot initiatives, said he thinks the charter amendment was clear that the public speaking should be “in the meeting.” Mendenhall, who attended the Rules Committee Monday, thinks council must permit public comment during both its regular and committee meetings. That was what 
Tarle was seeking in his charter amendment.
Councilman Jeff Fusco, who chairs the Rules Committee, said a few people, like Tarle and Mendenhall, have made an issue out of council’s speaking period, but he thinks the public is satisfied with the opportunities now provided. He said residents also have the chance to interact with council members by email and at monthly ward meetings.
Akron’s proposed rule changes also would modify the lineup of the Committee on Committees, which is now made up of the most senior council members and meets to decide committee chairmanships and members every two years. The new guidelines would permit the council president to appoint the Committee on Committee members, without deference to seniority.
Williams thinks this modification is aimed at him and Councilman Bruce Kilby, who are among the most senior members and often butt heads with the administration and the council majority.
Sommerville didn’t deny this. He said Kilby and Williams are “outsiders” who “don’t work with anybody.”
“We’ll leave them out there to do what they do,” he said.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.