4. Public Participation PolicyCity of Kalispell
Charles A. Harball Office of City Attorney
City Attorney 312 First Avenue East
P.O. Box 1997
Kalispell, MT 59903-1997
TO: Mayor Pamela B. Kennedy
and Kalispell City Council
FROM: Charles Harball, City Attorney
Chris Kukulski, City Manager
SUBJECT: Public Participation at City Meetings
MEETING Monday, M. 12, 2003Work Session
Tel 406.758.7708
Fax 406.758.7771
charball@kalispcll.com
BACKGROUND: Late last month the Governor signed a new bill into law that affects
how the City Council and the appointed boards of the City conduct their meetings. The law is
effective immediately and is intended to clarify or possibly modify how local government
encourages and assists public participation in issues of significant public interest. The law is
now stated as follows:
Section 1. Section 2-3-103, MCA, is amended to read:
"2-3-103. Public participation -- governor to insure ensure guidelines adopted. (1) ((a)
Each agency shall develop procedures for permitting and encouraging the public to participate in
agency decisions that are of significant interest to the public. The procedures shall assure must
ensure adequate notice and assist public participation before a final agency action is taken that is
of significant interest to the public. The agenda for a meeting, as defined in 2-3-202, must include
an item allowing public comment on any public matter that is not on the agenda of the meeting
and that is within the jurisdiction of the agency conducting the meeting. However, the agency may
not take action on any matter discussed unless specific notice of that matter is included on an
agenda and public comment has been allowed on that matter. Public comment received at a
meeting must be incorporated into the official minutes of the meeting, as provided in 2-3-212.
(b) For purposes of this section "public matter" does not include contested case and other
adjudicative proceedings.
(2) The governor shall insure ensure that each board, bureau, commission, department,
authority, agency, or officer of the executive branch of the state adopts coordinated rules for its
programs;: whie The guidelines shall must provide policies and procedures to facilitate public
participation in those programs, consistent with subsection (1) of this sectio . These guidelines
shall must be adopted as rules and published in a manner whie so that the rules may be provided
to a member of the public upon request."
The first thing you will notice about the amendments is that an agenda item is required
to allow the public to speak during every meeting about any issue within the jurisdiction of
Memo on Public Participation
May 8, 2003
Page - 2
the body, whether or not that particular issue is on the agenda. We currently have a "Public
Speaks" item on every Council Meeting agenda that meets this criterion. However, we will
need to begin adding this item also to the Work Session agendas as well. This particular
requirement also applies to all open meetings [any time a quorum is met] of any of the
appointed boards of the City.
The law currently requires that the City have a procedure in place "for permitting and
encouraging the public to participate in agency decisions that are of significant interest to
the public that ensures adequate notice and assists public participation before a final agency
action is taken." Although the City fulfills this mandate quite well, its written procedure is
contained within its administrative code and states, perhaps too succinctly, at Section 2,9,
that "All meetings of the Council and Committees shall be subject to the State of Montana
Open Meeting Law and shall be regulated, accordingly, to insure public participation."
Council may consider amending this section of the administrative code to specify exactly
how adequate notice is to be provided and how the open meetings are to be conducted to
assist public participation. The City Attorney's office has received comments and
complaints in the past directed at the fact that the City does not have its own specific
regulation in this regard and that an inquiring citizen must wade through the State law to
determine the legal requirements of public participation.
From the City Attorney's standpoint, Section 2-9, as it currently reads is certainly
adequate to pass legal scrutiny as it requires that we comply with state law. Stated in this
way it also ensures that our local ordinance will always remain compliant as state law
changes. Those that argue that we should have specific regulations suggest that our
ordinance is not particularly "user friendly" as the terms that instruct the City must be
found scattered about the state code rather than condensed within a local regulation.
The City Attorney's office is seeking direction from Council on whether or not it wishes
to have a public participation policy and procedure regulation developed for incorporation
into the administrative code.
Chris Kukulski, City Manager