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County Council

Public comment time cut in half as immigration debate draws crowds.

Seventy people signed up to speak at Allegheny County Council's Feb. 24 meeting. As it began, nine of 15 members voted to cut each speaker's time from three minutes to 90 seconds. Comments were overwhelmingly against county cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. So far, council hasn't said whether it'll do the same on March 10.

Written by Amy Whipple

Allegheny County Council only wanted to hear half of what residents had to say about county involvement with federal immigration enforcement.

Nine of the 15 members of council voted at the beginning of the Feb. 24 meeting to reduce public comment time from three minutes to one and a half.

Seventy people had registered in advance of the meeting. Nearly 100 signed up for the Feb. 10 meeting. Comments at both meetings were overwhelmingly in favor of the county not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

“It’s challenging to be impactful in a minute and a half,” said regular commenter Tanisha Long. “It seems council is prioritizing their time and doesn’t value public input.” 

According to the council rules, council reserves the right to alter length of time for comment, the length of the comment period and to schedule overflow to another date. The public can submit written comments up to 24 hours after the meeting.

Participating in public comment requires effort, Long said. It costs money, either for public transit or parking, as well as time. “Some people spend hours researching, practicing and getting the timing right,” she said.

Council does not release a speaker order ahead of meetings. If people aren’t present when their name is called, they typically miss the opportunity to comment (they did get to at the Feb. 24 meeting).

Council has not announced if they will reduce comment time at the March 10 meeting.

Connections to this story

Local issues:
Allegheny County's limits on ICE
Topics:
ImmigrationPublic Safety & EMSImmigrationPublic Safety & EMS
Governments:
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