Council silences open mic opportunity

Apr 9, 2019 | 2:12 AM

An open mic for the public to address council will not be coming to the city anytime soon.

Council voted unanimously to support city staff’s recommendation to not support the open mic concept at their meeting on Monday.

Staff argued that open mic sessions only bring out a small segment of the population that tend to appear and reappear before council on a regular basis .

City staff not recommending an open mic format for the public to come speak to council . CAO will Pearce says it will only draw a certain number of people and is not a good use of time #vernonbc pic.twitter.com/tBJ78HvFmY

— Tiffany Goodwein (@CityNewsTiffany) April 8, 2019

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Staff added that those people often dominate the open mic session and intimidate others from participating.

They suggested that most people feel comfortable talking about their concerns in what they call a ” safe environment” which includes participating in public input sessions with the official community plan, attending public hearings and appearing as a delegation before council.

Coun. Scott Anderson says more transparency is needed and the public should have more opportunity to provide input but agrees with staff opinion that council/public speaking can be very intimidating to people #vernonbc pic.twitter.com/kvavNIL9qF

— Tiffany Goodwein (@CityNewsTiffany) April 8, 2019

Councillor Scott Anderson said more transparency is needed in local government but said that he understands why some people may not feel comfortable with the open mic format.

” I agree with the staff recommendations for a couple of reasons one is that I think a council setting is intimidating,” he said.

Staff noted that the public already has many ways to express their views on city issues and that the city receives many responses as it is, so an open mic session would not be a good use of time.