When Fairfax County government holds a public hearing with a portion of time allotted to public comments, the timing and logistics of such public comment periods raise a serious question: Should the people of Fairfax County rely on a public comment appearance as an adequate forum to be heard before an official decision is made or passed? For the reasons that follow, the answer is no.
Mechanics of public comment. The Fairfax County website provides guidance for “Ways to Provide Public Hearing Testimony” available at https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/clerkservices/ways-provide-public-hearing-testimony According to that website:
(1) Public comment time is generally scheduled during the last public hearing of the day;
(2) Anyone wanting to be allowed to speak during the public comment portion of a Board of Supervisor’s public meeting must sign up to testify by no later than 12:00 pm (noon) on the day of the hearing. People interested in signing up to speak at the public comment portion are directed to an online sign-up form at https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/bosclerk/speakers-form Alternatively, people can sign-up to speak by calling “the Department of Clerk Services at 703-324-3151, TTY 711.”
(3) People who successfully sign up to speak during the public comment portion of a Board of Supervisor’s public meeting are limited as follows: 3 minutes for individual speakers and 5 minutes for speakers appearing on behalf of an organization;
(4) There is a limit of 10 speakers allowed during each public comment portion;
(5) Any person who addresses the Board during the public comment portion is allowed to do so only once every 6 months;
(6) People not interested in signing up to speak during the public comment portion can submit written testimony (including attachments) by email to [email protected]
or regular mail addressed to Department of Clerk Services at 12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 552, Fairfax, VA 22035. The Clerk is directed to accept written testimony “until the public hearing is closed”; and
(7) People can submit testimony by video, provided the video is submitted by 9:00 am of the day before the public meeting.
Timing of public comment portion. If the public comment portion is scheduled to be held during a public meeting at which a formal vote will be taken right after the public comment portion ends, then the timing for public comments is unfair and unreasonable.
It is unfair and unreasonable to schedule time for public comment on a proposed measure to occur just before a formal vote will be taken on the proposed measure. What is the likelihood that officials — who have seen documentation, been briefed by County staff, and have had time to think about a proposal for days or weeks before the public comment portion of a meeting — will be able to give fair, thoughtful consideration to last minute comments or objections made by people who are limited to 3 minutes (for individual speakers) and 5 minutes (for representatives of organizations)? If Fairfax County officials have scheduled a formal vote on a proposal to occur at a particular public meeting, then they are not likely to arrive at the public meeting undecided about the scheduled vote. After all, how many voters arrive at a polling place on election day without any idea of how they intend to vote? It is unlikely that Fairfax County officials show up for a scheduled formal vote without any idea of how they intend to vote.
If Fairfax County officials are really interested in hearing from the people in Fairfax County about the merits of a proposed measure, then they should schedule a public meeting to solicit public comment (written and oral), and then take a meaningful amount of time to consider the public comments before making a formal decision or taking a formal vote at a future public meeting.
Time allotted for public comment. Because it is impractical to give people unlimited time to make public comments for or against a proposed measure, putting reasonable limits on the time allotted to speakers is unavoidable. Are the current time limits for public comment reasonable?
As noted earlier in this article, people who successfully sign up to speak during the public comment portion of a public meeting are limited as follows: 3 minutes for individual speakers and 5 minutes for speakers appearing on behalf of an organization. Furthermore, there is a limit of 10 speakers allowed during the time allotted to public comment. With the 10 speaker limit, the public comment portion would be 30 minutes (10 individual speakers), 40 minutes (5 individual and 5 organizational speakers), or 50 minutes (10 organizational speakers).
Even if the Board of Supervisors decides to allow additional time for public comments and waives the 10 speaker limit for any particular proposal, the number of speakers would not be significantly increased. Assuming ideal circumstances — each speaker sticks to his or her allotted time, and each new speaker begins making his or her public comments immediately after the previous speaker stops — the result would be a maximum of 20 individual speakers per hour or 12 organizational speakers per hour. If there was an even mix of individual and organizational speakers, there would be a maximum of 8 individual speakers and 8 organizational speakers every 64 minutes.
Even if Fairfax County officials were to waive the 10 speaker limit and decided to devote 3 hours to public comments, the results would be a maximum of 60 individual speakers (3 minutes each), 36 organizational speakers (5 minutes each), or 23 individual speakers (3 minutes each) and 23 organizational speakers (5 minutes each) for 184 minutes.
Based on the large population of Fairfax County (approximately 1.2 million), these numbers are inadequate. Even taking into account the fact that those 1.2 million residents include some people not eligible to vote under Virginia law, limiting public comment portions of public hearings to 10 live speakers is an insufficient effort at encouraging citizen participation, and even extending public comment portions to 3 hours would not be a significant improvement.
Written testimony. Apart from speakers appearing live before the Board of Supervisors, written testimony is allowed. As noted earlier in this article, members of the public can submit written testimony (including attachments) by email or regular mail, but the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors is directed to accept written testimony “until the public hearing is closed.”
Acceptance of written testimony “until the public hearing is closed” would be meaningless if the Board votes on a proposed measure immediately after the close of the public comment portion of a public meeting. Why? Because none of the Board members would have any opportunity to read, review, or consider any written testimony (including attachments) submitted from the time the public Board meeting begins to the time the Board concludes a public comment period and then votes on a proposed measure. Furthermore, unless all the Board members make a conscious effort to read, review, and consider all written testimony received by the Clerk’s office before a public meeting begins, the submission of written testimony prior to the time the public meeting begins is rendered an empty and meaningless illusion of public participation.
Recommendations. The people of Fairfax County should write to the Supervisor of their Magisterial Districts and the Chairman (elected At Large) and urge them to do the following:
(1) Modify the rules on the public comment portion of public meetings to make it longer in duration, and enlarge the speaker limit above the current 10 speaker limit; and
(2) The Board of Supervisors should not take a formal vote on any major proposal until the next public meeting scheduled after (a) the completion of a public comment portion of a public meeting on a major proposal, and (b) the Supervisors have had a meaningful period of time to read, review, and consider all written testimony (including attachments) submitted to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors.
Moreover, whether or not the Board of Supervisors changes the rules concerning the public comment portion of public meetings, the people of Fairfax County should not rely solely on the public comment portion of a public meeting. Rather, they should (a) submit written testimony to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors as many days as possible before a public meeting where the proposed measure is on the agenda, or (b) submit emails or letters to the Supervisor of their Magisterial District and the Chairman (At Large) to express their views on the merits of proposed measure.
Finally, the people of Fairfax County should ask (a) all incumbent candidates running for Supervisor seats in 2023 whether they have read written testimony submitted to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors before they voted on proposed measures; and (b) all candidates (incumbent or not) running for Supervisor seats in 2023 whether they will publicly commit to read written testimony submitted to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors before voting on proposed measures. Any candidate who answers “No” or refuses to answer the question shows he or she is not interested in seriously considering the views of the people of Fairfax County before voting on measures before the Board of Supervisors.
