Chicago City Wire

Chicagoans don't have to stay relatively mum at City Council meetings – at least not yet.

A lack of a quorum for the Chicago City Council Committee on Committees, Rules, and Ethics postponed a vote on a controversial measure to limit public comment to 30 minutes at full council meetings, according to a release from Project Six.

“The mayor, the Law Department and aldermen should not move forward on this very bad proposal,” Project Six CEO Faisal Khan said in a statement following the meeting. 

Chicago Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) | https://www.facebook.com/aldermanharris

Khan urged the city’s aldermen to review the proposal and adjust it to better serve city residents before the next committee meeting, which was scheduled for June 28,  just before the full City Council meets.

If passed, the measure would allow 10 people to speak for no more than 3 minutes at meetings, on a first-come, first-served basis.

The proposed ordinance came about as a result of a lawsuit that determined that the council must allow for public comments at its full meetings. According to the Chicago Tribune report, the public has been allowed to present their comments during committee meetings to avoid lengthy comments during the already long full City Council meetings.

"Today, even as (members of the public) spoke today, I didn't limit anybody's time, and that happens across the board, that our process that exists already is so fair," 8th Ward Alderwoman Michelle Harris, who chairs the Rules Committee, told the Tribune. "I think it kind of gets a little redundant when you're coming back, but I think that for people that don't do the committee process and want the opportunity to come down and talk, they should have that opportunity, and I think that's what we're creating."

Project Six argued that the newly proposed measure would inhibit the public from being heard.

“Limiting public comment to only 10 people at 3 minutes apiece each month is an insult to Chicagoans who are constantly having their lives shaped by what is coming out of City Hall,” Khan said in his statement. “If aldermen didn’t know this before today, they certainly do now. … Aldermen and Mayor Rahm Emanuel should take that time to go back to the drawing board and craft a proposal that actually allows the public a fair and adequate role in their government.”

Khan suggested that aldermen find other ways to limit the length of full meetings, such as moving ceremonial speeches and legislation to a separate meeting. He also criticized the aldermen on the Rules Committee who did not attend the meeting.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Harris and 40th Ward Alderman Patrick O’Connor said the postponement of the committee’s vote on the rule is not indicative of any changes to its contents. Despite critical comments on the measure at the meeting, Harris said that there will be no changes to the ordinance. O’Connor said that this is a start, and that the City Council would see if a judge believes the measure is adequate before changing it, seemingly precipitating a legal challenge to the rule as written.

“The mayor and aldermen have already cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars defending a losing lawsuit to give the public more of a role in their government,” Khan said in his statement. “That has to change; Chicagoans have a legal right to have their voices heard by our elected officials. And today’s committee meeting showed that Chicagoans are standing up for their right not to be silenced.”