The Clayton County Commission on Tuesday rejected a proposal to move public comment to the beginning of its meetings.
The five-member board voted 3-2 against the change, which was placed on the agenda by Commissioner DeMont Davis. Chairman Jeff Turner voted in favor of the change while commissioners Felicia Franklin, Gail Hambrick and Alieka Anderson said no to the proposal.
The timing of public comments during board meetings has long divided commissioners and Clayton citizens. Public comment is held at the end of each meeting, which many residents say robs them of the opportunity to voice support or opposition to agenda items until after decisions are already made.
Board members have charged that the comments are disruptive and are often used to attack commissioners rather than inform them of public sentiment.
Clayton has vacillated on the issue for years.
In 2017, the commission stopped live-streaming public comments on taxpayer-funded CCTV 23 because of what they considered to be toxic feedback from residents.
Then, in 2018, commissioners brought public comments back to CCTV 23, but relegated them to the end of meetings.
The next year, public comments returned to the beginning of each meeting. Then in June 2022, the commissioners voted 3-2 to return public comments back to the end of meetings.
Davis’ plan, had it been approved, would have moved public comment to the beginning of the meeting before board members discuss or vote on agenda items. It also would have expanded the amount of time allotted for each public comment, from the current two minutes to three minutes. The total time allowed for all public comments would have grown from 20 minutes to 30 minutes.
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