Let the people speak first, says Randy Donauer of city council meetings

Saskatoon city councillor Randy Donauer is tired of watching citizens wait for hours to speak at city council meetings.

He has a request for city staffers on Monday: to report back on the pros and cons of changing procedures so that citizens who show up to speak about an item are at the top of the agenda.

"You get to a certain point where you question whether we're actually hampering democracy and hampering people participating in a council meeting democratically by making them wait an arbitrary amount of time," said Donauer.

"It's not just that they have to wait several hours, sometimes they don't really know how long they'll have to wait."

Taking time off from work

Donauer said that with some council meetings taking place during work hours, some people take time off from work only to wait hours for their agenda item to come up.

"My intention is to push this ahead and change the bylaw," he said.

The issue has come up before.

Former city councillor Pat Lorje has previously supported the change.

She called Donauer's revival of the idea "eminently sensible."

"It should be passed if this council cares about hearing from the citizens it purports to represent," she said.

Making additions on the fly

Lorje wants even more changes made, such as allowing citizens to speak about things that aren't on the agenda.

She offered a hypothetical example.

"If someone were concerned, for instance, about the death of honey bees in the city, since there would be no report on the death of honey bees in the city [on the agenda], that person could never be heard," she said.

Current councillor Darren Hill said he supports Donauer's motion in principle but not exactly in execution.

He said he doesn't want to see the change made mandatory for all meetings.

"I think we need to give council the opportunity and the authority to look at each council agenda and make that determination for that meeting," said Hill.

Weighing priorities

Hill said he's worried that urgent, time-sensitive matters — such as a city contract that needs to be awarded quickly — could be brushed aside by "not as urgent" items that attract a lot of speakers.

And he doesn't think city staffers need to weigh in on the issue, as Donauer has requested.

"I think councillors can make that determination on their own," he said.

A majority of councillors need to vote in favour of Donauer's motion on Monday in order for city administrators to report back on the idea.