Buffalo Supervisors mull limits to public comment at meetings

At an early morning special meeting on Wednesday, Buffalo Township Supervisors tabled a resolution that would place limits on public comment at meetings amid recent community objections to proposed solar farms.

A public hearing for the farms earlier this month took several hours as around 35 residents voiced opposition to developer SolAmerica’s proposal for two large farms in the township.

In response, Buffalo Solicitor Brian Farrington drafted a resolution regulating comment periods, saying it was “probably necessary” to implement limits for the public.

“It’s designed to respect everyone’s time in this process as well as to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to speak who wants to speak,” Farrington said.

The proposed resolution would set a 10-minute oral comment limit for each agenda item, allowing two minutes for each resident or taxpayer to speak. That means about five speakers could publicly address each agenda item.

Speaking periods could be extended at the discretion of the chairman. In addition, an open discussion period for non-agenda items would remain at the end of meetings. But that comes after any board votes have taken place.

Potential speakers would be required to sign-in with their name and address on a sheet prior to the comment period and would subsequently be called to speak.

Though the regulations would be new for Buffalo Township, rules regulating comment periods are commonplace throughout local municipalities and school boards.

The Freeport Area School district designates a 30-minute public comment period with five-minute limits on individual speakers, and neighboring Harrison similarly limits comments on individual agenda items to three minutes per speaker.

Buffalo Township Supervisor Ron Zampogna said passing the resolution without further discussion would likely cause “mass confusion” at future meetings. He said he preferred to table the item, which could see modifications before a future vote.

“I think there’s a little more to it than this document,” he said.

Farrington said a “soft roll out” of the policy would likely yield the best results rather than strict immediate enforcement.

Favoring the proposed limits, Supervisor Gary Risch Sr. said June’s public hearings were “terrible.”

He’s in favor of the time limits and speakers needing to sign up at meetings so the supervisors’ chairman can keep meetings moving.

Supervisor Mike Oehling also supported the measures to keep meetings timely.

“As we grow … and more people start attending our meetings, more of those meetings will start dragging on if we don’t put something in place,” Oehling said.

As for the meeting’s 8 a.m. start time, Farrington said it had originally been called to vote on an administrative tax exoneration that the board briefly discussed prior to the resolution.

While they had a quorum, the solicitor said he wanted to begin discussions about public comment even if a vote didn’t take place. No members of the public were present at the special meeting.

It is unclear when the resolution could be back on the agenda, but any vote would have to occur at a public meeting.