Time's Up! Commissioner Carollo Wants to Cap Speaking Time During Public Comment

In October, City of Miami commissioner Joe Carollo made it known that he wanted to cap people's individual speaking time during commission meetings by restricting the practice of letting attendees donate their minutes to each other.

"I've seen things in past meetings that groups of individuals [who] don't even live in our city come — they're just there," Carollo said on the dais at an October 27 commission meeting. "They have been brought in by someone so that they can stand and give them minutes, and [it] becomes never-ending meetings. That's not fair to regular residents that live in the city and are abiding by our rules and procedures."

Carollo has now introduced an item seeking to prohibit a speaker from receiving additional speaking time from more than one person during the public comment period. The measure is on the agenda for next week's meeting on January 12.

Currently, the city allows a speaker to address the commission for two minutes and folks at the meeting can donate their two minutes to another person. Under the new proposal, a speaker can receive just one two-minute donation of speaking time for a total of four minutes to say their peace. In cases in which members of a large group want to weigh in about an issue, the ordinance would give the commission chair discretion to grant a "group representative a reasonable time to speak."

While Florida Sunshine Law allows commissioners to set parameters on the length of individual public comment, attorney Barbara Petersen tells New Times she worries the proposal will stifle public discourse.

"It cuts off public comment... I don't think it is a legal or technical violation of Sunshine Law's right-to-speak provision, but it goes against the intent and spirit of the provision," says Petersen, executive director of Florida Center for Government Accountability.

Petersen adds that the public forum is "critical to the democratic process."

"Constituents don't have many opportunities in a public forum to tell their elected representatives what they think," Petersen says. "I can send a zillion emails to my city commissioner and he pays no attention to them, but if I am able to speak in a public meeting, at least I'm on the official record, and the commissioner is going to have to respond somehow or another."

"It doesn't make any sense to me," Petersen says. "[Donating minutes] just allows me to make our collective argument more coherent and hopefully more persuasive.

Although Carollo did not respond to New Times' request for comment, his previous statements on the dais shine a light on his thoughts about the city's current public comment rules. When climate activist Jeanette Ruiz went before the commission at a budget hearing in September, Carollo said she was not in a position to make demands because she lives outside the City of Miami.

"You don't live here. Your words were a little harsh, I thought, and you're not a resident." Carollo told Ruiz. "All of you people that don't live in the City of Miami, I'm sorry, but you don't have the same rights to make demands of us as residents who live here, who pay taxes, who vote for us."

Carollo's concerns are reflected in the proposed ordinance's wording: "The city commission finds it to be in the best interests of the citizens and residents of the city of Miami to amend its rules of procedure to provide for a more efficient means of conducting the public comment portion of city commission meetings."

Lyle Muhammad, a frequent participant during the public comment period, tells New Times he is not surprised by what he views as an attempt "to mute" the public.

 "I don't think it is a coincidence... There has been a lot of public pressure over the last year and a half over many of the current commissioners' moves," says Muhammad, executive director of the community activism nonprofit Circle of Brotherhood.

Muhammad says if the measure is passed, it would be a sign that the commission is "either afraid of collective public sentiment or does not have the courage to allow citizens the right to determine when they need to be together on a particular issue."

The proposal comes on the heels of public outcry over the city commission taking control of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust after ousting the majority-Black board. Muhammad, whose nonprofit group protested the move, points to the criticism as a possible reason Carollo is seeking to rein in future public comment.

Lawyer N. Patrick Range, who was removed by the commission from his position as chair of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, tells New Times the Carollo item may have been a response to a number of people donating their time to Range at previous meetings. At a commission meeting on October 13, Range was able to speak for 20 minutes to defend himself and the then-board of the historic Black beach's trust, thanks to people donating their speaking time to him.

"[Carollo] didn't want to hear it. He wasn't happy with all the things that I was saying," Range says. "They just want to do their business and have as little get in the way of that as possible, including the public."

Commission chair Christine King, who is now the leader of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, has not responded to New Times' request for comment.