Hundreds expected to attend tonight’s Petaluma City Council meeting

Tonight’s Petaluma City Council meeting is expected to draw hundreds as the council prepares a vote on its version of an “It Won’t Happen Here” resolution. Leading up to the meeting, Mayor David Glass has received more than 100 emails and phone calls from citizens interested in attending, many of them with questions about how the meeting will be run.

In an attempt to answer those questions, he posted a note to his Facebook page. That note, slightly edited, is below:

“I have received a lot of questions about the process for the meeting.

“The resolution contemplated concerning the ‘It Won’t Happen Here’ campaign is on the agenda. It is the last item of the night, but the schedule is light and we will get to the issue in a timely manner.

“The meeting itself will begin 15 minutes earlier than usual. We will start at 6:45 p.m.

“That should allow us to get to the resolution of ‘It Won’t Happen Here’ perhaps as early as shortly after 7 p.m.

“There is a staff report for that item and a draft resolution that was compiled by a subcommittee consisting of Vice Mayor Barrett, and Council Members King, and Miller.

“City Manager John Brown will deliver the staff report on that item, followed by an opportunity without the obligation of the members of the subcommittee to address the public.

“Following remarks from the subcommittee, the public will have an opportunity to express their views.

“No member of the public will be allowed more than three minutes to speak during this portion of the hearing. At the completion of the comments from the public, public comment will be closed.

“After public comment is closed, city staff and the subcommittee members will be given the first opportunity to respond to comments from the public.

“Then the issue will be open to the entire council to have a dialogue and deliberate. That deliberation, may or may not take place prior to a motion and a second on an action step.

“There was an erroneous report on social media that members of the public would be able to comment on the proposed legislation during general public comment. This is not accurate.

“General public comment is for items not on the published agenda. It is a poor practice to divide public comment on any action item, we do not ordinarily do it, and we will not do it on this matter.

“It might deprive a member of the public to have equal access to all the information presented to the governing body, therefore at best it is a poor management practice, that might also be outside the boundaries of the Brown Act, which regulates open meeting laws.

“There is no guarantee as to the time this item will be heard except that it will not occur before 6:45 p.m., however I anticipate the items in front of this issue will be rather routine and will not consume much in the way of time.

“In order to accommodate the public and maintain our ability to accomplish other issues of business, the Feb. 27 agenda was altered with items being moved to other dates, and the start time of the meeting being moved forward by 15 minutes.

“Therefore, please be informed, as always, public comment on agenda items can and will only take place when that agenda item is being heard by the city council. As always there will also be General public comment for items that are not on the published agenda.

“David Glass

“Mayor City of Petaluma.”

Are you going to the Petaluma City Council meeting tonight? Let us know why in the comments.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.