05-22-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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From:noreply@civicplus.com To:James VanEyll; Nola Dickhausen Subject:Online Form Submittal: Fire Department Comment Card Date:Sunday, May 14, 2023 5:03:35 AM Fire Department Comment Card First Name Nancy Last Name Brantingham Address 3185 County Road 6 City Long Lake State MN Zip Code 55356 Date 05/14/2023 Orono Resident Yes Comments If you really wanted to hear from residents, you would not put discussion of this important change in emergency services in the context of a regular council meeting. If you really wanted to hear from citizens you wouldn't make them submit comments online before they come to the meeting because a lot of people aren't going to pick up on the fact that they have to do that. AND if you really wanted to hear from folks, you wouldn't make their being allowed to comment contingent on the mayor's whims as to who he'll allow to speak within the limited one hour you've decided to allow residents to have their say. The process for citizen input as currently designed is seriously flawed. Certainly council is aware that this issue is contentious. If council was honestly looking for citizen input and in making an effort to heal divisions within the community around this issue, including among our firefighters, a full airing of how and why we find ourselves in this situation and what it's going to cost us to proceed to get it sorted one way or another would go a long way toward bringing the community together. This process as adopted limits public comment to those who have computer access and who get the word to "apply online" early enough. It limits public input to those the mayor wishes to hear from. It limits the number of folks who may speak and the time for council to respond to questions (of which there are many). It allows staff to collate responses from those who submit online comments so that citizens have no idea who said what, what their complete comments/questions are and whose comments may have been