Attachment A - Jeremy Thacker Feb. 16, 2022 Citizen Petition

Attachment A 92 FEB 16 PM 7:02

OVTY CLERK DEPT

ci aa

CITIZEN PETITION TO |
PHOENIX CITY COUNCIL

Date: February 16, 2022

Pursuant to Chapter IV, Section 22 of the Phoenix City Charter, |, Jeremy Thacker, a citizen and resident
of the City of Phoenix, hereby petition the City Council to consider and enact within (15) days a
resolution, ordinance, or measure to add to the agenda any public comments submitted a reasonable
amount of time (48 to 72 hours) prior to a public meeting.

INTRODUCTION

According to Arizona Open Meeting Law, public bodies are not required to allow public comments
during public meetings. The City of Phoenix has made the correct decision to allow public comments at
all public meetings. There are only two plausible reasons that the City Council would allow public
comments if not required by law:

1. Agenuine interest in citizen engagement

2. Create an illusion of citizen engagement which protects leadership from criticism but doesn’t
require the work of actual citizen engagement

Based on how the city handles public comments, citizen petitions, public records request, and the
“imaginary” Ethics Commission; it is hard to believe that a genuine interest in hearing from citizens
exists. With that said, this petition offers the Council a chance to prove me wrong...and | hope the

Council does just that.

PROBLEM WITH THE CURRENT PROCESS

During public meetings prior to public comments, someone from the city gives the disclaimer that the
State’s Open Meeting Law (OML) prevent City Council members from responding to public comments.
While technically correct, it is only correct because of how the city has decided to handle public

comments.

The OML states that no public body can discuss or act on items that are not properly noticed on the
agenda for the meeting. Like many other statutes that were put in place to protect citizens, those in
power have twisted and manipulated the well-intentioned rule into a shield to protect their interests.

page 1 of 2

Petition to the City of Phoenix (City Council) 1.24.22

In essence, the city currently does not have a process for allowing citizen comments to be added to the
agenda and since the comment is not on the agenda, the Council cannot discuss the item. As a result,
this prevents the Council from having to respond to legitimate complaints and concerns while being able
to blame their lack of action on the state law, completely out of the Council’s control. If the Council
does not ask staff to add the item commented on to a future agenda, the City can avoid any response to
negative criticism or issues they want to avoid into perpetuity.

THE SIMPLE SOLUTION

If the Council is not feigning interest in citizen engagement, a simple fix is available that would be legal and
give the Council members the choice of whether to engage with the citizen regarding their public comment
or to keep doing what they have been...not responding at all. The solution is that any public comments.
registered with the City Clerk before a specified deadline, 72 hours prior to public meeting or longer if
needed, would be added as a numbered agenda item. Any requests to speak submitted after the deadline

would not be added to the agenda and handled exactly as they are today.

By doing this, the Council is not committing to respond to any comments but, at least, would have the choice
to respond if they got a wild hair. The city would have to add a “subject” section to the “register to speak”
page of the website so the citizen could provide enough detail to meet the agenda item requirements. The

sole burden of meeting the deadline and providing specific details would rest on the citizen.

Other than the small amount of extra administrative effort this would take to setup, it is about as easy a fix to
a major citizen headache as the Council will ever get. The few hours of administrative work would save days

and weeks of citizens’ time and offer a much better relationship with our leaders.

CONCLUSION

| am petitioning the City Council to allow any public comments submitted prior to a deadline of the Council’s

choosing to be added to the agenda to allow for the possibility of discussion and citizen engagement.

Council, are you really interested in citizen engagement or is it just an illusion? The response to this petition

should make the answer crystal clear.

page 2 of 2