There is now a time limit for public comment at a LaSalle City Council meeting. Residents now only have five minutes. For years, they have been able to come in and speak for as long as they wanted during the public comments section of the meeting. Now the city wants the total time of public comment to be 45 minutes. Mayor Jeff Grove says he came up with the idea of relooking at the ordinance after what’s been happening the last four months with residents affected by the Carus Chemical fire talking for many hours. He also says the city did helped get residents what they wanted, a town hall with Carus representatives.
Resident Jamie Hicks questions the timing of the ordinance. He says it looks bad when residents have been speaking about a touchy subject like the fire.
The council voted 7-1 to approve the ordinance last night. Alderman Bob Thompson voted no on the ordinance, but not for the new rules. He says some words like obscene and civility written in it are arbitrary and should be taken out.