California Government and Citizen Participation/Agency Agendas and Public Comment: Taking Back Government for the People

Government agencies have formal provision for public comment in response to proposed rules and finalization of official reports as well as opportunities to address agencies as part of public meetings. Various customs and rules apply at Federal, state, county, regional,inter-agency and local levels of executive, legislative and judicial branches, but they are all integral parts of free speech provisions of constitutional democracy.}}

Introduction
Public comment in California is sometimes called "vox populi".

Generally these circumstances are open public meetings of government bodies which set aside time for oral public comments, or comments, usually upon documents.

Such documents may either be reports such as Draft Environmental Impact Reports (DEIR's) or new regulations.

There is typically a notice which is posted on the web and mailed to more or less ad hoc lists of interested parties known to the government agencies. If there is to be a change of regulations, there will be a formal notice of proposed rulemaking.

The basis for public comment is found in general political theory of constitutional democracy as originated during and after the French Enlightenment, particularly by Rousseau.

Overview: The Two Types of Public Comment
Public comment embedded in actual meetings is typical of meetings convened by the state legislative or executive bodies; judicial units do not have public comment, but rather testimony from witnesses and procedural statements from attorneys. Public units such as city councils or county legislative bodies are typical examples of legislative public comment hearing bodies. Note that comment may be written, oral, or electronic.

There are two types of comment period.


 * One is when comment goes to a specific agenda item.


 * Secondly there is a class of public comment which pertains to items which are not on the agenda for that day. However, it is necessary that comments be restricted to matters within the jurisdiction of the government body.

Time limits
Time limits frequently range from one to five minutes for unscheduled presentations. It is not typical to require that the person commenting be a resident, a registered voter, a qualified elector, or even a citizen, simply that they be present and able to speak.

Public comment on documents
A whole different class of public comment is requested by agencies which are seeking input on draft policy documents such as Environmental Impact Reports which provide information which may be used in policy determinations by their own agency and other agencies at various levels of government.Typically there is a notice of completion of the draft which is posted in the newspaper, on the web, and is mailed to known interested parties who may be designated as "stakeholders" or simply "interested parties". A public comment period is established and comments which are received by the cutoff date become part of the official public record. In some cases, there is a statutory mandate that those comments be replied to or incorporated in some fashion into the Final document.

Oral public comment at public meetings
Comments provided at public meetings may be oral or written and not infrequently utilize audio visual aids such as thumbdrives, CD's or overhead projectors (transparencies or opaque material). They may include video clips. A laser pointer, such as used by professional presenters, is useful but seldom utilized except by scheduled presenters on preset agendas, who are often credentialed professionals hired by the government agency to produce reports or provide consultation.

Public comment in some cases includes remarks from experts or public officials with some role in the issue at stake, but at a different time or level of process. Typically these kinds of comments may be ad hoc, not solicited by the governing agency which is conducting the hearing. There may be informal expectation that such a party may comment, but if it is an interested agency then there will be prior notification and a larger chunk of time may be allowed to such presenters. Surprisingly, however, these knowledegable high level speakers, including office holders, often are limited to the same time constriction and queing requirements as all other public commentors. They simply wait in line, their name is called when their speaker slip happens to come to the top of the pile, and they are subject to being cut off after their two minutes or three minutes are up.This equalization between expert and lay commentator is an example of social leveling which occurs in democratic process and which is often harshly criticized by elitist theorists such as Machiavellians, fascists, communist technocrats and other conservative social thinkers.

Persons preparing public comment often think about and express the value of the constitutional protection and a certain level of gratitude for the opportunity to speak. Such expressions are considered good etiquette the first few times a speaker presents to a board, and it is also common to state one's background, credentials, or interest. Persons who speak frequently to a particular agency become better known and typically refrain from repeating such formalities to excess, and may go directly into their substantive testimony.

Variatiation of official attitude toward public meeting comment
Public comment is well received when ii is


 * strictly relevant to matters within the scope of the agency or board before which one is speaking
 * pertinent to the matter before the agency either on that agenda item or within upcoming meetings
 * courteous, polite and relatively formal (these are, after all, government meetins)
 * factual statements by well informed persons

Public comment in authoritarian systems
Authoritarian systems generally tend to take a dim view of public comment. In the writings of Benito Mussolini, he expressed the view that fascism offers "free" speech, but only to persons who were "qualified" to have an opinion. Similarly, in the historical development of Nazism, public commentators at official NSDAP rallies were not infrequently beaten by the mob, or, if there were large numbers supporting the adverse commentator, brawls broke out. today's People's Republic of China, public comment on government policy is considered inappropriate, and may result in long prison terms for persons such as Wei Jin Sheng.

Public comment as an aid to editing of government publications
Comment on policies is often solicited in written or electronic form prior to a set deadline. This type of comment may pertain to an intended action or regulation.

Requests for this type of public comments are often posted on the web in advance of the deadline, which provides commentators with an opportunity to view the remarks of others before committing themselves in writing.

A government portal which may be useful allows review of comments and opportunity for making comment and can be searched by keyword. The keyword search crosses different government agencies and has drop-downs permitting a boolean exclusion algorithm narrowing the focus between alternative choices such as documents, rules, notice of proposed rule changes, etcetera.