LOS ALAMOS COUNTY COUNCIL News:

Los Alamos County has announced the process for CIP public comment for tonight’s (Wednesday, May 16) County Council meeting:

1. Beginning at 5:45 p.m. (the meeting starts at 6 p.m.) anyone wishing to give comments should plan to line up in Chambers and draw a ticket (a number) out of a bowl. One ticket can be drawn per person. Members of the public may arrive earlier than 5:45 to get a seat in Chambers, but, should note that the drawing won’t begin until 5:45 p.m. – no early ticket distribution.


2. As each ticket is drawn out of the bowl, one half of the ticket with the number will be placed in a second bowl, with the individual keeping their half/their number for the drawing.


3. At 6 p.m., officials will mix up the numbers in the second bowl, then draw 30 tickets out and write down each number as it is drawn – until 30 tickets have been selected. That list of 30 numbers will be projected up on the screens in Chambers, and determines the 30 people who will have the opportunity to speak when public comment begins at approximately 6:30 p.m. – they will speak in the order the ticket was drawn.


4. There will be five chairs on the east wall of Chambers. The top five individuals on the list of 30 should plan to be seated in the chairs at approximately 6:30 p.m. (the chairs will be roped off as reserved public comment seating). The next five people should be ready to backfill the seats when the chairs are vacated, then the next five, etc etc till all 30 people have been to the podium to speak.


5. Speakers will be timed with a stopwatch to stay within the three minutes, with placards held up off to one side that show them their time remaining – when time is up, the Chair will ask the speaker to immediately wrap up and yield to the next speaker.


6. If time remains and all 30 people have spoken already, additional numbers could be drawn out of the bowl  to allow additional public comment at three minutes each – that would be at the discretion of the Chair.


7. Given the above process, groups supporting a project should plan in advance “who” from their group might be their best spokesperson, in case they only draw one number  among the 30 selected. Because this will be a random drawing, there is no way to predict which numbers and which groups/projects may draw one of 30 numbers. But, there is no restriction on anyone “swapping” numbers once they are drawn and announced at 6 p.m. – we expect that to happen.


8. A reminder that Chambers will be at full capacity tonight – but there will be additional seating in the nearby Training Room with a television and PAC-8 broadcast. OR, folks can watch from home on PAC 8 cable TV, or stream the meeting at pac8.org.