First it was wolves. Now it’s natural resources.
Ravalli County commissioners are hoping to use “coordination” – a process in which county government supposedly has the same seat at the negotiating table as the state and federal government.
A group of citizens, led in part by owners of R&R Conner Aviation Logging, came to the commissioners last week, begging them to get involved with creating a county policy for natural resource development.
Twenty five citizens took advantage of the public comment period, all speaking in favor of a county policy.
It was interesting to watch public comment during a meeting in which the commissioners completely agreed with the topic at hand and the citizens standing for public comment. The commissioners have a timer they start at the beginning of each public comment, limiting each participant, no matter what the side, to two minutes a person at the mic. And I have been to a lot of meetings where the commissioners follow that time to the second. If it goes off when someone is in the middle of the sentence, they quickly ask the speaker to wrap up what they’re saying, especially if it is someone criticizing the commission, giving a point of view they don’t quite align with or if it’s someone they just don’t like.
But not so much at this meeting.
Because it was an issue that the commissioners support and because nearly every speaker who stood up to talk gave the commissioners’ kudos in some form for possibly taking on this project, the commissioners were a bit more lax with their rules. The timer would go off and the speakers would keep speaking. There were times when people went almost twice the amount of time before Commission Chair J.R. Iman would politely ask them to wrap things up.
I know it’s hard to stop people in the middle of what they’re saying, but this all-Republican commission seems to do a good job of that when someone opposed to their point of view is at the mic, you’d think it wouldn’t be too hard to politely interrupt their proponents.
Politics in the 'Root 