Public Act 96-1473 amends the Open Meetings Act effective January 1, 2011. The amendments to this law give any person the right to address public officials at a public meeting subject to the rules established by the public body. The Normal Township Board recognizes the value of public comments on township issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on matters of community interest.

Therefore, the Board desires to have public comment during its regular board meetings. The Board also recognizes that its constituents, and any member of the public, are free at any time to communicate with the individual Board members by in-person meetings, phone calls, letters, and e-mail. The Board therefore shall seek public comment during regular board meetings to the extent that the public comment is not disruptive to the Board’s business meeting.

The following rules shall provide for public participation during regular board meetings:

1. Public participation shall be permitted as indicated on the meeting agenda as “Public Comment”.
2. Participants must be recognized by the board Chair before speaking. Speakers will be requested to state their name before making their comments.
3. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three (3) minutes duration. At the discretion of the Board, the person providing public comment may be allowed to comment beyond the allotted 3 minutes or the Chair may direct the person to submit further comments in writing for distribution to the Trustees at a later date. Written comments provided in this matter should be sent to: Normal Township, Attention: Supervisor, 304 E Mulberry, Normal, Illinois 61761.
4. To ensure that all interested parties have an opportunity to speak, please be brief and limit comments to one topic.
5. Swearing, derogatory, and abusive comments towards any person or the Board will not be tolerated and will be considered disruptive behavior that instantly forfeits the speaker’s opportunity to speak.
6. The Board reserves the right to immediately address the comments provided at the public meeting. Fair consideration will be given to the public comments and further research may be required before the Township Board takes any action regarding the public comments.

Policy adopted: April 24, 2011