Pittsboro, NC – Message from Chatham County Board of Commissioners chairman Mike Dasher.
As part of its 6 PM regular session on April 15, 2019, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners expects to receive a presentation from a local group regarding the Confederate Memorial statue in front of the Historic Courthouse. Because we expect considerable public interest in this presentation, we have moved this meeting to the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center on the west side of Pittsboro, which will accommodate a much larger crowd.
The presentation will be placed on the regular agenda to receive information. As is standard procedure for new proposals, the Board of Commissioners will not vote on the specific recommendations contained in the proposal at this meeting.
The group’s presentation is NOT a scheduled public hearing topic nor a debate format. Anyone who wants to provide comments at the meeting can do so as part of the regular public input period offered at every session. While public input is usually held at start of the session, it has sometimes been moved to accommodate other agenda discussion items or the availability of presenters. We typically limit the public comment period to thirty minutes, but it may be extended by the Board of Commissioners. Our standard statement about public input is:
“The Public Input Session is held to give citizens an opportunity to speak on any item. The session is no more than thirty minutes long to allow as many as possible to speak. Speakers are limited to no more than three minutes each and may not give their time to another speaker. Speakers are required to sign up in advance. Individuals who wish to speak but cannot because of time constraints will be carried to the next meeting and given priority. We apologize for the tight time restrictions. They are necessary to ensure that we complete our business. If you have insufficient time to finish your presentation, we welcome your comments in writing.”
Several years ago, the Board of Commissioners also adopted ground rules for all public input, which are posted at the front of the meeting room. These ground rules are especially important when we have many speakers on a potentially contentious topic. Among the rules are: disagree with others respectfully, stick to your time limit, and avoid interrupting speakers.
The agenda for an upcoming meeting is usually completed and posted online on the Thursday or Friday prior to Monday meetings. Any person can sign up to get advance email notices of the Board of Commissioners agendas at www.chathamnc.org/enotify. You also may visit https://chathamnc.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx to view agendas once they are posted.
We encourage anyone who wants to comment on any topic to sign up prior to the meeting date, but please bring a printed copy of your comments to the meeting in case we run out of time to hear all speakers. We offer an online option to both sign up to speak and provide your comments at: www.chathamnc.org/publicinput. We do allow public input signup at the meeting, but please do so before it begins at 6 PM. Note that those who sign up in advance will be called first to speak.
By moving the meeting to the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center, we will not be able to stream and record video through the online Granicus system, which is available at the courthouse. However, we expect to have some type of video recording available after the meeting. The conference center is located at 1192 US 64 Business on the west side of Pittsboro near Central Carolina Community College.