Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Whitman County Port Commissioners discussed two items Thursday, Sept. 21, which may alter their standard agendas in the future.
Both matters were ultimately shelved for discussion at their next meeting.
Earlier in September, at the commissioners’ prior regular meeting, Commissioner Tom Kammerzell requested when a resolution came up on the agenda it should not go to a vote until the following meeting.
“I think it becomes overly paternalistic,” said Commissioner Kristine Meyer. “I don’t think the system is currently broken.”
Commissioner John Love talked further on the subject, saying policies restrict commissioners from taking action at the time.
“We’d rather just roll with it, live action,” said Kara Riebold, the Port’s chief operating officer. “And commissioners can tell us whether we need a discussion window.”
Meyer noted the mechanism is not limited.
“The existence of the opportunity for comment has never been absent,” Meyer said.
Commissioners decided to leave it as is and talk again at a later meeting.
“This is still in the discussion phase,” said Debbie Snell, Port properties and development manager. “With two relatively new commissioners, we may not be able to see what they see. We have ways we’ve been doing things for 21 years. Change is not necessarily bad. Change is good.”
Kammerzell and Meyer are the board’s newest commissioners; Kammerzell has been on the board since 2012, and Meyer was appointed earlier this year to the seat left vacant by the death of Commissioner Dan Boone.
Public
comment time
In a later discussion, on another agenda item, talk arose among the commissioners about the fact that no place exists on the Port’s regular meeting agendas for public comment.
The Washington Public Ports Association (WPPA) last spring suggested each Port have this in a roundtable discussion, as mentioned by Kammerzell.
The question discussed in Colfax last week was whether to institute a three-minute time limit at the start of a meeting for comment, then the commissioners may invite the person to get on a later agenda for more time, such as a 15-minute block.
Ultimately, commissioners directed Port staff to write a policy to discuss at their next meeting.
“Feel free not to reinvent the wheel on this one,” Kammerzell said, suggesting that Snell consult with the WPPA on the matter.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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