Attending my first city council meeting, Help!

[00BlasterResto]

I just found out there is a city council meeting tonight, a small group of local folks have been pushing to get our local ordinance changed. I would like to attend the meeting and hopefully express my discontent with our current ordinance. I am not great with words and I really do not want to make myself, or any other chicken advocates look bad.
I have never attended a city meeting of any kind, I am hopeing mabey I could point out some other city who allow chickens and ask that our law be updated to allow for a certain number of chickens per dwelling.
Any advise I could get as far as how these meetings go and how I could prepare myself would be really appreciated.
In the future I would like to make up a handout or something, but for now I am just hopeing to make an appearance.
Thanks, Will

 

[00BlasterResto]

Ok important question here. Because you must state your name and address, do you guys think I would be putting my less than legal flock in danger. I have had them for a couple of years and never heard anything. 100% of my neighbors are good with me haveing them.
Do you guys think I should leave well enough alone and stay hidden, or should I attend the meeting and express my opinion??

 

[FlaRocky]

I would go watch and learn what I need to do and what I need to have in my corner before I would get up to speak. Then I would maybe have my ducks in a row for the next meeting. Is another town close to you where you could lookup the info you needed, a town that has chicken laws on the books?

Hope this helps,

Maye

 

[00BlasterResto]

Well I went, it was a huge waste of time. nothing was said, no one other than the council people and secretary really spoke atall. No one addressed any concerns they had or anything.. they babbled for Approx. 20 Min. and meeting adjourned....... I might go to another meeting and see if I learn anything there, but will probly just stick with the silent approach.

 

[franklinstreetwest]

Sorry to hear that going felt like a waste of time! I don't think it's ever a waste of time to get involved in city council meetings (humble opinion only). If for no other reason than to "know thine enemy". I don't know what the procedure is with your meetings, but where I live you have to follow a specific protocol to speak about an issue that concerns you. It goes as follows:

1) show up before the meeting starts, sign in, and fill out a piece of paper stating that you would like to address the council
2) wait to be called to the podium
3) state your name and address
4) speak about your issue (there is a time limit at our meetings, I have found that lawyers tend to ignore the time limit)
5) if it is an issue to be voted on that night the council will address the topic themselves after the floor has been closed to the public

once the floor is closed to the public, there isn't an opportunity to express your opinions.... Even if you get up there and barely squeek something out (and if you're anything like me your heart will be pounding out of your chest and you'll feel regularly sick), it's important to show support or dissent! If the district members don't see that their elctorate is interested in something, they won't be able to vote in a way that represents the people.

I'm still a newbie at this. It's taken me a couple of meetings to figure out what was going on and how things work. If you are completely crowd-shy and do better one on one, you might try finding out which council member represents your district. You could talk to your council member directly, let that person know that this is something important to you and others.

Good Luck!!