ORANGE PARK – Some changes could be coming to the way public comments are handled during council meetings.

Public comment has been a heated discussion as of late with some long-time council meeting attendees voicing their displeasure with receiving only three minutes at the podium. Some have asked for longer periods of discussion. Others have opted to donate their own time to others speaking. The town council spoke Tuesday night about the possibility of changing how public comment are handled.

“We had staff do some research about what other cities do in Florida and how they conduct their public comment portion of the meeting,” Town Manager Sarah Campbell said. “There were a number of areas you all asked about. One of them was [time] and by a huge majority, everybody does three minutes.”

Campbell went on to explain that one community does two minutes, and another does five minutes, with most councils allowing three. She also said that most towns do not allow time to be donated between speakers and said half of the towns allow three minutes per item while the other half allows three minutes a person.

Campbell said the general trend is to have a section at the top of the meeting for three minutes from each person on non-agenda comments with agenda-related comments being taken as the agenda items occur during the meeting.

The town council asked Campbell to look into how council responses could work, and Campbell said some councils allow council members to address speakers after the speaker has taken their seat following their public comment.

Council member Randy Anderson asked to have the public speak their opinions. Meeting staple and longtime resident Barbara Davidson explained that the feeling of community in Orange Park has been lost throughout the town.

“It’s more than obvious...you need public input and you’ve been lacking it,” Davidson said. “This community we call Orange Park is a community of people with homes, not houses, and it takes a heap of living in a house to make it a home. If you expect people to come here and share thoughts and ideas with you, you’re expecting a lot from them in three minutes.

“[People talking] is what community is all about and Orange Park is no longer a community.”

Council member Roland Mastandrea said the mayor has always told him that if additional time is needed, he only needs to ask, and he believes that is representative of the council’s thoughts on public comment.

“I think that if the mayor who conducts and controls the gavel is fair-minded, and she is, you as the audience and me as a councilman will be fully allowed to explain what [we] need to explain,” Mastandrea said.

Council member Eddie Henley said it’s important for the public to have a say as they give power to the council. He suggested three minutes for non-agenda items and five minutes for agenda items with the mayor having the option to yield additional time to speakers if necessary. He also said there should always be some follow-up from staff in some form following a public speaker’s time.

Council member Alan Watt said he favored a suggestion by Anderson: if the item requires more than three minutes from a public speaker, the item should be placed on the formal agenda for discussion. He said public comment should stick to three minutes.

The council didn’t vote Tuesday night but did give direction to town staff to write up an ordinance that would give each speaker three minutes for non-agenda items and three minutes for agenda items, with the mayor having the ability to extend the time if necessary. The ordinance will also include wording that gives council the option to respond to a public comment.

In other business, the council voted 3-2, with Watt and Mastandrea dissenting, to approve a tree fee of $165 per one inch in diameter measured at the chest for live oak trees and a fee of $148 at the same height for all other trees.