Stockbridge — After being absent since April 2023, according to town agenda records, Stockbridge Select Board meetings will once again feature a public comment segment.
The September 18 decision was prompted by an outcry from residents requesting time to address the dais following the July 2 resignation of Highway Superintendent Hugh Page. The next Select Board session on July 10 saw residents packing the meeting room who stated their intent to address board members on the language of an executive session notice involving Page. However, that meeting did not list a public comment session, nor was the issue on the posted agenda allowing residents to speak on the subject.
How Stockbridge Select Board’s new public comment protocol will work
The unanimous decision provides for a two-minute time limit for each individual wishing to comment on items not on the agenda and for a total public comment segment length of 10 minutes. For comments pertaining to items listed on the meeting agenda, individuals are limited to three minutes per person.
Those time limits may be adjusted as needed, and speakers must provide their names and addresses, with both renters and homeowners permitted to speak.
“Public comment is not a discussion, it is not a question-and-answer period,” Select Board Chair Jamie Minacci explained.
Some towns, such as West Stockbridge, reference the section as “Citizen Speak” time, and others have different nomenclature for the discussion.
Minacci said the group has always allowed residents to weigh in on posted agenda items and displayed that effort during the September 18 meeting, with citizens having the ability to email board members with concerns as well.
Select Board member Ernest “Chuck” Cardillo agreed that public comment pertaining to agenda items is very important and to “hav[e] the townspeople be part of the decision before we make a vote.” He proposed time limits for incorporating a public comment section.
“I totally agree,” board member Jorja Marsden said. “I think public comment is very, very important so we can hear what everybody has on their mind.”
Marsden stressed that the Select Board cannot respond to any statements made by residents during a public comment segment. “We can think about it for a future meeting, but we can’t have open dialogue on that part of it,” she reiterated.
Some citizens voiced concern over providing their personal addresses during the segment. Town Administrator Michael Canales responded that during town meetings, attendees are checked in and verified as being town residents. However, no such details are provided at a Select Board meeting, he said, “because anybody could just step up and say, ‘I’m a resident.’”
Longtime resident Anita Schwerner pushed for a public comment section to be added to Select Board meeting agendas. She also chairs the Stockbridge Democratic Town Committee. “Especially at this time in my country, we should ensure the right of people to address our representatives to speak about issues of concern or importance,” she said.
Schwerner told The Berkshire Edge that she emailed town officials in July requesting the segment be added. “I am very glad that it was passed by the [Select] Board,” she said following the meeting.
According to Schwerner, she and a number of town residents were frustrated by not being able to address the Select Board in public. The greater turnout at the September 18 session, she said, reflected interest in reinstating the public comment segment that neighboring towns post in their Select Board agendas. “Replying by email, or putting your comments in an email, it’s just not satisfying,” Schwerner said. “Freedom of speech is really important to our democracy.”
Proposal accepted to move Revolutionary War Memorial project forward
Preservation Incorporated was unanimously approved as town consultants for the design, oversight, and installation of a local memorial for the American Revolution. The business is a partnership between International Preservation Associates Inc. Chief Preservation Architect William C. S. (Bill) Remsen and Ian K. M. Stewart, who owns New Netherland Timber Framing and Preservation.
A copy of the proposal can be found here.
The project will add stones to the town’s existing war memorials that commemorate efforts by colonists and indigenous people who served in the American Revolution.
The cost of the Preservation Incorporated work will not exceed $30,000, and the project is slated to be finished by Memorial Day, 2026. The design will include input from town officials, Stockbridge-Munsee tribe representatives, and Historical Commission members before it is received by the Select Board to review.
