The County Board adopts the following policies and procedures:
(A) It is the policy of the Board of Commissioners that to the fullest extent of the law all of their documents shall be available to the public as soon as possible and as far in advance of all public meetings as is possible;
(B) All citizens have full opportunity to participate in county government;
(C) All agendas for all Board of Commissioners meetings and caucuses shall be posted and available for copying as far in advance of all caucuses and meetings as possible;
(D) All minutes of all County Board of Commissioners meetings and caucuses should be available to the public both by posting and copying as soon as possible;
(E) All hand-outs, exhibits and documents shall be available to the public as far in advance as possible before all caucuses and public meetings;
(F) Information that is not available to the public sufficiently in advance of any caucus or meeting to allow sufficient public notice and response, shall usually result in the rescheduling or postponement of that agenda item to the next meeting or a special meeting of the Board of Commissioners;
(G) The Board of Commissioners shall maintain a sign-up list for speakers at each meeting of the Board of Commissioners (not at caucuses), and have on each agenda a stated time for public participation. At the stated time, people should be allowed to speak in the order in which they signed the speaker list, limited to three minutes per speaker, if such limitation is necessary. All such speeches may be supplemented by a written presentation, or the entire representation may be submitted in writing at the option of the member of public;
(H) In order to facilitate citizen attendance, the Board of Commissioners will try to have as many meetings as possible during the evening hours;
(I) The Board of Commissioners will inquire as to use of the public access cable television channel so that those people unable to attend can observe the proceedings in the convenience of their homes;
(J) Inquiry and efforts shall be made to make all Commissioners documents available at the public libraries to improve public accessibility;
(K) Inquiry and effort shall be made to put all public documents on-line with the county’s home page
on the internet or some similar system to improve public and media accessibility.
(Res. 97-03-CM, passed 1-9-97)