Proposed Revisions to the MAG Process for Public Involement

On September 19, 1994, the Regional Council approved the MAG Process for Public Involvement in Transportation Planning. This process was adopted in response to the provisions of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. In February 1996, the public comment procedures for Regional Council meetings were refined, resulting from the MAG Re-Engineer the Policy Process Committee. Additional improvements are now being recommended to the MAG process.

The process adopted in September 1994, provided for the early and continuing process required throughout the transportation planning and programming process. The process adopted by the Regional Council provided for 15 minutes of public comment at the beginning of each Regional Council meeting. The public comment opportunity was enhanced and clarified resulting from the Regional Council adopting the Re-Engineer the Policy Process Committee recommendations in February 1996. The underlying premise of the public comment changes in 1996, was to encourage public comment throughout the MAG committee process and document this public input in the transmittal summary. In addition the revised process provided the following three opportunities for the public to comment at the Regional Council meeting:

1. Call to the Audience: The public is provided an opportunity to comment at the beginning of the meeting on items not on the agenda. The public is requested not to exceed three minutes, for a total of 15 minutes for the Call to the Audience
2. Consent Agenda: Members of the public are provided three minutes to comment on items on the consent agenda.
3. Action Items Proposed to be Heard: Members of the public are provided up to three minutes for each action item designated for action.

To provide greater clarity to our existing process and to have the public comments more focused during our meetings, the following improvements are being recommended to the existing process for public comments at the Regional Council meeting:

1. Submittal of Request to Speak Cards: Clarify the existing process regarding how speaking cards are submitted to the Chair. In the future, all cards requesting an opportunity to address the Regional Council will be required to be submitted prior to the beginning of the meeting.
2. Time Allotted for Public Comment: Under the existing public comment process, three opportunities are provided for public comment at Regional Council meetings (Call to the Audience, Consent Agenda, and Action Items to be Heard). These opportunities will remain. The total time allowed for all of these opportunities, cumulatively, would change to five minutes for any single speaker. For example, an individual speaker may spend one minute in providing comment on the consent agenda. The speaker would then have four minutes remaining to comment, but could not spend more than three minutes on a single item, the current limit.

If you would like to provide comment on these proposed changes, please contact Jason Stephens at 602-254-6300 or by email: jstephens@mag.maricopa.gov.