Council protocol under review by members

BUCYRUS - The manner in which Bucyrus City Council business is conducted might change after a recent review by its members.

Several council members met Wednesday to read over existing rules and discuss which ones should be considered further. Bucyrus Law Director Rob Ratliff at one point mentioned that the Ohio Revised Code also governs the city's business.

Bucyrus council rules include topics such as what attire is appropriate in council chambers, how long speakers may address council and how council meetings are structured. There are 39 entries in the city council rule book.

"We're a little bit lax with this one," Bucyrus Council President Garnet "Sis" Love said when she read the entry about how many topics each unannounced speaker may bring up to council.

Ratliff said it's hard to regulate how many points each speaker may bring up.

"There are people who are going to want to come in and just gripe," Ratliff said.

He said the city could change the rule to include a time limit for each speaker. Council members liked the idea, and discussed how much time each person should be allotted. Ratliff suggested three minutes. Councilman Dan Wirebaugh said that amount should be fair, since speakers are probably going to use a little more time anyway.

"It’s going to take three more minutes to stop them from talking beyond their first three minutes," Wirebaugh said.

Love reminded everyone that scheduled speakers would not be bound by such a regulation.

The other major discussion was over how many council members should be on each of the city's six committees. Existing protocol calls for four members on each committee, but Wirebaugh pointed out there used to be just three. They asked Ratliff if Ohio law dictated what they were allowed to do in any way.

"It's a gray area," Ratliff said. "I don't think there's anything clearly wrong either way."

The council members present decided to go over their ideas with the full city council after the new members are sworn in at the beginning of the new year.

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