Friday, May 29, 2020

Covid19 Crisis: How to submit public comments to Sarasota County meetings

To watch and offer public comment on County meetings during the Covid19 Crisis, a few steps are necessary.

Finding Meeting Agendas:

To find upcoming agendas from the County's home page, first mouse over the category Government, (top of home page) then find Watch County Commission Meetings. Clicking that link takes you to the list of recent meetings.

You can browse past meetings or upcoming ones. All should have both an Agenda and a Packet that contains all the supporting materials. This is all usually uploaded on Friday for Board meetings on Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week.

For example, for the June 3 meeting, clicking this link takes you to the Agenda for the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners meeting.

  • Note: Anything on the Agenda in blue is a hyperlink. Click on those that interest you, and a box on the right will open with a set of pdf files, often somewhat inscrutably titled, what contain the memos, maps and other administrative documents pertaining to that item. 
  • So for example Commissioner Moran is listed under Item 50, titled "Financial Crisis Management." Clicking Item 50's link brings up two pdfs pertaining to that topic - one a list of discussion topics, the other a document called "Color of Money.

Watching and Participation:

For information regarding how to watch a meeting or provide public comment on any item, you will find this statement with a link near the top of the Agenda, right under "Pledge of Allegiance":


NOTE:
Consistent with the guidance from CDC and the Executive Orders of the Governor of the State of Florida to limit public interactions, the public is strongly encouraged to submit comments on matters to be addressed by the Board of County Commissioners in advance of the Commission meeting to be included in the official meeting record; visit www.scgov.net/publicinput for details. In light of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 Health Emergency, health screening procedures are in effect for visitors to County facilities, including Commission meeting attendees. Details are provided on page 9 of this agenda document.

Clicking on the link goes to a page entitled:


Click there and you'll find rules and instructions for how to view meetings remotely as well as how to participate. In addition to the County Commission, there's information on how to view and participate in other Board meetings, including the June 4 Planning Commission.






No comments:

Post a Comment