Participate in City Council Meetings

This page includes guidelines and information on how members of the public can speak at a City Council meeting both in-person and virtually.

Opportunities to Speak
Members of the public can speak during Public Hearings and the Community Forum at City Council meetings. Check the Agenda for these sections.

Public Hearings: An opportunity to address the Council on a particular agenda topic under the Public Hearing section of the agenda. A public hearing is opened an ultimately closed after staff presentations and/or comments from the public.
Community Forum: An opportunity to address the Council on subjects that are not a part of the meeting agenda. This section is on every regular City Council meeting agenda.

How to Speak at a City Council Meeting

The City of Columbia Heights provides the opportunity to participate in-person or virtually on Zoom. When attending a meeting virtually on Zoom, we ask that if at all possible that you attend either in a computer browser or by app on your computer or device, rather than by telephone call. The interactive features are not available over the phone. We will, nevertheless, do our best to accommodate phone participants. The Agenda includes the Zoom Information and Meeting Location.

Steps

Provide Name, Address, Connection to Columbia Heights and the Item/Subject you would like to speak on to the City Clerk. There is a paper form for those attending in-person and those attending virtually will receive a link to an electronic form in the chat.
The City Clerk will call on you when it is your turn to speak (generally, those in-person will speak first followed by those attending virtually)
After you are called upon if in-person please come to the podium and state your name and connection to Columbia Heights (address not required). If attending virtually, the moderator will ask you to unmute.
State your comments (limit of five (5) minutes).
If you wish to speak again, please wait until all others have had their opportunity. When the Mayor asks if there are any more speakers, state your interest if in-person or if virtual send a chat message to the moderator, and you may approach the podium or will be asked to unmute by the moderator at the discretion of the Council.

Other Virtual Public Comment Guidelines

Please only send chat messages to the Moderator
If you only wish to speak during a particular part of the meeting and you can only join the meeting by phone, you may want to watch the meeting on TV or by web stream until that part comes up, then mute or turn off your TV or web stream, and then call in just for that part of the meeting in order to speak via phone.
Please do not watch the meeting via cable or web stream while you are signed in and participating online. There is a significant signal delay, and if you are recognized to speak there will be loud feedback. If you plan to speak during the meeting, make sure you are in a quiet room and that all background noise such as music or the television is turned off. This helps eliminate feedback and makes the meeting much more pleasant to listen to, and easier to understand, for everyone.