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How to Speak to a Particular Item

Members of the public shall be given the opportunity to address the Council. The Council President may determine the number of speakers on an agenda item or reduce the amount of time available to each speaker to appropriately manage the meeting and ensure the Council has time to consider all the agenda items. A member of the public may only provide one comment per agenda item.

Joining the Webinar and Offering Phone-in Testimony

The City Council meetings will continue to be held virtually using the Zoom Webinar platform. Members of the public can offer public comment on agendized items or during Non-Agenda Public Comment by accessing the meeting online using a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or Smartphone, or by calling into the meeting using a Smartphone, cellular phone, or land line. If participating via phone press *9 to raise your hand and *6 to unmute yourself. 

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://sandiego.zoomgov.com/j/1607807743

To join by telephone: Dial 1-669-254 5252 +

When prompted, input Webinar ID : 160 780 7743#

In-Person Comment on Agenda Items

Each speaker must file a written request (speaker slip) with the City Clerk at the meeting at which the speaker wishes to speak indicating which item they wish to speak on. Speaker slips may not be turned in prior to the day of the meeting or after completion of in-person testimony. In person testimony will conclude before virtual testimony begins. Each person who wishes to address the Council shall approach the podium and state who they are representing if they represent an organization or another person. 

For meeting management during the Minutes, Proclamations, and Consent portions of the agenda, speakers will have one (1) minute per item and up to a maximum of three (3) minutes if there are three (3) or more items in that portion of the agenda.

For discussion and information items each speaker may speak up to three (3) minutes, subject to the Council President’s determination of the time available for meeting management purposes, in addition to any time ceded by other members of the public who are present at the meeting and have submitted a speaker slip ceding them time. These speaker slips should be submitted together at one time to the City Clerk. The Council President may also limit organized group presentations of five or more persons to 15 minutes or less.

Virtual Public Comment on Agenda Items

Members of the public may participate virtually (by telephone or internet streaming) as indicated below. Speakers who wish to provide virtual public comment must enter the virtual queue by raising their virtual hands before the queue closes. The queue will close when the last virtual speaker finishes speaking or five minutes after in-person testimony ends, whichever happens first. 

For meeting management during the Minutes, Proclamations, and Consent portions of the agenda, speakers will have one (1) minute per item and up to a maximum of three (3) minutes if there are three (3) or more items in that portion of the agenda.

For discussion and information items each speaker may speak up to three (3) minutes, subject to the Council President’s determination of the time available for meeting management purposes. Speakers participating virtually may not allocate their time to other speakers and may not share video or visual aids (i.e. pdf, ppt, docs) during their comment period.

Non-Agenda Public Comment

Every agenda for a regular Council meeting shall provide a period on the agenda for members of the public to address the Council on items of interest to the public that are not on the agenda but are within the jurisdiction of the Council. Non-Agenda Public Comment shall be subject to the exercise of the Council President’s discretion for a given agenda.

In order to ensure that the Council has time to consider all agenda items, Non-Agenda Public Comment on particular issues and for each individual speaker will be as follows:

Each speaker will be limited to two minutes. Speakers may not allocate their time to other speakers. If there are eight or more speakers on a single issue, the maximum time for the issue will be 16 minutes. The order of speaking generally will be determined on a first-come, first-served basis, however, priority may be given to speakers who have not addressed the legislative body during Non-Agenda Public Comment at the last regularly scheduled Council meeting. A member of the public may only provide one non-agenda comment per agenda.

If providing comment in person, please submit your speaker slip and any visual aids to the City Clerk. In-person testimony shall conclude before virtual testimony begins.

Speakers who wish to provide virtual Non-Agenda Public Comment must enter the virtual queue by raising their virtual hands before the queue closes. The queue will close when the last virtual speaker finishes speaking or five minutes after in-person testimony ends, whichever happens first. Those participating virtually may not share video or visual aids (i.e. pdf, ppt, docs) during their non-agenda comment period.

Please note: On Mondays, Non-Agenda Public Comment is taken during the 2pm session after all discussion items are complete. On Tuesday’s non-agenda public comment is taken during the 10am session.

Comment on Agenda Items, Non-Agenda Public Comment, and Closed Session Public Comment may be submitted using the webform indicating the comment type and  item number (if relevant) for which you wish to submit your comment. Comments received two hours prior to the meeting will be distributed to the City Council and posted online with the meeting materials. All webform comments are limited to 500 words but may include attachments. Comments received after that time frame the day of the meeting but before the item is called will be submitted into the written record for the relevant item. 

Quasi-Judicial Items. Organized group presentations for quasi-judicial items will be allowed up to 15 minutes per side to speak either for or against an item for a total of 30 minutes. If more than one group on the same side requests an organized presentation, the 15 minutes will be divided between each group for that side.  Please contact the Project Manager as listed as the primary contact on the staff report for that item to indicate your desire to present.

Levine Act. Pursuant to the Levine Act (Gov’t Code Section 84308), any party to a permit, license, contract (other than competitively bid, labor or personal employment contracts) or other entitlement before the Council is required to disclose on the record any contribution, including aggregated contributions, of more than $250 made by the party or the party’s agents within the preceding 12 months to any Council Member. Participants and agents are requested to make this disclosure as well. The disclosure must include the name of the party or participant and any other person making the contribution; the name of the recipient, the amount of the contribution, and the date the contribution was made.

Written Materials. Instead of submitting written materials as an attachment to the webform you may submit via U.S. Mail to the City Clerk’s attention at 202 C Street, MS2A San Diego, CA 92101. Materials submitted via U.S. Mail must be received one business day prior to the meeting to be distributed to the City Council.  Comments received via U.S. Mail on the day of the meeting will be submitted into the written record for the relevant item.

The public may view the meetings on public television (within the City of San Diego only) on City TV Channel 24 for Cox Communications and Spectrum or Channel 99 for AT&T U-Verse, or view the meetings online (link is external)

Order of Business

The order that business will be taken during a Council meeting is not always in numerical order of agenda items. You can view the anticipated order of items on our Summary Sheet that is meant to be an easy guide for the public that combines all items being taken into one document in the order that the items will be taken in. The summary sheet is posted Thursday afternoon and updated Friday afternoon with any supplemental items that may be added.  You can find it on the agenda page on the following link.

LATE-ARRIVING MATERIALS

Pursuant to the Brown Act, California Government Code Section 54957.5(b), late-arriving documents related to City Council meeting agenda items which are distributed to the legislative body prior to and during the Council meeting are available for public review in the Office of the City Clerk, Information Services Counter in the Lobby of the City Administration Building, 202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101.  This relates to those documents received after the agenda is publicly noticed and during the 72 hours prior to the start of the meeting. Please note:  Approximately one hour prior to the start of the Council Meeting, the documents will be available just outside Council Chambers in the lobby of the 12th floor of the City Administration Building in a binder labeled “Late Arriving Materials.” Late-arriving materials received during the City Council meeting are available for review by making a verbal request of City Clerk staff located in Council Chambers.

Record of the Meeting and My Participation

The City Clerk creates a record of action/journal of proceedings of the City Council Meetings through the minutes as required by the City Charter.  The Legislative Recorder specifically prepares motion-driven minutes. 

The minutes reflect all motions made, the motion maker and second to the motion, as well as the vote.  It is important to note that the minutes reflect the motions made and not the discussion or comments of the Council Members or the names and comments of city staff or members of the public. Per Robert’s Rules (12th edition) 48:2, “ the minutes should contain mainly a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members” , but there are many ways comments from the public are memorialized and can be seen:

1. You can submit written comments which will be retained in perpetuity as part of the Meeting File for each Council Meeting;
2. In person speakers, the speaker slip that is submitted at the meeting is retained in perpetuity as part of the Meeting File for each Council Meeting;;
3. Virtual speakers are captured in a list of speakers that is documented by the Legislative Recorder and is retained in perpetuity as part of the Meeting File for each Council Meeting;
4. Video footage of each Council Meeting is posted on-line within 24-48 hours of the conclusion of the Council Meeting and retained and accessible to any member of the public who may wish to view their testimony and/or the discussion of the Councilmembers.

If you have any additional questions please feel free to reach out to the Office of the City Clerk at 619-533-4000 or cityclerk@sandiego.gov