Due to Covid, Livermore’s City Council is holding their meetings virtually using Zoom. They currently allow three ways for the public to comment, though live comments during the meeting have more of an impact on the Councilmembers.
- During the meeting, a person can use the “raise your hand” feature in Zoom to indicate that they would like to speak during the public comment period. Public speakers only participate verbally – their camera is not utilized. When the agenda item is reached (item 5.2), the City Clerk will announce that people wishing to speak must click the “raise your hand” button. The clerk announces who the next three speakers are before each speaker so the upcoming speakers will have a chance to prepare. Each speaker is given a maximum time to speak, which is normally three minutes, but the amount of time can be reduced by the mayor if he feels there will be a large number of speakers. It is anticipated that the speaking time during this meeting will be limited to two minutes or less per speaker, so prepare appropriately. Agenda items are normally handled in order, so the Eden Housing agenda item may not be heard until after 8 or 9PM, but the mayor may reorder the items so it may occur earlier.
- Instead of speaking, people can email their comments to cityclerk@cityoflivermore.net by noon on May 24th. Be sure to indicate the comments for the City Council Meeting, and for agenda item 5.2. These submissions will be provided to the City Council and will be made available on the City website prior to the meeting, but will not be entered into the record.
- The public can also submit comments through the eComment utility on the City Council Meeting webpage. We have found this method problematic so recommend against it.
The instructions for participating are also included in the meeting’s agenda, which you can see here.