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PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg City Council members may once again vote on changing the public forum rules when they meet Tuesday.

The agenda for the meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building includes a resolution saying people can speak in the public forum on any matter appearing on the agenda.

It comes a little over a month after council took no action on a proposal to give priority to speakers who wanted to address items on the agenda, meaning those wishing to speak on other matters might not get a chance to if the allotted 30 minutes ran out and was not extended.

“Having an open public forum at City Council is a privilege that a few people are currently taking advantage of by spreading rumors and lies about the city administration and City Council,” council President Mike Reynolds said. “Parkersburg City Council wants to hear from residents about issues that they can help with. Instead, most public forums are filled with residents and non-residents who want to tell council that everything they do is wrong. Making this change will allow council to do their job better.”

Mayor Tom Joyce said he does not propose or approve changes to council’s rules, so the decision will be up to council members. He said he can accept criticism when people disagree with policies, decisions or legislation.

“What I do not think is necessary nor … appropriate is using the public forum for spreading misinformation,” he said.

Joyce pointed to recent examples of a speaker claiming the city owns 49% of Wood County’s new Resiliency Center or saying sanitation workers have not received a raise since 2016, when across-the-board cost-of-living increases have been approved for employees for the last several years, as examples.

The resolution would also move the message from the executive to after the public forum.

The previous resolution to give priority to agenda items during the public forum made it onto the Jan. 28 council meeting after being recommended on a 5-4 vote by the Committee of the Whole, which consists of all nine council members. Eleven of the 12 speakers in the Jan. 28 public forum opposed the change, and no council member made a motion to pass that resolution, so no vote was taken.

The new resolution is sponsored by seven members of council, everyone except Councilwoman Wendy Tuck and Councilman Zak Huffman.

Tuck said Friday she was not approached about whether she wanted to be a sponsor and she finds the proposal upsetting.

The public forum “is a time for public opinion, and people have a right to express their opinion on things that are important to them,” she said. “To shut down the whole thing because of one or two people that have misinformation, that’s anti-American.”

Joyce said he believes limiting the forum to agenda topics is appropriate because it’s a legislative meeting.

“This change will not preclude anyone from coming to a City Council meeting and having a conversation with their council member or with the mayor or with the chief of police,” he said. “We do that all the time.”

The agenda also includes a resolution amending the Community Development Block Grant budget by moving $25,300 from a 2022 allocation for air-conditioning repair at the Family Crisis Intervention Center to a project to create greenspace for the Parkersburg Art Center. Joyce said the previous project “never came to fruition.” Council will also be asked to confirm the mayor’s appointment of Jennie Brannon to the Avery Historic District Architectural Board for a three-year term.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com