Parkersburg resident Sonya Ashby speaks during the public forum at Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meeting, asking council members to vote against a proposed change giving priority in the public forum to speakers addressing items on the agenda. Council did not take up the motion making the change. Members also voted against moving the time of meetings from 7:30 to 7 p.m. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG – Members of Parkersburg City Council approved two changes to their rules but left the public forum alone after multiple people spoke against a proposal to give priority to speakers addressing items on the agenda.

And meetings will remain at 7:30 p.m. after a resolution to move them up half an hour failed on a 6-3 vote.

A total of four rule changes were included in a single resolution on the agenda, but members unanimously voted to consider each one individually following a public forum where 11 of 12 speakers opposed the change to the public forum.

It would have left the format at up to three minutes per person for a total of 30 minutes, but would have let those speaking on agenda items go first. If the half hour ran out, those who didn’t get a turn would not have been able to speak unless council voted to extend the time, which some members said during a Committee of the Whole meeting last week they did not like doing.

Sonya Ashby, a Parkersburg resident who unsuccessfully ran for council last year, framed the issue from the perspective of being single.

From left, Parkersburg City Councilwoman Wendy Tuck, Council President Mike Reynolds and Councilman Zak Huffman listen as Mayor Tom Joyce, participating in the meeting via the Teams app, speaks during Tuesday's council meeting. The larger screen was recently added to council chambers to facilitate clearer remote participation in meetings. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

“I cannot tell you how much I love being single. When I clean my house and I go to work and I come home, it’s still clean,” she said. “If I go to Amazon and I spend $1,000, guess whose business that is? It’s mine.

“Now, I hate to burst your bubble, but collectively as a council, you’re not single. You have 29,000 people who live in the City of Parkersburg who are your nagging spouses.”

Ashby said council members need to listen to their constituents, even if they don’t always like what they have to say.

Parkersburg resident Brian Hayden said limiting people’s ability to speak about any subject “would silence any citizen that has an immediate grave concern with the appearance of unethical or unconstitutional actions by anyone in city government.

“My free speech is my only weapon,” he said.

Addressing some council members’ contention at the Committee of the Whole meeting that contacting an individual council member is the best way to get a concern addressed, former Councilwoman Cammy Murray said “sometimes things need to be brought into the light, in public.”

Former Councilman Jeff Fox suggested a compromise – let speakers addressing agenda items go first but remove the 30-minute time limit so everyone who signed up to speak got an opportunity to do so.

After the public forum, Councilwoman Cathy Dailey thanked those who spoke.

“We heard you. I hear you,” she said. “I respect you, and I want a two-way conversation.”

When the question of changing the public forum came up, no council member made a motion to consider the question.

There was no discussion on moving the meeting time up to 7 p.m. but it failed with only Councilmen Dave McCrady and Roger Brown and Council President Mike Reynolds voting yes.

Two changes that did pass were prohibiting council members from withdrawing their sponsorship for legislation once a meeting’s agenda has been released and eliminating the council forum.

City Attorney Blaine Myers said an item should remain on the agenda after it’s posted, even if a member pulls their sponsorship, because people attending the meeting expect it to be considered. An item on the agenda requires a motion and a second to be taken up and discussed.

“It’s my opinion that once you have something on your agenda, it stays on your agenda,” Myers said. “This rule would just put that in writing.”

The rule on pulling sponsorship passed on a 7-2 vote, with Councilwoman Wendy Tuck and Councilman Zak Huffman opposed.

The elimination of the council forum passed 5-4, with Tuck, Huffman, Dailey and Councilman Chris Rexroad opposed.

Established less than 10 years ago, the council forum gives members two minutes to speak on any topic. One speaker in the public forum, city resident Cari Talarico, said she thought the forum should be retained because there needs to be a “two-way conversation” between council and citizens.

Tuck suggested adding a forum for community organizations, but that was rejected 7-2, with only Huffman joining her in voting for it.

Huffman asked when the appropriate time would be for him to provide updates from Downtown PKB, on whose board he represents council, if the council forum was eliminated. Reynolds said a representative of the group could ask the mayor for time during the message from the executive, and Myers noted representatives of the organization have spoken during the public forum.

“When would be the most appropriate time to discuss the business of the city?” Huffman asked.

No one answered prior to the vote.

In other business, council unanimously approved Mayor Tom Joyce’s reappointment of Calib Tisdale and Mike Siebel to the Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.