Hightstown Council Rejects Limit on Public Comment

The Borough Council voted 3-2 Monday against a resolution to limit public comment to 5 minutes per person. A 3-minute limit was repealed at the start of the year.

Only Democrat Larry Quattrone and Republican Skye Gilmartin supported the measure, which was listed on the agenda before the first of the borough's two regular sessions set aside for public comment at each meeting.

“I think we introduced limitless time in January with all the good intentions in the world, and for the first month I think it was very well-received and otter the last month I think it’s fair to say it’s been disrespected,” Gilmartin said.

“As much as we want to encourage freedom of speech, freedom of speech isn’t entirely free when we’re paying for an attorney and an engineer and other hourly people… Anybody should be able to make a reasonable point in five minutes.”

Quattrone concurred about the repeal, saying, “We tried it; I don’t think it worked very well.”

However, the other council members were not in agreement.

“I’m not seeking to limit public comment,” said Democrat and Council President Isabel McGinty. “For this to be the first thing that we have on the agenda is a bit uncomfortable, given that we’re now almost at May and we get many comments at public comment and we still don’t respond to them. And I think the public would welcome a brief response, which we could do.”

Though Monday's meeting was the third consecutive one to last about four hours, most of this week's meeting was taken up by borough business. Together, the two public comment sessions Monday evening made up for about 42 minutes of the meeting.

This article was updated at 7:50 p.m. Friday to correct an error which listed Gilmartin as a Democrat instead of a Republican.