Mat-Su school board approves lottery system for public comment

The Matanuska Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) school board Wednesday evening voted on another contentious policy change proposal, to approve a “lottery system” for public participation when more than 20 people wish to give public comment.

“I live 79 miles from this building-I already buy a lottery ticket to give public comment at meetings. It costs me $25 in fuel and 3 hours of driving time round trip. I increase my lottery chances by showing up early to sign up. Not everyone can be here early, or at all,” said Dina McCarr, who told the board that the lottery system would discourage those constituents who live on the outskirts of the district from attending and speaking.

“If your answer is to submit a written comment or call telephonically, those options already exist.”

“When we wrote up all this, we were just trying to clarify what was going on, and so we added in the lottery solely to make it fair if more than 20 people sign up,” said MSBSD school board member Kathy McCollum. “It was not in any way meant to limit who can speak.”

She said that at past meetings, there have been upwards of 35 people signed up to speak, but only the first 20 had the opportunity to speak. This is due to the time limit the school board puts on the board meetings, trying to end meetings by 10 p.m.

During the meetings, 30 minutes is blocked at the beginning for persons wanting to speak on non-agenda items. More time is allotted for public comment on action and non-action items, those topics listed on the agenda as action or non-action.

“Because of that, we thought that this would be fair if we had that many people sign up, and it went beyond the hour, that was in the policy,” McCollum added.

“If I’m following correctly, the proposed changes are to limit the public comment so that the board can still carry on its business and not be overwhelmed,” said board member Jacob Butcher, who sought clarification on why there is now a time limit when there had not been one before.

“It’s built in already that the board consent, the president can the time allowed for public presentation. So if the board has an urgent matter that we need to address at the meeting, that we can, as a board, consent to those time limits to be put in place, one meeting at a time.”

McCollum reiterated that the policy change being proposed was about making things fair if there is more than an hour’s worth of testimony.

“It’s my belief that if the board wants to bring forth controversial issues, it should be on us to hear every voice willing to speak on those issues during the meetings,” said board member Ted Swanson.

He told the board that as the representative for the largest area in the school district, the lottery system could prove to be a hindrance for his constituents to make the trip to Palmer to speak.

“I believe the public should have the right to be heard and it should not be limited by our desire to push through changes.”

Swanson offered his first of his two amendments; board President Tom Bergey also offered two additional amendments, which stated that if a lottery occurs, the names will be listed or announced before testimony starts.

“Prior to the testimony occurring, we announce the individuals who were selected so that people don’t have to wait. If their name has not been chosen, they can choose to leave, that they are not going to be able to testify,” said Bergey, attending the meeting via telephone.

The other amendment Bergey proposed to allow those not selected to written comments to be put into the Board record.

Motion to amend to allow those people who were not selected via the lottery and have a prepared written statement to allow those comments to be put into the board record.

All four amendments passed.

“This was solely to stop 35 people from signing up and then only the first 20 get to sign up. And there’s so many people that can’t get here until they finish their job in the evening. I just think it has not been so fair for people who can arrive here at 4:00 pm to sign up,” McCollum restated.

The policy proposal was approved by a unanimous vote.

The next MSBSD school board meeting will be held on September 20 at Houston High School.