Sun staff
The Goshen Township Trustees amended their community forum policy during a special meeting on Oct. 13.
Under the amended policy, community members may discuss any items that fall under the trustees’ jurisdiction. Comments are still limited to five minutes.
The policy amendment comes after months of hearing frustration from citizens, who have expressed concerns about the trustees’ lack of civility and transparency.
The trustees held a special meeting on Sept. 23 to discuss potential changes to the community forum process. During that meeting, James Constable, meeting attendee, said he felt that the trustees have not followed the rules for public participation at meetings that were adopted on May 12.
The policy passed in May states that no member of the public can speak at a trustee meeting about a topic not within the trustee’s authority and not on that meeting’s agenda.
If a member of the public starts to speak about an item not on the agenda, the trustees can stop the speaker, according to the policy.
The previous policy, which was passed in 2013, allowed the public to speak about anything under the trustees’ authority, according to Trustee Lisa Allen, but the policy was changed when the Clermont County Prosecutor’s Office had some concerns about it.
Before the amended policy went to a vote on Oct. 13, Trustee Claire Corcoran expressed her concerns.
“I thought we were waiting to get the finalization from [Township Administrator Lou Ethridge] and that’s when we would present it to people,” Corcoran said. “I’m not opposed to doing anything on extending, I’m just saying that I thought we had to get clarification first; that’s why we were going to legal counsel. And, I thought he was going to come back tonight and bring it to us.”
Allen said that as she understood it, that was an issue related to adopting a completely new policy.
“But, we were allowed to discuss things before, so long as it was under the trustees’ jurisdiction, so that’s not anything that would be illegal,” Allen said.
Allen said she would follow up with Ethridge on a complete community forum policy.
Trustee Lois Pappas shared her desire to move forward with the amended policy.
“Let’s just do this,” Pappas said.
Goshen resident Dave Maphet said he was glad see the amended policy passed.
“It’s a very important thing. Thank you,” Maphet said.