Photo: The microphone for the public comment period, which represents the greatest threat to Hill and Tribble. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center, Jared Grillo
Monday, October 23
6:30 pm
Haughville Public Library
2121 W. Michigan St.
This Monday, members of the Indianapolis Public Library Board of Trustees are planning to further restrict the public from having any say in our library system. This is the latest attack in an ongoing struggle between, on the one hand, a handful of Board members led by Board President Hope Tribble and, on the other, the people of Indianapolis.
The Tribble-led Board is trying to censor the amount of public participation at public Board meetings by decreasing the amount of time allotted to each speaker and, even worse, by imposing a maximum limit on public comment! There is currently no time limit to the public comment period, presumably to ensure the public is heard, and each speaker has five minutes. They want to limit the overall period for public comment to 45 minutes and decrease each speakers time to three minutes.
No one wants to endure long meetings on a weekday night. However, the only reason meetings have lasted so long is because the Board has continued to refuse to listen to the public. If they only listened to the public or operated in the public’s interest in general, the time for public comment would organically decrease. They could also shorten the number of presentations and tighten up their own agenda to decrease meeting time. Instead, they’re trying to block the public from participating in our public library’s public Board meetings so they can continue to operate against our interests with less resistance.
It is absolutely crucial that everyone who supports the right to free speech and the right for the public to participate in where our money goes. Show up on Monday to prevent this from happening! The meeting starts at 6:30 pm, but we encourage everyone to get there around 6:15 pm to sign up for the public comment period.
Read this Indianapolis Liberator article for more information and context!
