City Council member Art Graham will have to get more comfortable cutting people off mid-sentence in his position as floor leader during Council meetings. Recently, Council President Daniel Davis requested that Graham more closely enforce the current rule limiting Council members’ comments to five minutes the first time and three minutes the second time on any one subject. If Council members ask anyone from City staff or the public to speak, that also counts in their time allotment. Davis said he had been slack on the rule before, but no longer. “We’ve had to waive the rule to go past midnight a couple of times now, and I don’t think we are very productive at that point,” he said.
Graham said he is debating between two different timers to use. One is a basic timer, while the other sounds out a countdown once it reaches 10 seconds and then ends with the sound of car horns. “I think they’ll definitely know when to stop talking,” he said.