+1 Rob - Maybe we should visit them?
Damn insomnia; couldn't sleep so I started digging. Buried in the Flint City webpages {not under council were most rational people would look} I found the following:
http://www.cityofflint.com/clerk/cc_faq.asp (See # 5 - 7)
Snip:
City Council meets on the second and fourth Monday of every month at 5:30 p.m. Special meetings may be called by the Mayor or by any two (2) members of the Council upon twenty-four (24) hours notice to each Council member and the public stating the purpose of the meeting.
A special meeting that is called a City Council meeting requires posting for eighteen (18) hours.
Committee meetings on the Wednesday before any regularly scheduled Council meeting.
Councils Special Affairs Committee meets at 4 p.m. prior to any regularly scheduled Council meeting. These times are subject to change.
The Council conducts it's business in the Council Chambers or in the Committee-of-the Whole conference room. Both are located on the third floor of the city hall building. On occasion the Council can meet at other locations.
*All citizens have the opportunity to be heard at all regular meetings of the council. If a member of the public is addressing Council at a scheduled public hearing, he or she gains recognition from the Chair by standing.
If a member of the public wishes to speak on any other matter before Council, ** he or she shall submit a statement in writing containing his or her name, address and the topic to be covered. This statement will be put into a box before the Council meeting begins. This box is located at the entrance of the Council Chambers. *These rules violate the MI open meetings act in two ways: They require citizens to identify themselves in order to speak and they are "attempting" to limit comments to "any other matter before council". Figures from a city under control of a EFM that they cannot follow the law.
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/publications/openmtgsfreedom.pdf
15.263 Meetings, decisions, and deliberations of public body; requirements; attending or addressing meeting of public body;
tape-recording, videotaping, broadcasting, and telecasting proceedings; rules and regulations; exclusion from meeting;
exemptions.
Sec. 3. (1) All meetings of a public body shall be open to the public and shall be held in a place available to the general
public. All persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting except as otherwise provided in this act. The right of a person to
attend a meeting of a public body includes the right to tape-record, to videotape, to broadcast live on radio, and to telecast live
on television the proceedings of a public body at a public meeting. The exercise of this right shall not be dependent upon the
prior approval of the public body. However, a public body may establish reasonable rules and regulations in order to minimize
the possibility of disrupting the meeting.
(2) All decisions of a public body shall be made at a meeting open to the public.
(3) All deliberations of a public body constituting a quorum of its members shall take place at a meeting open to the public
except as provided in this section and sections 7 and 8.
(4) A person shall not be required as a condition of attendance at a meeting of a public body to register or otherwise provide
his or her name or other information or otherwise to fulfill a condition precedent to attendance.
(5) A person shall be permitted to address a meeting of a public body under rules established and recorded by the public
body. The legislature or a house of the legislature may provide by rule that the right to address may be limited to prescribed
times at hearings and committee meetings only.
(6) A person shall not be excluded from a meeting otherwise open to the public except for a breach of the peace actually
committed at the meeting.
They say that all are invited to attend and comment is assumed to be part of that attendance, yet they attempt to intimidate people who speak by asking for their personal information. In effect they are saying you cannot speak unless you can be added to a database of theirs. While I don't care that much about giving them personal info, their intent is clear & it is not to put you on a X-mas card list. I have found more often than not members will not read their home addresses into the record. Once again, do as we say & not as we do government at work.
Council Info
Phone: 810-766-7418
Fax: 810-766-7032
Location
3rd Floor City Hall
Room 310
1101 S. Saginaw St.
Flint. MI 48502
Business Hours: Monday to Friday
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
It appears that Flint's Court is in another building located at:
68th District Court
Floyd J McCree Building
630 S. Saginaw Street; Flint, Michigan 48502
Located on Saginaw Street between 2nd and 3rd Street
http://www.68thdistrictcourt.com/
Going by the information above it looks like the
next meeting(s) will be on Monday March 26 at 5:30pm. Then in April on the 9th & the 23rd.
I would be happy to attend and coordinate a carpool(s) from the Metro Detroit area if anyone is interested in going once a date is picked.
Kind Regards - G9OS