Council Comment Instructions

Guidance for the Online Meeting on July 13, 7pm

For this meeting, the key agenda item is A-2 (staff report here). This is where CCAN will be demanding that the Council reaffirm its direction that the public safety task force include  a reallocation of at least 50% of the CCPD budget as an option in its review. 

There are now three ways to submit a public comment. Using all three to increase your chances to be heard, but speaking live in your own voice is most effective. The Council recently changed its practice to no longer read aloud during the meeting written comments submitted in advance, though they still are made available to the Council and the public. Comment practices for these online meetings are constantly evolving and sometimes there are snafus, but this is our best understanding of the current process.

If you want to comment live during the meeting:

We recommend doing as much of the following preparation as you can, at least through step 3, well in advance of the meeting, to give yourself time for any technical snafus; also, the Mayor may limit the number of speakers if time is short, so getting in the queue early may help you be heard. For live comment, you likely will have only two minutes to speak, though it could be shortened to one minute if there are many speakers, or up to three minutes if there are few. Plan accordingly! Writing out your comments in advance is often helpful

1) Go to the “Public Meetings” page under “Commissions, Committees, and Boards” on the City website: https://www.culvercity.org/city-hall/city-government/commissions-committees-boards/public-meetings 

2) Click your meeting under “Register to Attend” on the right.

3) On the next screen register for the meeting (July 13). If you are registering in advance, you can indicate that you want to speak on a specific agenda item (A-2). 

4) At the scheduled time join the meeting using the link emailed to you. The City uses Cisco WebEx, which is pretty similar to Zoom, BlueJeans, and Google Meet. Almost all the same functions are in the same places, so if you have trouble try to find a friend who knows one of those platforms.

5) As early as possible in the meeting, post in the chat that you want to speak, and which item you are interested in (A-2).

6) When your item (A-2) comes up, go to the “Participants” window, find your name, and use the “Raise Hand” option.

7) Speak when the City Clerk calls on you. If you or your family are watching the meeting on multiple devices, turn off the sound on all of them except for the one you are using, otherwise there will be distracting feedback.

Even if you plan to make a live comment, it is prudent also to submit a written comment in advance in case something ends up preventing you from speaking live.

If you want to submit written comments using the eComment feature:

To ensure that a written comment will be provided to the Council before the meeting (and thus before they vote), it must now be submitted by 3pm on the day of the meeting. Later comments will be shared with the Council the next day and will not be part of the official record of the meeting. 

1) Go to the calendar page on the City website: https://culver-city.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

2) Click “eComment” at the far right of the line for your meeting.

3) Click “Comment” next to your item on the agenda.

4) Use the “Sign Up” or “Sign In” links at the upper right to create an account or log in to your account.

5) Type your comment in the box. You have a 4000 character limit for the entire meeting, so plan ahead if you want to comment on multiple items.

6) Click “Submit Comment”

You may also email your comments, either for backup or to submit longer comments, material with illustrations, charts, graphs, and tables, footnotes, etc.:

goran.eriksson@culvercity.org, alex.fisch@culvercity.org,daniel.lee@culvercity.org, meghan.sahli-wells@culvercity.org, thomas.small@culvercity.org, and public.comment@culvercity.org.