By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Beaufort County Council will be shifting the times of their meetings to try and make them more accessible to the public.
Regular Council meetings, which were previously held at 5 p.m., will now be held at 6 p.m.
Committee meetings will be held at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and caucus meetings will be held at 5 p.m.
The decision to adjust the start of County Council meetings is in response to concerns raised by the public that most are not able to attend by 5 p.m.
Newly elected County Council Chairman Alice Howard and Vice Chairman Anna Maria “Tab” Tabernick both said in an interview with The Island News that going into the new year they hope to prioritize transparency and “openness” with the public.
The Council hopes to give members of the community more of an opportunity to participate and give feedback and changing the meetings so that they have a later start time gives the public a better chance to do that.
The schedule for on location County Council meetings is:
Monday, January 27 – Hilton Head Island Library
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Monday, Feb. 24 – Burton Wells Recreation Center
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Monday, March 24 – Buckwalter Recreation Center
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Monday, April 28 – St. Helena Branch Library
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Monday, May 27 – Hilton Head Island Branch Library
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Monday, June 23 – Burton Wells Recreation Center
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Monday, Sept. 22 – Buckwalter Recreation Center
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Monday, Oct. 24 – St. Helena Branch Library
5 p.m. Caucus
6 p.m. Regular Session
Committee meetings
The committee meeting schedule is:
Community Services Committee – 1st Monday, 2 p.m.
Natural Resources Committee – 1st Monday, 4 p.m.
Finance, Administration, Economic Development Committee – 3rd Monday, 2 p.m.
Public Facilities Committee – 3rd Monday, 4 p.m.
Executive Committee – will meet as needed
As for citizen comment, constituents can sign up for Citizen comments when they arrive at the meeting.
There will be one Citizen Comment portion at the beginning of the meeting, and it will last for 30 minutes. Each citizen will be allowed three minutes.
Anyone who wishes to speak during Citizen comment will be allowed to sign up to do so if they agree to address Council “in a respectful manner appropriate to the decorum of the meeting, refraining from the use of profane, abusive or obscene language.”
Previously there were two sessions of Citizen Comments, and one was dedicated solely to items listed on the agenda for that meeting.
“As Chair and Vice Chair of Beaufort County Council, we remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering an open and inclusive forum for public engagement,” Chair Alice Howard said in a news release. “Recent changes to the public comment portion of our meeting agendas reaffirm our dedication to ensuring that all members of the public have the opportunity to speak, regardless of the topic they wish to address because as your elected representatives, we are entrusted with the responsibility to listen to those we serve.”
All meetings will continue to be broadcast on BCTV, which can be found on cable channels Sparklight (Hargray) – Channel 9 and 417; Comcast – Channel 2; Spectrum – Channel 1304.
BCTV can also be streamed live on www.BeaufortCounty.tv, their dedicated YouTube channel and on the free BCTV app that is available on Roku, Apple TV, Android TV and Amazon Fire.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
