SEQUIM — If you ask City Councilman Don Hall, it’s open season on the City Council this Monday night.
The council will hold a town-hall style meeting — with Mayor Walt Schubert walking around with a microphone that any audience member can speak into — starting at 6 p.m. in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
“It’s a very informal setting,” said Hall.
In past town hall meetings, the mayor “got people to ask all kinds of questions.”
The forum will last 90 minutes to two hours, Hall added.
This time Hall expects queries about how much Sequim will grow, whether it will get an off-leash dog park and what will happen to the skateboard park.
He said he received an e-mail from a constituent who said the planned fence around the skating arena will spoil the view across Carrie Blake Park.
Hearing topics
Schubert, however, said some topics are off-limits to the City Council.
If a public hearing is pending on a subject, state law prohibits the council from discussing it before that meeting, Schubert said.
So if a citizen asks a question about, say, the Comprehensive Plan, which will be the topic of a public hearing during the council’s May 22 meeting, the mayor and other members must decline to comment.
“We’ll have our attorney there,” Schubert added. Craig Ritchie will give him a signal when he shouldn’t touch a topic.
“I told him, for God’s sake, stop me. Don’t let me walk off a cliff,” the mayor said.
