Alton Committee of the Whole Discusses Park Alton TIF Request and Public Comment Rules
ALTON – Alton officials may soon make it easier to sign up for public comments at city meetings.
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Alton Committee of the Whole members approved a resolution to consider an ordinance amending a section of the City Code regarding Rules and Procedures for Public Comment at their Oct. 26, 2026 meeting. The item will now be considered by the Alton City Council at its meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight, Oct. 28, 2026.
City Council Coordinator Beth Bear said following a state conference last year, City Clerk Lauren Wilson learned Alton is not following certain requirements of the Open Meetings Act. At issue is certain information the city currently requires well in advance from those wishing to make public comments at city meetings.
To request the floor at an Alton meeting to make public comment, the city currently requires several pieces of information from the person making the request. These include the person’s first and last name, phone number, address, official capacity, subject, email address and the type of meeting they wish to speak at.
By contrast, Bear said under the Open Meetings Act, someone could simply sign up as “Mickey Mouse” and still be formally recognized when the time comes for public comment.
Currently, public comment requests must be sent to the Alton City Clerk during regular business hours prior to the start of the meeting. Bear said this also violates the Open Meetings Act, and that going forward, the city would provide a signup sheet for interested public speakers to add their names to, even immediately before the meeting starts.
The proposed ordinance originally called for shortening the individual time limit for public comments from five minutes to three minutes. However, several committee members were vocally opposed to the change; Alderwoman Martha Pfister made an amendment to keep the individual time limit at five minutes, which was approved unanimously.
Another proposed time limit – two hours for all public comments in a single meeting – was the topic of some debate. Some aldermen argued imposing such a time limit would not be fair to the final speaker who was “cut off” at the two-hour mark.
Bear said the proposed changes aim to strike a balance between allowing the community to be heard while allowing the city government to conduct its business.
“City Council and Committee of the Whole are here for a purpose that is designated within city code, and it’s to do city business. So as much as we wish to hear from the public, that is actually not the primary function of these meetings,” Bear said. “I feel like two hours is a lengthy amount of time that allows a generous amount of public comment while still allowing this body to discharge its duties.”
Bear also pointed out that with the addition of a signup sheet for public comments, those interested in signing up would immediately be able to see how far down the list their name would be. She said the proposed ordinance includes other guardrails, such as prohibiting the use of profanity and the donation of one’s time to another speaker.
Alderman Michael Velloff moved to extend the overall time limit for public comments to three hours, but his amendment failed to pass with a vote of 4-3. Alderwomen Pfister, Stephanie Elliott, Patricia Ford and Rosie Brown each voted against the extra hour. Velloff also suggested the council could vote to extend the time limit during meetings as needed, but that raised questions over how it would appear to the public if aldermen extended the time limit at one meeting but not the next.
The resolution was approved 5-2 with an individual time limit of five minutes and an overall time limit of two hours for public comments. Aldermen Velloff and Chris Bohn voted against the amended resolution.
If approved by the City Council, the item will return in ordinance form for a first and second reading before a final vote at a future City Council meeting. A recording of the Oct. 26, 2026 Alton Committee of the Whole meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
