Galesville bid to allow open comment dies, chickens to stay

Two proposals from Galesville council member Tom Thatcher died without a motion to second: a motion to take away the mayor’s power limiting public comment and a bid to make illegal the keeping of chickens within city limits.

Thatcher suggested a change in December to the order of business for Galesville meetings to allow for public comment, in which any person from the community can come to the meeting and address the council. Thatcher said at the time that several citizens of Galesville had asked him why public comment was not allowed. Although many smaller communities and school boards allow for public comment, Wisconsin statutes do not require it.

Currently, the Galesville statute on public comment allows the mayor to set the allotted time for public comment to any amount of time — including zero. Limiting the time for public comment to zero began with the last mayor, John Graf, and continues with mayor Vince Howe. 

“We use to have it here and many times it got out of hand,” Howe said. “If people have something to talk about they can get on the agenda.” 

Thatcher replied that the mayor could act as a filter, disallowing certain messages. 

“If someone brings something that the mayor or a council member doesn’t agree with, the mayor won’t put it on the agenda,” Thatcher said. 

The city’s lawyer, who is present at all meetings, Matt Klos reminded the council that if they want a certain item on the agenda, it is required to be on the agenda.

Thatcher’s motion to take away the mayor’s power to limit public comment time failed to get a second.

The second motion about the city’s ordinance regarding the keeping of chickens in the city was in response to a discussion last month on the challenges of allowing chickens in Galesville. 

Chief complaints were that some people were not following the rules, and that the city’s inspector was not being paid to inspect the chicken coops. Only two out of four applications for keeping chickens have been approved in the city of Galesville.

The motion to eliminate the ordinance allowing for chickens died without a second, but further discussion led the council to a compromise. 

The application fee would increase from $50 to $100 in order to pay the city inspector for his work inspecting the coops. Additionally, the clause in the ordinance disallowing the keeping of chickens within a certain distance of any vendor. 

Howe pointed out that the food vendors at the Trempealeau County Fair were close to where animals were kept and the required distance unfairly affected certain people. The increase in application fee and elimination of required distance from food vendors were approved unanimously by the council.