Scottsdale City Council rejects proposal that limits public comment

Scottsdale decides against reducing number of speakers, amount of time to speak

Scottsdale City Council decided against reducing the number of speakers and the time they can speak for, instead choosing to increase the number of speakers. FOX 10's Taylor Wirtz has the latest of the heated debate.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Scottsdale's city council will discuss on Dec. 2 if it should enforce more strict rules limiting public comment, a proposal that has already caused quite a bit of controversy in the city.

The backstory:

According to the agenda for Dec. 2's city council meeting, members of the Scottsdale City Council will decide on a measure that will, among other things, reduce individual speaker time during public comment periods to two minutes. Currently, the time allotted is three minutes.

In addition, the proposal will increase the total time for each "non-agendized public comment period" to 16 minutes, allowing up to eight speakers. The period, however, will be scheduled towards the end of a regular meeting, instead of the beginning.

Scottsdale to discuss public comment changes

Members of the Scottsdale City Council are set to discuss a plan that aims to place limits on public comment periods during a council meeting. FOX 10's Irene Snyder reports.

Local perspective:

The proposed changes were suggested by the Interim City Attorney Luis E. Santaella and City Clerk Ben Lane, as part of an ongoing effort "to ensure that the City Council's procedures remain clear, current, and responsive to both legal requirements and practical needs."

They also say while Arizona law requires council meetings be open to the public, it does not require a city to offer public comment at those meetings.

We have reached out to Interim City Attorney Santaella, City Clerk Lane, and Vice Mayor Adam Kwasman for comment, and we are waiting to hear back.

The Outcome:

After much back and forth at the meeting on Dec. 2, the council ultimately decided against reducing the number of speakers and the time they can speak for, actually deciding to increase the number of speakers to 12.

Some council members said they have never gotten as many emails from citizens about a single topic as they have about these proposed changes, which would have reduced both the number of speakers on non-agenda items and the time they could speak, among other things. The changes were suggested to the council by the city clerk and interim city attorney as a way to improve efficiency and civility at meetings.

When this proposal was first reported on Nov. 30, it was met with outrage by many Scottsdale residents who felt their voices could be muffled by it.

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Scottsdale City Council to debate limits on public comments at meetings

Scottsdale City Council is set to discuss a proposal to limit public comment at its meetings.

While the mayor asked the interim city attorney to clarify which council members were for limiting public comment, he said he could not reveal that due to attorney-client privilege. Vice Mayor Kwasman admitted to giving input on some parts of the proposal but did not clarify whether they were the parts that would limit public comment. He maintained he does not want to "subvert democracy."

The original proposal would have cut the amount of speakers for non-agenda items from 10 to eight and would reduce their speaking time from three minutes to two minutes. It also would have moved public comment on non-agenda items to the end of the meeting, which was also decided against.

Big picture view:

Scottsdale is not the only city in the greater Phoenix area that discussed or enacted restrictions on public comment during city council meeting.

On Nov. 20, we reported that Fountain Hill's Town Council approved a plan to suspend public comment, following a tense meeting. The suspension of public comment came after a notice of claim was filed against the town and a number of town officials, including Mayor Gerry Friedel and Vice Mayor Allen Skillicorn. The claim centered on a meeting in September 2025, where Mayor Friedel allegedly allowed a pastor to "eulogize Charlie Kirk, promote her Christian religion and involve the Christian tenet that only ‘believers’ would be saved."

The claim also alleged that during the same meeting, Mayor Friedel allowed Vice Mayor Skillicorn and Councilmember Hannah Larrabee to use their allotted time to "eulogize Charlie Kirk, engage in religious proselytizing, read from scripture and invoke demons, Hell and salvation in an effort to promote their Christian religion and coerce and intimidate members of the public who were in attendance or participating in the meeting via the link to the live broadcast of the proceedings."

While the town council voted to approve suspending the public comment. Mayor Friedel has said it will be brought back after a work group goes over the way to amend public comment procedures.