Don’t dilly-dally: Bellingham council considers trimming public comment time limit
In what they describe as an effort to streamline public comment on issues before the Bellingham City Council, its members are thinking about reducing the time for speakers from three minutes to two.
Councilman Jace Cotton proposed the move during a committee meeting Monday afternoon as the City Council was looking at its priorities for the year. Cotton feared that members of the public were being forced to wait sometimes hours for a chance to address the council.
“It’s a measure that would make some short-term improvements to the function of our public comment period,” Cotton said during a Committee of the Whole meeting. “People will fill the time, whatever time they’re allotted most of the time, so I think that it’s incentivizing conciseness. I care less about our time because we are paid to be here but for members of the public who are waiting to address the council I think having an opportunity to hear from more people in those public comment periods is part of my intent,” Cotton said.
Councilwoman Lisa Anderson said a shorter period could hurt people who aren’t used to public speaking or can’t communicate their thoughts during a two-minute window. Anderson said that a town hall-type session would give people more opportunities to speak on matters that are important to them.
Not everyone is very comfortable getting up to the mic. Not everyone gets into the flow of speaking right away,” Anderson said. “I worry about those voices that we might potentially shut down.”
The council took no immediate action, but members agreed to discuss the issue in more detail at an upcoming retreat.
Bellingham’s open public comment session has undergone several changes in recent years after speakers directed hate speech toward Jews and disrupted council meetings over gun rights. In 2021, the city was threatened with the loss of its YouTube channel when speakers spread lies and misleading information about COVID-19 and relevant vaccines. The comment period was suspended for several months after that incident, and the council instead held periodic town hall-style sessions that weren’t posted to YouTube as regular council meetings are.
Currently, speakers are given three minutes to speak on any topic during an open-ended session that follows the regular Monday night City Council meeting. That part of the meeting is not posted to the city’s YouTube channel.
Speakers — both in person and online — must register in advance with a valid name and email. Speakers aren’t required to live within the city of Bellingham.
Previously, 15 minutes was allotted at the beginning of the Monday night meetings for speakers to address any topic. That changed in March 2020, when meetings moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The comment period was suspended again for several weeks in November 2024 over security concerns and hostile comments directed at city officials. Public comment resumed in January 2025 with new metal detector screenings and armed guards to search members of the audience.
This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
