By Greg Halbleib

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner says he’s reluctant to curtail the scope of public comment during council meetings just because someone dropped an f-bomb during the most recent session.

However, Renner said he’ll take a close look at public comment protocol.

“I do have broad discretion, but since I’ve tried to be open and transparent, I don’t want to be somebody who’s shutting people down,” Renner told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin. “At the same time, what are the standards we can use?”

Renner said he’s proud that Bloomington’s rules allow anyone to speak about anything, with the only limits imposed involving time.

“The council did examine this a year and a half ago because we were spending as much time on public comment as we were conducting our business, and the public comment wasn’t terribly productive,” Renner said. “So we talked about it and all we have is a half-hour limit.”

The 30-minute window is for all public comment with each person limited to three minutes.

Renner encourages anyone with questions about city business to bring them to his mayor’s open house held on the Friday afternoons before the Monday council meetings.

Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].