Reference Guide for Local Government Public Comment Periods: Public Hearings vs. Public Comment Periods

This post is Part 1 of a multi-part series. For a more detailed explanation and legal analysis of the issues discussed in this blog post series (including citations to cases referenced in the post), please see Local Government Law Bulletin # 146: Reference Guide for Local Government Public Comment Periods. 

Public participation is vital to good governance, and public comment periods are an important vehicle for facilitating this participation. A new bulletin provides a reference guide with the statutory and constitutional authority local governments must understand to conduct a productive and lawful public comment period. This post will address a threshold issue—the differences between public comment periods and public hearings.

Overview

The North Carolina General Statutes provide local governments with two main methods for receiving public feedback: public hearings and public comment periods. While both are important to public participation, there are notable differences between the two. Statutes require local governments to hold public hearings for certain subject matters or particular actions. For example, city councils and boards of county commissioners must hold legislative hearings before adopting, amending, or repealing land use or development regulations. G.S. 160D-601(a). The purpose of public hearings is to receive public feedback on the specific matter or action identified in the controlling statute.  As a result, comments should pertain to the subject of the hearing and not to other, unrelated matters. In contrast, public comment periods are regular opportunities for a much broader range of commentary on local government business. Instead of focusing on just one proposed action or topic, public comment periods exist to promote public conversation on most any matter that falls within the local government’s jurisdiction.

When is a public hearing required?

Public hearings must occur when statute requires or when a local government board chooses to hold a hearing by majority vote. When trying to determine whether a public hearing is necessary, local government practitioners should consult statute first. (There is a comprehensive, though not exhaustive, table of statutorily required public hearings at the bottom of this post). Even if statute does not require a public hearing, though, local government boards can vote by majority to hold one. They may choose to do so in a variety of instances, including when a measure is controversial or when there is uncertainty about the public’s reactions to a proposed action.

When is a public comment period required?

Statute requires city councils, boards of county commissioners, and local school boards to hold regular public comment periods. G.S. 160A-81.1 (cities); G.S. 153A-52.1 (counties); G.S. 115C-51 (local school boards). These three governing statutes—virtually identical—require each of these entities to hold at least one public comment period at a regular meeting each month. These bodies are not however, required to hold a meeting solely to conduct a public comment period. Thus, if a regular meeting is not scheduled in a particular month, the board is not required to schedule a meeting just to hold the public comment period.

 Similarly, if a meeting is scheduled but then later cancelled—or the meeting is unable to proceed for lack of quorum—no additional meeting needs to be scheduled to fulfill the public comment period requirement. Taking these statutory requirements together, for each of these entities, if only one regular meeting is scheduled per month, that meeting must include a public comment period. If more than one regular meeting is scheduled in a month, only one of those meetings must include a public comment period. As with public hearings, a local government board can vote by majority to hold additional public comment periods even if not required under the controlling statutes.

The next installment in this series will examine the statutory requirements for public comment periods.

Public Hearing Statutes