We noticed during Monday August 12th's Council Meeting, a new "beeping" sound was heard anytime a specific person from the public went up to speak. While there was always a 5-minute rule noted prior to opening Public Portions, this was the first time an audible sound was heard.

When this resident went up to speak, you could hear a timer being set. Then, upon the 5 minute limit being reached, an audible timer alarm would sound. While the Mayor would let the resident linger a little longer than the 5 minutes, he proceeded to state their time has ended. It does not appear that other speakers from the public were subjected to this timer sound.

Mayor Richard Onderko informed the resident they were over their 5 minutes, and proceeded to compare Manville with the County also having a 5 minute limit:

"In Somerset County, with the Commissioner meeting I was at, they almost walked me out with a Sheriff Deputy because I went over 5 minutes. OK. So they don't tolerate it, and I don't think we should tolerate it. 5 minutes is good enough."

The resident was displeased. "When you have a lot of Resolutions, 5 minutes is not enough time to find out what's going on in the Borough. So I think that's very unfair. Thank you." She stated to the Mayor, as she proceeded to go back to her seat.

Some residents who attend the meetings ask many questions, particularly during the Public Portion on Resolutions. For example, this past council meeting had 13 separate Resolutions, with a separate one for approval of vouchers.

When there are this many Resolutions on the agenda, it can be very easy to go over the 5-minute allocation per speaker.

Further complicating things, the Borough still does not publish attachments with meeting agendas on the Borough website. The first time residents can read over Resolutions, and detailed items on the agenda, is minutes before council meetings begin.

This does not give residents enough time to review content beforehand, and prepare questions. The agenda on the website is only the basic agenda, with no detailed information.

This matter was brought up several times earlier this year, and was implied by the Mayor that they would re-visit publishing all of the attachments prior to meetings. This still has not happened.