§ 510.6 Public participation.

(a) All committee meetings, or portions of meetings, that are open to the public shall be held at a reasonable time and at a place that is reasonably accessible to the public. A meeting room shall be selected which, within the bounds of the resources and facilities available, affords space to accommodate all members of the public who reasonably could be expected to attend. (b) Any member of the public shall be permitted to file a written statement with the committee, either by personally delivering a copy to the Chairperson, or by submitting the statement by mail to the Marine Mammal Commission Offices at the address indicated in the notice of meeting. Such statements should be received at least one week in advance of the scheduled meeting at which they are expected to be considered by the committee. (c) Opportunities will ordinarily be afforded to interested persons to speak to agenda items during that portion of the open meeting during which that item is to be considered by the committee, subject to such reasonable time limits as the committee may establish, and consideration of the extent to which the committee has received the benefit of comments by interested persons, the complexity and the importance of the subject, the time constraints under which the meeting is to be conducted, the number of persons who wish to speak during the meeting, and the extent to which the statement provides the committee with information which has not previously been available and is relevant to its decision or other action on that subject. Interested persons may be required to serve reasonable notice of their intentions to speak so that the committee may assess whether procedures and scheduling for the meeting can be adjusted to accommodate large numbers of participants.