Greenville council meetings are among the most widely attended municipal functions in Mercer County.

Until recently, residents never hesitated to share with their elected officials what they thought of the job council members were doing and were seldom shy about airing their complaints.

After council hired a new solicitor, Douglas and Joseph of Hermitage, public comment time started disappearing from council's agenda.

At Tuesday's meeting, council President Pete Longiotti announced that public comment time would be limited to those who submit -- in advance -- written requests to be permitted to speak.

That doesn't sit well with William Johns, a Greenville resident who regularly attends council meetings.

"I'll never attend another meeting as long as they have that policy in place," he said. "I understand limiting wordy comments to 3 minutes, but there is no mention in the codes governing public meetings that someone must submit written comments beforehand."

It will be difficult, Johns said, to comment on council's actions.

"It's impossible to comment on what they're doing beforehand unless you have a crystal ball to know what they will be doing," he said. "I think that is just stupidity. But that's the way they choose to do it."

Longiotti said public comment is welcome at council's agenda meetings, which are held the Thursday before the regular business meeting on the second Tuesday of each month.

"Our solicitor advised us it would be better for council if public comment were brought to the work session, not the regular meeting," Longiotti said, adding the changes would provide more time for council to work on the problems raised by citizens. The policy will also help save time at the meetings, Longiotti said Tuesday.

Formerly, Greenville council meetings sometimes lasted three hours. People broke into council deliberations with comments and suggestions, and often held up proceedings.

Tuesday's meeting was over in less than two hours.

Corinna Wilson, general counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association, said that while the policy probably does not directly violate the state Sunshine Law, "it certainly violates the spirit of the Sunshine Laws."

The question has come up before, she said. PNPA believes that while any administration should seek to control its meetings, "asking for submitted questions and comments comes dangerously close to prior review," she said.

Public meeting statutes say that the public must be allowed time to comment, Ms. Wilson said.

Boards can limit the time the public may speak and decide when the audience may speak, she said. For example, allowing a member of the public 5 minutes to speak at the beginning of the meeting is more than reasonable, she said.

"When a government asks that all questions be submitted in writing, there's nothing that guarantees all questions will be answered," Ms. Wilson said. "Even if a government says they won't answer a question, they must do it publicly."

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com