How to Speak at a Public Meeting: A Greenville County Guide

Have you ever wanted to voice your opinion to local elected officials but felt unsure where to start? This episode of Simple Civics is your ultimate guide on how to speak at a public meeting and make a real impact. Whether you're concerned about a rezoning application, traffic on your street, or funding for schools, getting up to speak at a city council, county council, or school board meeting is a powerful form of civic engagement. But it can be intimidating. We break down the core problem: many people don't know the logistics, rules, or strategies for effectively addressing their elected officials. This episode provides a clear, step-by-step roadmap to make your voice heard.

In this episode, Katy Smith and Nathaniel DeSantis walk you through the entire process of speaking at a public meeting in Greenville County. We explain the crucial first step of getting on the agenda and how the public comment rules Greenville County requires differ from those of the City of Greenville - from signing up in person with a driver's license to emailing the City Clerk by a specific deadline. We provide a complete guide to preparing a speech for a council meeting, including researching your topic, understanding which council members might be allies, and timing your remarks to fit within the common three-minute limit.

You'll learn invaluable tips for speaking at a council meeting that go beyond just what to say. Katy, who has watched hundreds of citizens speak, shares advice on how to structure your comments for maximum impact: start with your personal story, connect it to the shared interests of the community and council, back it up with data if possible, and end with a clear call to action. We also cover the nuances of showing group support (wearing matching t-shirts is a real thing!), why council members typically don't engage in a dialogue during public comment, and how even a single, well-prepared speaker can capture the attention of the entire council. If you're passionate about civic engagement Greenville, this episode provides the practical tools you need to participate effectively.

Introduction

Katy Smith: This episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County is brought to you by Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, providing free books to children zero to five throughout Greenville County. To sign up, visit greenvillefirststeps.org slash free books. That's greenvillefirststeps.org slash free books. Are you ready to take civic engagement to the next level? Today's episode of Simple Civics, Greenville County, is about speaking at public meetings. Whether it's a session of city council, county council, or school board, we have tips to prepare you to make your voice heard. I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and our producer, Nathaniel DeSantis, and I will discuss logistics of public speaking, suggestions to prepare yourself and speak in the most impactful way, and assurance that whatever way you show up matters. Even if you're not planning to speak at a council meeting anytime soon, take a listen so you'll be able to share tips with friends and neighbors when they have a matter they'd like to raise in a public session with their elected officials.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County, Nathaniel here with Katy. We're doing another one-on-one, which means it's another deep dive into something that we think will help the community a lot. Not that the other episodes aren't, but you're maybe getting a little more nitty gritty into the details. And this one is particularly interesting because we talk about going to council meetings a lot and getting your voice heard and talking in front of everyone and letting your elected officials know what matters to you because that's what moves the needle. But a lot of people have asked us, how do I actually do this? When I get up there, what do I do? So, Katy, maybe let's start with step one.

How to Sign Up to Speak and Understanding the Rules

Katy Smith: I'm really glad to cover this because as excited as you all might be as listeners about getting engaged when you've got that sheet of paper with the speech you've written, who to deliver it to, when, how, it's a little confusing. So the first thing, if you want to go speak in front of a city council, county council, the school board, is getting on the agenda to speak, getting signed up to speak.

So before the meeting, you're going to obviously want to know the agenda and see that what you want to talk about is on it or that some of the bodies have a time to just have open public comment. So look on the Friday before the coming week about what the agenda is. Confirm when public comment is allowed. Each entity has it at different times. You're going to want to understand the rules for each entity.

I was inclined to list them for you here, but they do change. And so your best bet is to go onto the website for the city of Greenville or the city of Simpsonville or Greenville County, whatever it is you want to talk to and look it up. So as of the posting of this episode, for instance, the Greenville County Council lets people sign up for a period from 5:15 until 5:45 before the council meeting by showing up in person with your driver's license and filling out a form about which agenda item you want to talk about. And you do that at county square at a particular desk right when you walk in. The city of Greenville, on the other hand, as of right now, has you email or call the city clerk by noon on the day of the meeting to sign up.

So each body is different. You need to know the rules and follow them to sign up. And then, of course, you want to research your topic, be informed, know any of the backstory. It really helps to know which council members are likely allies or opponents of your issue, which you can glean by doing a little research from previous meetings or talking to your council member. And then preparing your statement, which I'll talk a little bit more about.

Nathaniel DeSantis: This sounds shockingly similar to preparing for a podcast in a way. You want to do your research ahead of time. You want to know what you're going to be talking about. You want to prepare what you're going to say. Using simple civics, for example, we always let people know who come on. We try to limit these to 15 to 20 minutes. So surprisingly similar to a podcast, minus the rules. We don't have rules of the podcast for good reasons, but for good reasons, government does have a rule when it comes to speaking and how the process works. But I think that's in life a good general rule. Be prepared for things before you go in. So before you actually even get ready to speak to counsel, it's, correct me if I'm wrong, it's important to make sure you even have to be up there speaking?

Katy Smith: That's right. A lot of times you will just call staff within the governmental organization, or you could call your council member, your representative to ask, and you could get your problem solved or understand more about the issue that means you don't even need to come and speak about it.

Presenting to Council: What to Say and How to Say It

Nathaniel DeSantis: Okay. Let's say I've got all my preparation done and everything's set up. Now what happens? I'm up there. I'm in front of the council. What do I do during my presentation?

Katy Smith: Yes. All right. Actually, let's take one step back before you get up there. So when you get in that room, you'll position yourself in the council chambers or in the school board room, and you'll have your document. And each has a way that they call people up. So you'll be following the agenda for when your period of comment is, and they might say, Mr. Chairman, the next speaker is Katy Smith speaking on agenda item 15A. Each does it a little bit different. That might be an example for county council.

In that case, I'm going to step up to the podium. Sometimes there are so many speakers signed up for efficiency, they might call a little list, like the next four speakers are, and they'll list those, and you can either just clock it and know, okay, I'm the third one she named, or sometimes people make a loose little line towards the back of the room. But you will step up to the podium. In all of these venues there will be a timer that you can see. Oftentimes it's a TV that's up there and I know that at both County Council and Greenville City Council you get a three-minute countdown.

So you're going to take a look at that and you'll start and you'll introduce yourself. You'll say I'm Katy Smith. You might say your particular address or the neighborhood that you live in. Some require you to state your address and your connection to the issue. I will say that sometimes if people are there representing a business that they are affiliated with. They might give the business address or they might say, I live in this district and I work in this district. So you'll be relevant. And then you're going to say what you have to say.

Let me just tell y'all, having watched probably hundreds of people speak at the podium over the course of my career. There is a fine line that you're going to want to strike between having your thoughts collected, which you might write them out and practice at home timing them in that three minute or whatever the time frame is, and infusing your personality. Some people are great at winging it. They might have an index card with bullets. They might just be that kind of person. But if what you have to say is really important, unless you're super accustomed to getting up and talking in front of people and winging it, I would really advise you to go ahead and type it up and practice and time it.

There are so many ways you can go about doing this but what I think is the most useful approach is whatever it is you're passionate about start talking about you and your experience and why it is important to you and then talk about why it should also be important to that council member and the shared interests that the two of you have particularly speaking to who might be your swayable opposition. And then call them to action. Specifically say what it is you want them to do, which could be send it back to committee for further consideration or vote no tonight or vote yes tonight. Or if it isn't even on the council's radar, say, I really hope you'll give attention to this issue. It's really important. I have a sheet here I can hand you to look at.

Let's just give an example that I can make up right now. If I'm really concerned about traffic and speed on my street, I might say I've lived on the street for this many years. We've had this many accidents just since I've been here. I really want you to put in a speed bump on my street to make a difference. I know that you care about safety. You guys have kids also, or I know you guys run and bike and enjoy our streets. This is really important.

So just being pretty direct and clear and not hyperbolic, I think is really important. If you can back whatever you have to say up with any data, as well as any stories, that is often impactful. And really, be kind. I just adhere to that Southern saying, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And so when you're first approaching them. You can be irritated with them about something, but yelling at them, I just find to not be super effective. So be clear, say what it is you're looking for. And then I always like to end by thanking them for their time and their consideration. You're asking them to do something for you. So thank them for that time.

Public Comment FAQs: Time Limits, Dialogue, and Showing Group Support

Nathaniel DeSantis: So I want to maybe ask some questions that other people might have, because this is relatively new to me. And I've only been to one or two council meetings. So I'm not sure how this works, but let's say you go up. You have two to three minutes, correct?

Katy Smith: Three minutes. Just depending. Some of them, yeah.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Do you just sit back down after those three minutes? Or would a council member maybe say, let's talk about this, and then you have a discussion? What goes on with that?

Katy Smith: That's a really great question. So usually in public comment, there is not dialogue. Very seldom is there dialogue. They are listening to you. And that is it. And can I be honest with you guys? I haven't really thought about why, but this is what I'm guessing is they don't know enough yet. So they're just hearing you as information, nor is it fair to you to be grilled with any questions because you're not an expert. You're just lifting something up.

So you don't have to worry that they're going to come at you with questions. You're not a lawyer or on a jury. You're just saying here's a piece of evidence for you to take into consideration. And they say thank you. So in that spirit, you probably won't see them shaking their heads in an angry way or nodding and affirming you. They pretty just blankly take the information. And that's that is appropriate, really. So don't be discouraged if you're not seeing them stand up and clap for you or raise their fist in the air. That's not what this is for.

Every once in a while, I have heard a council member say, may I ask a follow-up question? Usually, when I've seen it done, it's done when it's clear that you know. You've got some kind of zoning, rezoning application in, and they want a clarification on what has happened thus far. It's something germane to the case. But yeah, don't worry that there's not going to be dialogue or Q&A.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Would there be an opportunity for a resident to have more than three minutes? Is that a different type of speech in front of them? What is that? If you want to do a whole 10-minute presentation on the type of asphalt we use sucks in Greenville County. I'm an asphalt expert and you need 10 minutes to do a PowerPoint. How is that different than this?

Katy Smith: It is.

Nathaniel DeSantis: And how does that work?

Katy Smith: That does not happen in what we're talking about.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Never.

Katy Smith: Never. It never happens. Not in these public comment periods. Sometimes you might run a little over and you'll hear a bell chime. That's of note when the clock ticks down there might be a buzzer or a bell that rings that lets you know you're out of your time. Sometimes people stop abruptly and they say thank you and they sit down. Sometimes they keep going and ignore the bell and the chair has to say, you're out of time. Or sometimes they'll let you wind up your thought. Usually that is what happens.

But if you've got some longer thing to say, that would usually come up in maybe a committee conversation or a work session or a public input session. But you do not need to bring your asphalt PowerPoint when you come to these. If you do have something you want them to see, what people might do is they might say, I have with me a report that I've written up or comments from my neighbors or photos that give evidence of what's going on. And I'd like to share them with you. And you'll hand those to the clerk. They have a clerk, all these bodies do, that helps them run their meetings. And they can just either take the one copy or hand it out to everybody.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Let's say that I do want a speed bump in my neighborhood because it's getting out of control and it's dangerous. And I get 20 of my neighbors to all go to, let's say county council and sign up to do the two to three minutes of speaking. And we do neighbor after neighbor after neighbor saying more or less the same thing. We want a speed bump. It's getting out of control, but it's 20 people doing it. Is that a bad idea? Is that a good idea?

Katy Smith: This is such a good question on lots of levels. So first, let's speak to your specific question. It's a great idea to show support. How you show support, it's nuanced. So if you can imagine you are a county council member and you want to get home to your family for dinner and you got a whole big agenda and the other people sitting in this room might be here for other things, they probably do not want to listen to 23-minute comments that all say, get us a speed bump.

There are so many things you can do, like pick five of the neighbors to each lift up a different point. I'm worried about my kids walking to school safely. My dog got hit. I have to mow my lawn and cars are flying by me. This is lowering the value of my home. Lift up some different aspects of this from different people. I've lived here my whole life. I just bought this house. And have them cover it. And then you might could say, our neighborhood is all here in favor. Will everyone in our neighborhood stand up? And they can stand up and council can go, oh, wow, 50 people came out. Okay.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Or wear matching shirts.

Katy Smith: Or wear matching shirts is a real thing. Wear the red shirts, wear the green shirts, whatever it is. That is a really good way to indicate the breadth of interest on an issue and how many people are there. It is also not bad to not use three minutes. Stand up and say, I'm another neighbor. I just wanted to add my voice to this. My kids ride their bike to the pool. Please deal with this now. Thanks so much. And sit down, period. No one minds that at all.

Now, one thing that the speed hump example makes me think of is you also need to know if the thing you want to do is even possible. If you live on Poinsett Highway and you're worried about speed, a speed hump is not an option for you. That's a terrible example because most people are, got it. But that is where first it helps to work with staff. Call your city staff, call your county staff, call your school staff, whatever you're worried about, and say, here's my concern. What are the possibilities? Because staff usually really do want to help you solve your problem. And they can say, all right, here's your option. A speed hump would be great for you. But it depends on council action. Again, this is probably not a good example I'm lifting up because I don't think any speed humps are approved by council. But the point is, work with staff, figure out what is the right call to action, and then take that before council in a strategic way.

Nathaniel DeSantis: And I've been to county council meetings and I distinctly to this day remember the very first one because Greenville Connects was there and there were like 20 people with the green shirts that said Greenville Connects. And I still remember that to this day. And I think [Could not verify with context] went up there and said something. Someone said something. I don't remember what the person said, but I remember the group. So I think that's kind of the point we're making. You don't need 20 people to each go up there and say something. You just need 20 people there with you, supporting you.

Katy Smith: And this is something I want you all listening to know, that having gone to many of these public meetings and seen many different people speak, it is sometimes you will have some hot button issue that has a whole bunch of people in matching shirts, which could be an annexation or a zoning or a public funding time. And that gets the council's attention and there's a lot of energy in the room. And then right after them might be one person who's concerned about one thing related to their property or an issue that no one else is there in the room for, Council also leans into that because they are there to solve constituent problems. So don't worry if you don't have a bunch of people with magic shirts joining you up there. Each of those get equal attention at council, which is why there are rules and structure in place to make sure it's an even playing field.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Let's say you go up there to talk about a roundabout you uninstalled. And I was going to council just to hang out and observe. But you say something I really agree with. Is there a way for me to show my support without going up there and talking? Can I stand up or cheer, applause? What can I do? Talk afterwards to a council member? Is there anything that I could do then?

Katy Smith: That's a really good question. Yes, people do applaud and people cheer or people kind of say boo. You do you. Within decorum, very often, council members kind of come up to the front. It sort of depends who they are and what they have going on. But oftentimes, they do kind of make themselves available to interact with the public. And you might want to go up and say, hey, I hadn't thought about that, but I'm worried about it, too. Or follow up after the meeting with an email or a phone call and let folks know your opinion, which is we've done an episode on why government is slow. And that's a perfect example. So we should link that in the show notes.

Expert Tips for Strategic and Impactful Communication

Nathaniel DeSantis: Well, as we come to the end of what's becoming a longer episode than I expected, talking about how to talk to counsel, but it's really important. So it makes sense. I think you said at the start, you've been to hundreds of these. Is that right?

Katy Smith: Probably so. Yeah.

Nathaniel DeSantis: So then you must have some bonus tips or extra tips that can help people. So spill the tea on what that might be.

Katy Smith: The biggest thing is that you are engaging in a form of strategic communication. You are calling to action people who either have not given thought to your issue or who may not agree with you, whose minds you are trying to change. And so I often see people talking about a thing in language that makes sense to them rather than language that's going to resonate and make sense to the people whose minds they are trying to change. And so I think it is wise if you can to avoid using jargon that may not resonate with people. And I almost hate to say this but in this day and age things that to me shouldn't be political have kind of become political, even speed humps or public funding, all those things. And so really leaning into what is it that me and the people whose minds I'm trying to change have in common and just use plain language to talk about that rather than signaling what TV cable news network you listen to in your comments.

I think common ground is what you're trying to build. So thinking about that, like Sir Nathaniel said, I've been to hundreds of council meetings, you might not have ever been to any. And here's one thing that you might like to do. I always like to get a model out there for me. Most of these, I think all of our public bodies in Greenville County have recordings online of previous meetings. And you can really go and watch the beginning of public comment period for a couple of them and just see what it looks like. You can literally watch on YouTube, where's the podium? What's the timer look like? What did other people do? And did I like how it sounded? And model whatever seemed effective to you. Of course, you can go, we hope you would go to a council meeting and watch it and then you'll be familiar yourself. But I always think copying and pasting what works is a good tool.

Nathaniel DeSantis: And where'd you say people could find that?

Katy Smith: Well, actually, if you go to simplecivicsgreenvillecounty.org.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Oh, it's on the website.

Katy Smith: Well, we have a tab of resources that has buttons for every local government body in Greenville County, and you can click on that. And within those websites, you can find recordings of meetings. Of course, you can also just go to Google and write Mauldin City Council meeting recording, and it should come up for you. But that could be a good way to watch the YouTube of it.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Well, that was another great episode, Katy. Thank you for helping us understand how to get up and talk in front of council, whether it's in Greenville County, the city, or a completely different state. That being said, make sure you understand the rules before you go. Research that and get all your homework done before you get up there. But otherwise, we'll see you again next week for another episode of Simple Civics.

Catherine Puckett: Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org.