The public will get a better chance to be heard at SeaTac council meetings but citizens may be speaking later in the evening.

SeaTac lawmakers unanimously changed council procedures April 9 to allow public comment at study sessions and on action items during regular council meetings.

However, the trade-off for more citizen input is a later starting time for regular council meetings.

Starting this Tuesday, April 23, the regular council meetings will begin at 6:30 p.m., instead of 6 p.m.

The council holds study sessions on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month before the regular sessions.

Public comments previously were not allowed at study sessions. But, in what Councilmember Dave Bush referred to as “an olive branch” to council critics and council members often in the minority, lawmakers unanimously agreed to add public comments to study sessions.

The study sessions will still start at 4 p.m. The study sessions have occasionally have not ended by the 6 p.m. starting time for regular meetings. Combined with the possibility that the extra public feedback may lengthen the study sessions, lawmakers decided to delay by 30 minutes the regular meeting starting time.

Restrictions were placed on the public participation in study sessions. Total time for public comment is 10 minutes, with three minutes allotted per speaker.

Councilmember Barry Ladenburg added an amendment stipulating the comments must be confined to study session agenda items. The amendment passed unanimously.

During April 9’s public comments, resident Vicki Lockwood complained that some nonresidents were recruited to serve on SeaTac’s new Community-Building Committee. She said enough SeaTac residents had applied for the citizens advisory committee to fill the vacancies.

Councilmember Rick Forschler noted that of the seven committee members and two alternates nominated, four do not reside in SeaTac. He said the membership seemed heavily weighted toward government and social services workers. Only one hailed from the private sector and one is retired, Forschler added. He said four SeaTac applicants, for what has been also referred to as a “diversity committee,” were not contacted.

Deputy Mayor Mia Gregerson said the committee members were carefully chosen to be able to work closely together for a consensus.

Councilmember Bush said that while some of the members are not SeaTac residents, they have worked in the community.

The council must confirm the committee appointments.

Also in public comments, Eric Helland, a member of a citizen’s ad hoc committee advising the city on preferred uses for the old Riverton Heights school site, said an earlier city staff presentation distorted what citizen committee members favored.

He said a staff proposal for four-plex housing units around the site would totally change the neighborhood.

He said committee members understood that “multiple use” meant different uses for paths while staff meant buildings with businesses on the bottom and housing above.

He said he was surprised when the proposals were put forth with the rationale “that’s what the committee recommended” when the committee members opposed the ideas. He added he felt he wasted his time and the city wasted its money on the advisory committee.

City Manager Todd Cutts said he will work on reconciling what the staff thought were the committee members’ thoughts with Holland’s comments and report back to the council.

“The staff is proud of the citizen engagement,” Cutts declared.

Cutts said the staff has been advised that residential housing units are not economically feasible at the site for at least the next six years.

In his comments, Forschler said a constituent had asked him why SeaTac does not have an organization like Discover Burien to sponsor citywide clean-ups and other activities.

Discover Burien is a nonprofit organization that works on Burien’s economic development, promotion and education. The group will hold its annual Clean Sweep event on April 20.

Forschler said he would be happy to help start a similar nonprofit for SeaTac and gave out his phone number, 206-419-5170, for anyone interested.