Croucher, along with Councilmembers Austin Proffitt, Sharon Montgomery and Kenneth Roark, voted yes on the motion.
Under the new guidelines:
- Speakers are limited to three minutes unless additional time is granted by the presiding officer.
- Individuals must sign in at least 10 minutes before the meeting and provide their name and address.
- Comments are limited to residents of the city of Trenton.
- Public comment is intended only as input for council; councilmembers will not engage in dialogue, debate or respond to questions during this portion of the meeting.
Proffitt said he supported the measure because councilmembers were elected to represent Trenton residents.
“We had plenty of discussions … we wanted to allow the residents of Trenton to speak,” he said, adding that residents of surrounding townships should address concerns with their own elected officials.
At the end of the meeting, Perry acknowledged the change but urged civility going forward.
“I realize we limited comments today,” he said. “I’m not going to speak about that, but I’m going to say that I hope everybody from now on talks to each other in a respectful manner, that we don’t have the back and forth that we had before.”
He encouraged residents to continue speaking at meetings if they follow the new rules.
“Be mad, I mean, that’s fine, that’s part of it, but just please be respectful and be kind,” Perry said. “Realize, we might disagree on this issue, but there’s going to be a hundred other issues that we agree with each other on.”
Nichols, in response to why he voted against on the motion, told Journal-News he believes the new rules are “too restricting.”
“(The rules) exclude everyone that is not a resident, including business owners,” he said. “I agree we needed a time limit but three minutes seems a little short.”
Perry, Croucher, Montgomery, Proffitt and Roark did not respond to requests for comment from the Journal-News.
Similar rules in nearby cities
Public comment procedures in other Butler County communities are similar to the new Trenton rules.
In Middletown, residents must submit a comment card before the meeting begins. Each speaker receives four minutes, and comments must relate to city business. Speakers must be city residents or have a business interest in Middletown.
The city prohibits foul language, interactive questioning and debate with council or staff. Those who violate the rules may be denied the chance to address council, according to city documents.
In Hamilton, residents are given five minutes to speak and must sign up before the meeting with full names and addresses. Discussion of pending court cases, pending grievances and tactics of defamation, intimidation, personal affronts, profanity, yelling or threats of violence are not permitted, according to city documents.
Community concern tied to data center project
The change in Trenton comes as the city faces public scrutiny over a proposed 250‑megawatt, 880,000‑square‑foot data center planned for 141 acres of undeveloped land.
Although no official directly linked the new comment rules to the project, Trenton resident Angie Markham believes the timing is connected.
Markham said the decision was “disappointing.”
“I understand that this is the normal way that a lot of other localities operate, but it’s still disappointing to me that it was changed,” she said.
Markham noted that many residents living closest to the proposed development are in Madison or St. Clair townships — not in Trenton — yet they will be most impacted by construction and traffic.
“To try and abdicate your responsibility and pretend like, well, you need to go and talk to your own people when those are not the people that made the decision,” she said. “(The data center) is a decision that was made by Trenton.”
At a March 2 public forum, representatives from Prologis — the real estate company that purchased and plans to develop the site — answered questions about the upcoming data center.
Residents from Trenton and neighboring communities have raised concerns about potential increases to water and electric bills, noise and light pollution, traffic changes, and environmental impacts.
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