County Commissions and City Councils

County commissioners and city councils decide most of what residents notice: road maintenance, property tax requests, trash and water fees, law enforcement budgets, parks, zoning. They also meet more often than the Legislature and closer to home, usually with a podium, a sign-up sheet and a timer. The rules for speaking at those meetings come from three places: a handful of state statutes that require hearings, the Open Meeting Law's rules on agendas, and each board's own procedures. This lesson takes them in that order. Land use hearings before these same boards are covered in lesson 7 and lesson 8; budgets are covered in depth in the Local Government course's Budget Cycle and Following the Money and Testifying.

What the law requires, and what it leaves to the board

The Attorney General's Open Meeting Law Manual (July 2026 edition) says "the Open Meeting Law does not expressly require the opportunity for public comment." It adds that agencies may adopt "reasonable rules and regulations to ensure the orderly conduct of a public meeting," mentions a timed agenda, a "heavy gavel" and Robert's Rules of Order as tools, and says the public must be permitted to get close enough to hear what is being said. The full treatment of what the Open Meeting Law does and does not require is in lesson 2 and in the Open Meetings course's Public Comment and Hearings.

So a county board that offers no general comment period at its weekly meeting is within the Open Meeting Law. A city council that takes public comment only at the start of the meeting, for 20 minutes total, is within it too. What a board may not skip is a hearing some other statute requires.

Decision	Statute	Notice	Who may speak
County budget	31-1604, 31-1605	Published no later than the third week in August	"Any taxpayer may appear and be heard upon any part or parts" of the tentative budget
City budget	50-1002, 50-1003	Published twice, at least 7 days apart, in the official newspaper	"Any interested person may appear and show cause" why it should or should not be adopted
New fee, or fee increase over 5 percent	63-1311A	Newspaper once a week for the two weeks before the hearing week, or three meetings in three locations, or a mailing at least 7 days ahead	Public comment hearing at a regular or special meeting
Vacating a plat or part of one	50-1306A	Mail to owners within 300 feet at least 10 days ahead; published once a week for two weeks, last at least 7 days ahead	Public hearing
Rezones, permits, plan amendments	LLUPA, Title 67 Chapter 65	Publication, mailing and posting; see lesson 7	Affected persons may present and rebut evidence
City ordinances	50-902	Read on three different days unless suspended	No hearing by this section alone; board rules govern comment

Budget hearings: the notice is the ceiling

The county budget law works on a fixed calendar. After the commissioners agree on tentative appropriations, the budget officer must publish notice "not later than the third week in August" showing anticipated property tax revenue, revenue from other sources, the amount proposed for each county office or agency in at least two classifications, the amounts spent in each of the two prior fiscal years, and where and when the board will meet to fix the final budget. That meeting comes "on or before the Tuesday following the first Monday in September." At it, under 31-1604, "any taxpayer may appear and be heard upon any part or parts" of the tentative budget.

Then 31-1605 closes the door on increases: the final budget "in no event shall be greater than the amount of the tentative budget," and the property tax amount cannot exceed what was advertised. Cities work the same way. Under 50-1002 the hearing notice must run twice, at least seven days apart, with proposed spending and revenue by fund or department and the two prior years, and under 50-1003 the appropriation ordinance "in no event shall be greater than the amount of the proposed budget," with property tax appropriations capped at the amount advertised.

That shapes when testimony works. At the September county hearing, a resident can persuade the board to cut a line or move money between lines. A resident who wants a new deputy, more library hours or a road repair fund needs to be heard before the tentative budget is set in the summer, at the workshops where departments present their requests. By the hearing, the most anyone can win is a rearrangement inside the advertised total.

Fee hearings

Idaho Code 63-1311A applies to any "taxing district," which 63-201(29) defines as "any entity or unit with the statutory authority to levy a property tax." Counties, cities and school districts levy property tax, as do many special districts, and the fee rule reaches each of them. Before it approves a fee increase of more than 5 percent over the fee last collected, or imposes a new fee, it must hold a hearing at a regular or special meeting after notice by one of three methods: a newspaper ad once each week for the two weeks before the week of the hearing, stating the date, time, place, purpose and the reasons for the action; three public meetings in three different places in the district; or a single mailing to all district residents at least seven days before the meeting. A district that skips the hearing or the notice risks having all or part of the fee increase declared voidable.

Ordinances and vacations

A city ordinance must be read on three different days under 50-902; two of the readings may be by title only, and one must be in full. The council can dispense with the rule by a vote of one-half plus one of its full membership. Councils sometimes suspend the rule. When the three readings do happen, they give residents a built-in timeline: the first reading is when to start writing to council members, and the third is usually the vote. Ask the clerk which reading an ordinance is on and whether the council plans to suspend the rule. Under 74-204(4), ordinances cannot be passed on a consent agenda.

Vacations follow a stricter path. Anyone seeking to vacate a plat or part of one, such as a platted street or alley, petitions the city council (or the county commissioners outside city limits) under 50-1306A. Owners within 300 feet must get written notice by first class or certified mail at least 10 days before the hearing, the notice must be published once a week for two successive weeks with the last at least seven days before the hearing, and the petitioner pays the publication costs. If a county is acting on a plat within a mile of a city, it must tell the city at least 30 days ahead. Public streets within a highway district are handled by the highway district's commissioners. A neighbor who gets a vacation notice in the mail has a hearing coming and a right to be heard at it.

Local comment rules: four Idaho examples

Every board's rules are its own. These four, taken from the boards' own pages, show the range.

Boise City Council

Boise's public meetings page sets out the rules for public hearings. "Everyone has up to 3 minutes to speak," except applicants and neighborhood association leaders, who may get more time communicated in advance. Speakers sign up online by clicking the meeting on the calendar, and "Advanced sign up closes at noon the day of the hearing," though people who did not sign up may still speak after everyone on the list. In-person testimony is heard before online testimony on each item. "Written testimony must be submitted by 5 p.m. on the Thursday before the hearing," to the council's email address or, for planning matters, to the zoning address, and the page warns that "Testimony is a public record." Remote speakers use Zoom's raise-hand feature, or *9 by phone, and the city may "silence or remove any participant who is not respectful during public testimony." The page also says Boise is moving to a new public meeting portal in phases beginning with the September 10, 2026 Ethics Commission meeting, so check the current instructions before each hearing.

Idaho Falls City Council

The Idaho Falls council's September 28, 2023 agenda printed its public comment instructions: state your name and city of residence, focus on matters within the council's purview, keep comments to "three (3) minutes or less," avoid repeating what others said and consider a group speaker, and "Practice civility and courtesy." Time "may be curtailed" for profane or disruptive comments. General public comment was allowed for up to 20 minutes. The instructions also told speakers to avoid matters pending before the Planning and Zoning Commission and matters requiring legal due process, such as public hearings, enforcement actions and pending personnel discipline, and to send comments about individual city employees to Human Resources, the Legal Department or the Mayor's office. Written testimony had to arrive at least 48 hours before the hearing, and remote access required an email to the city at least 24 hours ahead, with a note that the option "will not be available for all meetings."

The council's June 25, 2026 minutes show both kinds of speaking in one night. Nine people spoke during the general public comment item. Later, on a quasi-judicial planned unit development hearing, the chair explained that two council members had taken part in mediation and had to disclose their ex parte communications, the city attorney said such communications "must be fully disclosed on the record," eight members of the public testified (one of them twice), the developer gave a rebuttal, and the two members stepped aside from deliberation and the vote. That second part follows the quasi-judicial rules in lesson 8.

Idaho County

Idaho County Ordinance No. 21, passed April 13, 1983, sets the procedure for public hearings before the county commission, the planning and zoning commission and other county commissions. Speakers sign a county sign-up sheet with their name and residential address. After the sheets are collected, the hearing body sets a time limit based on how many people signed up. Members may not interrupt a speaker before the time is up, and questions from members afterward do not count against the speaker's time. In quasi-judicial hearings, or any hearing requiring findings of fact, speakers swear or affirm that their testimony is true. A person who breaks the rules may be barred from speaking and, if they refuse to comply, removed.

Camas County

The Camas County Board of Commissioners' August 10, 2026 agenda lists "Community input (limit 5 minutes per person)" and tells residents to "contact the County Clerk's office to be placed on the agenda by Thursday prior to the meeting." It adds a warning worth taking seriously: "if you are not on the agenda, you may not be recognized to speak."

Board	Time per speaker	Sign-up	Written deadline	Notable rule
Boise City Council (hearings)	Up to 3 minutes	Online, closes noon the day of the hearing; walk-ups heard after the list	5 p.m. the Thursday before	In-person heard before online; disrespectful participants may be silenced
Idaho Falls City Council (2023 agenda)	3 minutes or less	Not described on the agenda	48 hours before the hearing	20 minutes total for general comment; no comment on pending P&Z or due process matters
Idaho County (Ordinance 21, 1983)	Set by the body after counting sign-ups	Sign-up sheet with residential address	Not addressed	Oath in quasi-judicial hearings; no interrupting until time is up
Camas County commissioners (Aug. 2026)	5 minutes	Through the county clerk	Not stated	Agenda requests by the Thursday before; unlisted speakers may not be recognized

The limits on the limits

Comment rules have constitutional edges. In White v. City of Norwalk (9th Cir. 1990), whose rulings bind federal courts in Idaho, the court treated a city council meeting as a limited public forum. It upheld a rule against "personal, impertinent, slanderous or profane remarks" only as read narrowly, to reach speech that "disrupts, disturbs or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the Council meeting." A presiding officer may stop a speaker whose speech becomes "irrelevant or repetitious," the court said, and, borrowing a line from a Supreme Court dissent, it added that a speaker "may not be stopped from speaking because the moderator disagrees with the viewpoint he is expressing." Time limits, topic limits tied to the board's business and order-keeping rules are common; rules that pick sides are not allowed. The case law is covered in lesson 2.

Who controls the agenda, and how to get on it

The Open Meeting Law requires every meeting to have an agenda and sets the posting rules in 74-204: at least five calendar days' notice of a regular meeting (or an annual schedule for boards that meet at least monthly), the agenda posted at least 48 hours ahead, both posted at the principal office and online if the agency has a website or social media presence, and any item that needs a vote labeled an "action item." The AG manual adds that items "should be listed with specificity," not buried in catchall headings.

The law does not say who writes the agenda. That is set by local rule and practice: often the clerk assembles it at the direction of the chair of the county commission or the mayor, with council or commission members able to request items. Neither the Open Meeting Law nor the county and city titles give a resident a general right to put an item on a county or city agenda. (School boards are different; see lesson 6.) In practice, most boards take requests through the clerk, and some, like Camas County, print the deadline on the agenda.

Timing matters more than most people realize, because of the amendment rules in 74-204(4):

• An agenda amendment posted at least 48 hours before a regular meeting (24 hours for a special meeting) takes effect when posted.
• An amendment posted inside that window but before the meeting takes effect only after the board votes on it at the meeting.
• An item added after the meeting starts needs a motion stating the reason for the amendment and the good-faith reason it was not on the original agenda, and "final action may not be taken on an agenda item added after the start of a meeting unless an emergency is declared," with the declaration in the minutes.

So a request that makes the posted agenda can get a vote. A request squeezed in at the meeting can usually get a discussion, at most.