Staff and wire resports

RALEIGH —  People who want to comment this week on Confederate monuments here will get a minute each.

The North Carolina Historical Commission Confederate Monuments Study Committee will hold a public meeting from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m., Wednesday to accept public comment on a petition to relocate three Confederate monuments from the State Capitol grounds in Raleigh to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Johnston County.

The five-member panel plans to report on the proposal next month to the full state Historical Commission, which makes the decision on Cooper’s proposal to move the monuments.

Members of the committee are:

• Sam Dixon

• Dr. Chris Fonvielle

• Dr. Valerie Johnson

• Noah Reynolds

• David Ruffin, Chair

Online comments: The study committee is accepting public comment through an online portal at https://www.ncdcr.gov/comment-relocation-monuments. The online portal will remain available until the study committee votes to close it. All comments, whether made online or in person, will be considered by the committee.

Register to speak: The March 21 public meeting will be held in in the first-floor auditorium of the Archives and History/State Library Building, 109 E. Jones St., Raleigh. Speaker registration will begin at 12:30 p.m.

The meeting will be available to view via Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/ncculture.

If possible, speakers are asked to provide a written copy of their oral comments.

Procedures: The study committee set the following procedures for the public meeting:

1. The Study Committee public hearing will begin at 1:30 p.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.

2. Members of the Study Committee may attend the public hearing in person or electronically.

3. The Study Committee Chairman may extend the meeting for an additional hour until 4:30 p.m. if he determines additional time is needed.

4. Speakers must sign in using their name and hometown.

5. Speakers shall be allowed to speak for one minute and a red warning card shall be held up after 30 seconds has passed.

6. Speakers shall be invited to speak in the order they have signed up on a list to be kept by a staff member assigned by Dr. Kevin Cherry. However, the Study Committee Chairman may in his discretion ask for comments representing another view if it appears that the Study Committee has not heard speakers representing various viewpoints.

7. The speakers shall address the full Study Committee and shall not direct comments or questions to individual members.

8. The Study Committee hearing is limited to comments about monuments on the Capitol Square in Raleigh and not about monuments in other locations including the Silent Sam monument in Chapel Hill.

9. No applause or other noises or clapping shall be allowed or tolerated before, during or after any speaker.  Individuals in attendance who violate this rule will first be warned and then removed from the audience if a second violation occurs.

10. If those wanting to speak are lined up outside the auditorium and there is insufficient space to allow their entrance into the auditorium, then after each speaker completes their one-minute remarks that speaker will be asked to leave the auditorium and, if they agree, any individual waiting to speak will be seated in the order they signed up.

11. The public will be notified of these rules, both on the DNCR and Historical Commission website, and by meeting attendees being given a copy of the rules.

Members of the public may use the online portal to comment on the petition. Comments submitted online are not limited in length and will be given the same consideration as comments made in person.

For more information about the North Carolina Historical Commission, visit www.ncdcr.gov/nchc.