The Ann Arbor City Council allows an unlimited number of citizens each to speak for 3 minutes at a public hearing. While no individual can speak for enough time to talk down council from making a decision, a collective effort with over 90 speakers was enough to derail any substantive decision-making at the April 15, 2013 council meeting.
In response, City Council is considering (as of June 2013) amending council rules to reduce speaking time to 2 minutes.
In the news
Ann Arbor's City Charter does not allow for a citizen's filibuster (as far as I know). Nevertheless, at Monday's city council meeting we witnessed something like a collective citizen's filibuster: 45 people spoke at the public hearing for the proposed changes to the DDA and 51 people spoke at the public hearing for the 413 E Huron site plan approval. In the end, the city council postponed votes on both these controversial issues and ended the meeting at 3 am.
The Ann Arbor city council meeting that started on Monday evening, April 15, 2013 did not end until after 3 a.m. the following day. This was due in part to a stream of about 100 citizens who took the podium for general public commentary and two significant public hearings. The three-minute allocation of time per speaker translated into about five hours of public speaking time.
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http://www.annarbor.com/news/8-hour-ann-arbor-council-meeting-ends-with-no-action-on-dda-changes-or-high-rise-project/
What mostly caused Monday night's meeting to run long was two back-to-back public hearings where dozens of residents and community leaders spoke for hours. One hearing was on the DDA ordinance changes and the other was on a 14-story high-rise proposed for 413 E. Huron St.
