Tips for Public Testimony

How to increase your public testimony’s impact through preparation, practice, and humanity

A large part of my work is helping people communicate with their government (local, state & federal) but also design better methods of how governments can solicit feedback. I wrote a whole guidebook to Public Participation and Community Engagement for the Biden Administration.

The most common way local governments solicit testimony is the public hearing or town hall, which I believe is a uniquely bad way to solicit public testimony and feedback. The timing (usually right after work), the location (usually an auditorium), the short duration (usually less than 2 minutes), and the performative nature of this type of public testimony pushes testimony to be performative, make people feel they have a “use it or lose it” mentality, and can often create nasty situations where the crowd gets out of hand.

There’s a reason why every local government official loves Parks & Recreation, and the public testimony scenes are part of what makes this show special. It’s incredibly close to realty. 

But, the town hall format is the basic building block of current local government feedback, and sometimes we just need to have one to gather mass feedback.

With all that being said, I wanted to share my tips for speaking at a public hearing. They are based on my experience both giving and listening to testimony, both as a board member and as a resident. I’ve tried to divide the advice into general tips and then how I think about these things, to give you a full view on where the guidance comes from.

Note: these tips are from me, are not reflective of any board guidance, guidance from any elected official, or any governmental organization. And since I’m human, I’m sure these tips-n-tricks will change as we all get better at this. I am a member of Queens Community Board 2, but I’m speaking in my own capacity, and not speaking on behalf of the board. These are my views only, and do not represent the views of the City of New York, Electeds, or Queens Community Board 2.

My Tips for Public Testimony

Sign Up

Where possible sign up prior to the meeting to get a testimony slot – generally you need to sign up prior to the meeting (but this isn’t always true!). This puts you on the list, and if the meeting is run well they will give you the logistics and rules of testimony.

Prepare

In order to maximize your time and impact, you should try to prepare your testimony in proportion to the type of testimony you are giving (see below). The preparation for a quick call to a council member is different than a 1 minute speaking slot at a local community board subcommittee, which is vastly different than if you are invited (subpoenaed) to speak in front of Congress. Calibrate your preparation.

When I’m listening to testimony, I appreciate when people can clearly articulate the problem, how it affects them, and what outcomes they are looking to have. It becomes really clear how prepared and serious someone is about a topic during their testimony, which is different than their nervousness/emotion about the topic. Preparation also allows you to understand what’s importation to you.

Understand why you are there

Ask yourself why you want to testify: is it to oppose or support something? Why? How does it affect you? Be clear why you are there, what your purpose is, and what you want to get out of the testimony.

Please calibrate what you expect to get out of the testimony: sometimes your testimony won’t immediately culminate in a vote, and sometimes the vote won’t align with your desired outcome. These sessions aren’t plebiscites, and balancing the equities is really, really difficult.

Democracy is hard.

Understand the stakes

It’s important as you write out your testimony to clearly understand the stakes of the problem, and calibrate accordingly. There’s a difference between replacing a fountain in a public park, to installing a bike lane, to allowing multifamily housing on a lot, to changing the zoning of a neighborhood, to changing the laws on immigration. All of these issues are important to people, and my advice is to understand the stakes and time horizon of the proposed policy you’re giving testimony to.

The risk to not clearly understanding the stakes and context of the policy at hand, is that your testimony will sound like a crank, or sound inhumane. You might be very passionate on the subject, but it’s helpful to understand the larger context and stakes surrounding what you are testifying about to maximize your impact.

The audience

Don’t forget people’s humanity. 

As you define the stakes, really think of the audience you will be giving the testimony to. In the end, you probably want your testimony to either change or maintain a policy you care about. Understanding who you are giving testimony to allows you to calibrate your testimony: if it’s a NYC Community Board, please understand that these are volunteers. If you are testifying to professional planners or transportation officials, understand that they are here to help implement policy which people want. Even if the testimony is to paid politicians, please remember that they are people too, and calibrate how you think you can persuade them to your policy preference.

I’ll say this again: you are testifying to people who have feelings, expertise, knowledge, and finite energy. Be humane.

Understand the limitations

Part of preparing is understanding the stakes and your audience, and what their limitations might be. NYC Community Boards are advisory boards, which can write letters and help coordinate across city agencies. Professional staff can answer questions, clarify policy, and help explain the policy, but generally don’t set policy but deploy tactics to bring policy into action. City council members generally can vote on ordinances or local law, budgets, can hire consultants, etc. State legislators can do this at the state level. 

It’s very important to calibrate your testimony and your request to the audience and what they can action within their power. Sometimes this is squiggly, since electeds and professional staff can hide behind process, rules, etc to dodge requests, so your job is to try to use their position to further your desired outcomes.

If I’m listening to testimony which is asking me or the body the person is testifying to do something which is wildly outside our/their power, then that creates a point of friction, and your message will be diminished. 

Aligning your request to what’s actually possible helps action your testimony.

Focus on one topic

For any subject, the potential policy areas might be huge and diverse. It’s easy to try to create the Everything Bagel of testimony to try to share everything. My advice is to pick one part of the subject at hand, and clearly outline how this connects to the larger subject, how it affects you, and what you would like to happen. Be specific, since most people’s experience might be different than other neighbors, and there’s value in hearing different experiences. 

For example: in a neighborhood rezoning, you might have opinions about many parts of the plan, and how it affects you. Resist the urge to kitchen-sink your testimony. You can clearly articulate that there are many parts of the proposed policy which you agree/object to, and share a very specific part: Maybe you agree with the rezoning because it allows a school to be built. Maybe you object to it because you think it will add too many people. Be specific on how the policy affects you.

Write out your testimony

It will be helpful to write out your testimony, so you can organize your thoughts. My advice is to at the very least create an outline of your testimony, so you can figure out what’s the most important part, what you want to highlight, and to organize any facts or information you want to share. The best case is to not just read your written testimony into the oral record, but I acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable with public speaking.

We’re all cheering for you to share your testimony!

Writing out your testimony is also helpful so that in the case you might not be able to offer oral testimony, you can often email written testimony to the board or government body. There’s been times where I’ve signed up for public testimony and haven’t been able to make the speaking slot because the session went long and I had kid duties to deal with, and I was able to mail in my written testimony (which is just as important as oral testimony).

Writing, as usual, is a process which helps you organize and refine your thoughts.

On Using Talking Points 

Sometimes advocacy groups will write out a set of talking points, for or against a policy. My advice is to only use these as guides, and not wholesale copy and paste them into your oral or written testimony.

As someone who wants to understand your situation, and how this policy affects you (I know I keep saying this), regurgitating talking points doesn’t do anyone favors at this. At best it will be repetitive, and at worst it gives electeds the excuse to ignore your testimony.

The Testimony sandwich

Great testimony often has what I call the Testimony Sandwich, which allows you to tell a complete story in a very limited amount of time. When I’m listening to testimony (as a member of a board or the public) I’m listening for the following:

Example

Here’s a mad-libs style outline which should help you organize your testimony:

Good [time of day], my name is [state your name] and I live in [part of community] and I am here to speak about [topic]. 

I [support or oppose] [the hearing topic] because [reasons].

[A focused set of 1-3 reasons based on your personal experience, and how the proposed policy will affect you and your immediate family]. 

My preferred outcome would be [state what you would prefer, and if there are specific policy tactics, be brief with them].

I hope that you will vote [for or against] [this topic / policy]. 

Thank you. 

Rehearse (but don’t over prepare)

You only get one or two minutes to state your case. Please rehearse a bit so that your message can be adequately heard.

I personally don’t mind if you read off your page of testimony, but please do some preparation so I can understand and clearly hear your point of view. I’m not expecting perfect enunciation or presentation, we all get nervous, but I’m rooting for you to give clear testimony so I can understand your view.

On emotion

Government is looking for public testimony on a subject because either that’s the process, and/or the subject is contentious. It’s ok that we don’t agree with each other. In any community, we’re not going to see alignment on any one subject. There’s some disagreement on how or when to bring emotion to testimony.

I fully expect people to share their full range of emotion during testimony, and for me, emotion doesn’t impact what I comprehend from listening to your testimony.

My advice is to try to calibrate your emotion with your message: if I can’t understand your message, then it will be difficult to make sure your voice is heard. People are not automatons, but this is where rehearsing and practice will help you get your message heard. 

Don’t go over time

Time marches forward, and you have a room of people who want to share their testimony. When your allotted time expires, please stop and thank the body for hearing your testimony and end your testimony.

Sharing is caring.

For me, if you go a few seconds over time no biggie. But if you are warned that your time is up and you keep talking and we have to cut your microphone, then for me your testimony has just been compromised. I’ll unfortunately remember your actions, and not your content.

Understand the constraints

It’s extremely important to understand the rules around public testimony, and the constraints on those who administer the public forum. Often, elected officials, board members, or experts aren’t allowed to or can’t respond to your public testimony. There’s all sorts of reasons for this, but this is why public hearings are particularly bad ways of gathering feedback from the public. 

These are your neighbors

While you might have calibrated the stakes, your emotion, and your preferred outcome in preparing, public testimony can still be incredibly frustrating. People will have different views than you, the stakes might feel incredibly high, or this might feel like the only time your voice could be heard.

I implore you to assume good as a starting point, and act accordingly civil. To everyone.

These are your neighbors. So please don’t yell at them, accuse them of something (e.g. being a paid protestor), diminish their voice (e.g. call them a transplant), don’t pick a fight, and be civil. Please don’t interrupt their testimony, cheer or jeer, or disrupt other’s testimony.

Seriously, be civil. 

As a board member or a member of the public I’m going to discount your testimony if your testimony begins to disparage a person, a group, a position, or centers anger at a specific person. I fully dislike the heckler’s veto at a public testimony session because this is a moment to allow people to share their view.

Direct action has its place in civil discourse, but not at a public testimony session, which is a method to gather testimony from a range of residents. By shutting down other people’s speech, it does a disservice to your community.

It’s not about “winning”

I’m not sure what winning looks like here, and for public testimony I would guide you not to try to “win” at testimony. This isn’t a zero-sum situation! You being here is winning enough. 

We’re all neighbors.

Make connections

One valuable part of public testimony, is that you can make connections with your electeds, the press, and other neighbors. In-person sessions allow you the opportunity to meet your neighbors, if you are well and safe to attend them. Please take advantage of this opportunity.

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Virtual Meeting Tips

The proliferation of virtual and hybrid meetings means that it can open up access to testimony to a wider range of people who can’t physically access the testimony site, have ambulatory or accessibility concerns, are caregivers who can’t drop an evening to testify at a senior center, or a thousand other reasons. 

I love hybrid meetings, especially when they are well run with good amplification and cameras at the venue.

And just like remote work setups, there are some considerations for virtual testimony to think about.

Quiet Space

Just like work: find a quiet space for your testimony and use noisecancelling headphones/AirPods.

I like to find a place on the dining room table where I can post up for the testimony, but where I can also make dinner and be with the kids. Telling the kids that I have 2 minutes to speak to council gives them a heads up on when they can give me 2 minutes of calm (does it always work? No, they’re kids).

Mute your microphone when you join the Zoom/Teams meeting.

Camera posture

When it’s your turn to testify, turn your camera on and unmute yourself. Look right at the camera during the duration of your testimony, and when finished go on mute. Sometimes people might have followup questions, so standby.

I like to keep my camera off before and after my testimony, especially since many hybrid meetings are recorded for YouTube or other locations.

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OK, I hope this helps you prepare and deliver your testimony.