San Diego won’t limit public comment at city meetings. Here’s what it will do instead.

San Diego City Council members said Wednesday they’ve found a way to comply with a new state law on public hearings that won’t require them to limit public input.

The city will create a new type of testimony called a formal group presentation to comply with the law, SB 707.

They are choosing that option to avoid the unpopular move of barring meeting participants from donating their allotted speaking time to another speaker.

City officials and community leaders say allowing people to donate speaking time to someone with similar views on an issue is a good thing.

They say it allows the leader of a large group to make a longer, more detailed presentation summarizing the group’s views.

“One person speaking for 15 minutes is much more efficient than 15 people speaking for one minute,” Council President Joe LaCava said. “It’s also more robust.”

Geoff Hueter, who leads a resident group called Neighbors for a Better San Diego, said group presentations are crucial to public discourse.

“Presenting detailed analysis of proposed regulations is an important part of public participation, and public speech would be severely suppressed by elimination of organized group presentations,” Hueter said.

San Diego is being forced to make changes to its public testimony policies because of SB 707, which aims to give equal rights to people submitting testimony online versus in person.

The law is creating problems for San Diego because ...