PAWTUCKET — People who want to sound off about the city are now guaranteed a forum. The City Council gave final passage yesterday to an ordinance requiring city boards and commissions to schedule a public-input session whenever they meet.

Henry S. Kinch Jr., the council member who introduced the ordinance, said it’s intended to encourage participation in city government.

Although most boards and commissions allow public input, Kinch said many don’t include it as an agenda item. The ordinance seeks to change that by requiring boards and commissions to include a public-input session on every meeting agenda or docket.

The ordinance was popular with council members, who voted unanimously to enact it, both at yesterday’s council meeting and when it received first passage July 9.

“I think that, with all boards and commissions, it’s good for them to hear what folks are saying,” City Council President Mary E. Bray said after yesterday’s meeting. “I don’t think that you can go wrong with open government.”

But concerns were raised about the ordinance when Kinch first introduced it.

City Solicitor Margaret M. Lynch-Gadaleta said she was concerned that the ordinance would mandate public input where it isn’t appropriate, such as during quasi-judicial proceedings and administrative appeals.

She was also concerned that the ordinance would mandate public input during meetings of the Juvenile Hearing Board, which are closed to the public, and at meetings of the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency and the Pawtucket Housing Authority, independent authorities outside the city’s control.

The ordinance was drafted to address those concerns. It excludes the Juvenile Hearing Board and contains a provision stating that public input shall not be allowed at adjudicatory proceedings, administrative appeals or “other applications for relief.”

In addition, neither the Redevelopment Agency nor the Housing Authority is included on the list of boards and commissions covered by the ordinance.

Instead of requiring those bodies to schedule public input, the council passed a separate resolution requesting that they allow people to be heard.

Ironically, it was a complaint about a lack of public input at the Housing Authority that prompted Kinch to introduce the ordinance.

In 2006, when Kinch first ran for City Council in Ward 3, Roberta Lara, a tenant at the Prospect Heights public housing project, told him she had attended a meeting of the Housing Authority and was denied a chance to speak, Kinch said.

That never happened, said director of administration Harvey E. Goulet Jr., who is a member of the Housing Authority.

Goulet said the authority, which administers 1,100 apartments in two public housing projects and in four senior citizen complexes, is scrupulous about giving tenants the opportunity to speak.

“I hope that’s true,” Kinch responded. “I think so many people think that because the Housing Authority goes to their sites once a year, that they’re only allowed to speak then.”

jcastell@projo.com