Yes, your assessment of the purpose is part of the design of public committee hearings. However, plenty of times they are deciding what to do based on campaign big donor requests or demands, backroom deals done before a vote to enrich themselves or their small cadre of 'friends', or just to keep themselves in power. I'm merely pointing out that a lot of the time it's just performance art, not listening to actual constituents needs. Just look at most local school board meetings of any city - they rarely give two shits what parents want and vote for drag queen story hours and other retarded nonsense.