Steve Cottrell: When does free speech become disruptive behavoir?
Posted: October 5, 2015 - 12:01am
By STEVE COTTRELL
St. Augustine Record
Guest Column: Public Occurrences
For political wonks like myself, watching public meetings broadcast on government television stations often provides lively (and commercial-free) entertainment. Heck, I even watch C-SPAN — all three channels. In the world of political junkies I’m what’s known as a heavy user.
A recent meeting of the St. Augustine City Commission became especially lively when a resident went to the microphone during public comments and offered an unflattering evaluation of a certain commissioner. The mayor scolded the resident, saying, “This is not a forum for personal attacks.”
It is, however, a forum for free speech.
So when does the exercise of free speech at a public meeting dissolve into disruptive behavior requiring intervention? In my opinion, it’s when a speaker exceeds his allotted three minutes at the dais and refuses to stop talking, but not when a resident insults a public official. That is protected speech.
When speakers exceed their allotted time and refuse to step aside, it’s a disruption because it delays the legislative process. But no one should be silenced or censured simply because they criticize or insult a public official at a public forum. Nor should they be silenced because the government body might consider them a gadfly or troublemaker.
According to a longtime First Amendment watchdog group, “Courts have been wary of laws, rules or regulations that prohibit criticism or personal attacks against government officials,” noting, “A federal district court in California invalidated a school district bylaw that prohibited people at school board meetings from criticizing school district employees.”
The legal advocacy group concluded, “When government officials create a public comment forum, they have created a limited public forum in which greater free-speech protections apply. The government may not silence speakers on the basis of their viewpoint or the content of their speech.”
So why, then, will the St. Augustine City Commission apparently consider adoption of a resolution establishing rules of decorum for public meetings?
A clause of the draft resolution states, “The speaker may not utilize public comment to make personal attacks.” But that seems to fly in the face of established law, as does quite a bit of the long, proposed resolution.
I understand the need to give the hook to anyone who willfully interrupts, disrupts or delays the normal flow of business — or prevents others from speaking. But the idea of establishing guidelines for resident decorum — for residents, mind you, and not for the commission itself — is so goofy as to be laughable. Except free speech is never a laughing matter.
A few years ago, in the community where I then lived, a resident appeared at a planning commission meeting and accused the city planner of padding his expense account. The commission chair urged the speaker to stop the personal attack. The speaker refused. The chair gaveled for order and the city attorney told the speaker to cool his jets and return to his seat in the audience. The speaker eventually sat down, but clearly in a huff.
Believing that First Amendment rights had been violated, a complaint was filed with the county district attorney who agreed that the commission chair and city attorney had erred when they tried to stifle the personal attack. He attended the next city council meeting urging adoption of a written policy to define parameters of free speech at public meetings. I was a member of that city council.
While the DA was asking us to adopt a lengthy policy he had brought with him, I quickly scribbled one sentence that I felt summarized his concerns. When he finished his presentation, I asked that we simply include the following sentence at the top of all future city council, planning commission and committee meeting agendas: “All residents will be afforded an opportunity to speak, consistent with their Constitutional rights.”
My colleagues agreed that those 14 words represented everything suggested by the DA, and a motion to include that phrase at the top of future agendas was unanimously adopted.
Yes, the community where I was a city councilman is nearly 3,000 miles from here, so what does its agenda statement have to do with St. Augustine? A great deal, because both cities are obliged to follow the same rule book.
It’s called the Constitution of the United States.
Reach Steve Cottrell at cottrell.sf@gmail.com.
COMMENTS
dunrobin 10/05/15 - 04:30 am 00Spot on!
That's exactly what most of the constituents are thinking. Thank you for pointing out what should be 'the obvious' - to everyone except our elected leadership who seem to think they've been crowned, instead.
Oh change is definitely coming.
Just Asking Y 10/05/15 - 09:00 am 84Abusing the First Amendment
Although I’m a huge proponent of the First Amendment, it is pitiful when vindictive people use it to ‘bash’ and verbally abuse others. These sad people are so miserable with their own lives that they just have to attempt to spread their unhappiness around, which unfortunately is their right. While this type of verbal attack makes the speaker look small and shallow, it also reflects poorly on the city as a whole because there are those who encourage these nasty tirades, which are disruptive to the meeting. Maybe our commission should start exercising their constitution right and sling some mud back on those who abuse our system. However, they most likely won’t, well hopefully maybe just a little; as they are professional people who take their jobs seriously and care about our city. Sadly, it is actions of these people abusing our system that will prevent other people from wanting to be on the commission, who would want to subject themselves to this kind of treatment, and we’ll be stuck with those who encourage this type of mentality. Is this what the citizens of St. Augustine want? Btw – just to clarify, I’m talking about malicious, personal attacks not disagreeing with political points of view. Whatever happened to civility? Treat others the way you yourself want to be treated.
Bob Fliegel 10/05/15 - 12:48 pm 72Concur with Just Asking Y
Many First Amendment boosters can't bring themselves to deplore its abuses for fear that doing so is seen to weaken one's near-absolute right to free speech. The issue here is not whether one has a right to express himself at a Commission meeting, but whether it's just plain bad form to do so in vitriolic personal language. Surely one is warranted in criticizing those who engage in such attacks, while at the same time acknowledging their right to so behave. At the root of it all, I'm afraid, is that "bad form" is no longer frowned upon and civility no longer valued to the degree that it once was.
lifeisgood (allegedly NANCY SIKES-KLINE according to Thomas F. Reynolds, Jr. ethics complaint)
10/05/15 - 02:30 pm 22Right on Just Asking Y and Bob Fliegel.....
I am convinced that BAD form is the ONLY form that some of these vindictive hateful people know…..seriously, who has the time (and energy) to sit around and photo shop nasty and vulgar images to post on their pages? Who does this? Are we back in middle school again?
It is truly unfortunate that our elected officials and government employees are open targets for these people to sit around and take potshots at them ALL DAY LONG. (One lady in particular writes long hateful NOVELS on things she has absolutely no clue about…ALL DAY LONG…..) this stuff is time consuming…do you not work? No kids? No family? No friends? I can’t imagine what kind of life this would be, sitting and stewing in negativity all day long. Go outside! Go enjoy downtown! Go to the beach! Get some fresh air! Feed some seagulls! Read a good book! (one that doesn’t involve some sort of conspiracy, please). Go volunteer! Go build a house! Go feed the homeless! Go walk a dog! Get off of your couch and go embrace life…become a PART of your community! CONTRIBUTE! And, please, drop the paranoia….not everything is a conspiracy and not everyone is corrupt. Really. Who knows, you may just feel better about yourself.
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