“Sometimes when our world is out of order, we need to do things that are out of order, and I think we should have representatives who are willing to listen to us.”
Across metro Denver , city council s have been grappling with how to handle groups that try to take over meetings through the public comment period.
“I understand needing to have order and rules,” Hoffman adds. “It was disgusting to hear,” she says. “It's disappointing that we even have to have this conversation. The hate that is behind some of this — there's no place for that.” However, she acknowledges that unless there is a direct threat, it is still protected speech, and says the city is considering adding remote comment back to its agenda.
Some citizens say they understand the change, he says, and others worry they will now have less of a voice.“The main thrust of the discussion that municipal officials may need to consider is whether remote public comment is a useful tool for the community, or does it distract from public business — and does the body want meetings to be used this way,” says CML executive director Kevin Bommer.Denver isn't currently considering limiting public comment.
“The mayor doesn't have public comment,” says Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval. “At the state, they don't have open public comment, you have to go testify on a bill. So I think it's a really important tool for people just to come and be able to address their elected officials consistently.” “When my district was getting the micro-community and people came to speak at city council, it really helped my colleagues understand where I was coming from in a way that I couldn't communicate to them," she says.
“I think diversity of thought is important,” she says. “That's the hard thing also about public comment when we've had these takeovers; it's just one group saying the same thing over and over. It's good to see the number of people that support something. Also, the question is like, is this relevant to city council?”
“Public comment has the space to actually elevate voices,” says Watson. “We as councilmembers also need to ensure that our public comment process allows us time to do the work of the people."“I don't know what tool there is to amend any of our public comment rules that gets to the heart of what we're doing,” she says. “Some weeks we don't have anybody who signs up. Sometimes we have ten minutes' worth of public comment, and some weeks we have more people who want to speak.
Kashmann is open to adding more time for general comment, perhaps going up to 45 minutes or an hour. In general, though, he thinks the rules work, pointing out that in his entire time on council, there have only been a handful of disruptions stemming from public comment.
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