Mansfield council defeats a plan to expand comments

Michelle Warren, The Chronicle, Willimantic, Conn.
·3 min read

Feb. 15—MANSFIELD — The Mansfield Town Council has narrowly defeated a plan by a Republican on the board to expand the time allowed for councilmen to comment on an issue.

During the Feb. 8 town council meeting, GOP Councilman David Freudmann proposed an amendment to the council's rules of procedure to add rule 8e, which would indicate if debate was limited, equal speaking time be given to each council member, regardless of the number of times that person has spoken.

Freudmann's proposed amendment failed by a vote of 4- 5 during the meeting, with Freudmann, Al Fratoni, Charles Ausburger and Ron Schurin in favor and Terry Berthelot, Sam Bruder, Mayor Antonia Moran, Deputy Mayor Ben Shaiken and Peter Kochenburger opposed.

Freudmann, Fratoni and Ausburger are the three Republicans on the council, while Berthelot, Bruder, Moran, Shaiken, Schurin and Kochenburger are Democrats.

Freudmann said he has a problem with limiting council members to speaking twice, as is done currently, but does not have a problem with limiting their time to 10 minutes.

" I have no problem with that at all," he said, referring to the 10- minute rule. " The other part was much more ominous for the minority party in particular."

Freudmann said he has been in situations where someone misconstrued or misunderstood something he said, but he was not allowed to respond because he had already spoken twice.

He said with the Republicans having less representation on the council than Democrats, that particular rule has really " curtailed us and harmed us in a negative way on the minority party."

Shaiken, however, said while he " appreciated" Freudmann's attempt to offer a " constructive change to the rules," he did not support it.

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Council defeats plan to expand comments

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He said the rule restricting council members to speak only twice on a topic is in Robert's Rules of Order and the council's rules of procedures follow Robert's Rules " unless our rules state otherwise."

" I have to say I think two times in 10 minutes is plenty of time for any member of this council to get their point across without getting into a back- and- forth between two councilors, even when both councilors would very much like to argue with each other," Shaiken said.

" I can say that having been someone who has, on occasion, wished for a third and, even, a fourth bite at the apple."

Freudmann said while it may make sense to limit members to speaking twice in large groups, like the General Assembly, it does not have to be done among smaller bodies, such as the town council.

" I'm just asking you to reverse part of it, the part about the number of times you can speak," he said.

Schurin said if there is a way to allow a council member to clarify a point he or she felt was misinterpreted, the council should allow them to do so.

During their meeting, council members also altered the rules of procedures to reflect the methods by which public comment is allowed have changed.

Due to the pandemic, the council is currently holding all of its meetings virtually.

After the pandemic hit, the council initially limited public comments to those submitted via postal service or email, but later started allowing people to comment live during the virtual meetings.

Follow Michelle Warren on Twitter — @mwarrentc.