St. Clair County commissioners should address public comment rule down the road, attorney says
One resident’s brief refusal to leave the speaker podium at Thursday night's St. Clair County Board of Commissioner's meeting spurred a discussion among officials about an informal change in public comment procedure.
In response to two COVID-related public health orders — one last year over quarantine rules and another this month requiring masks in schools — the board of commissioners has allowed those who’ve opposed the mandates to yield time once speakers pass a traditional three-minute speaking limit.
And although no decision was made at Thursday’s meeting, Gary Fletcher, the county’s attorney, said commissioners may need to address rules more officially down the road.
Wales Township resident Kevin Watkins was the only in-person speaker in a two-hour public comment period this week to voice support of the county health department, its latest order, and the practice of masking overall. However, no one stepped forward to yield him more time when he reached three minutes and was met with vocal feedback from the majority opposition in attendance.
Watkins, who’s also a nurse and president of the Port Huron NAACP chapter, alleged he wasn’t shown more leniency among officials or fellow residents “because I don’t have their views.”
“This is being videoed, so I’d like to see you have me arrested. I would’ve been done (already) if you’d have let me just finish,” he told board members. “… You interrupted my three minutes. Shame on you.”
Much of that exchange was with Commissioner Dave Rushing, who kept time during public comment. The rest came from other attendees.
Some alleged he’d only intended to cause problems. A few broke out their phones to record the exchange. One suggested they surround him at the podium.
After roughly eight minutes, Fletcher intervened, emphasizing recent practice, the usual time limit, and adding, “You’re right, you have the right not to have people talking over you and yelling. But you’ve had way more than three minutes.”
Watkins agreed to wait to speak more at the next meeting.
Commissioner Jorja Baldwin said the general rules for public speaking at county board meetings are set under Robert’s Rules of Order and their bylaws.
“There are things that we’ve done that follow (those rules). The yielding of time is actually not included in our bylaws,” she said, comparing it to a practice done in Congress. “… But those are things where we kind of look at each other and go, ‘Should we do the three minutes?’”
Commissioner Lisa Beedon emphasized having regular meeting norms for a reason, adding it would make sense to uphold them versus setting a new informal precedent.
Rushing said they “can put any time frame we want in there” and supported allowing yielding of time moving forward.
“We represent the people here, and I’m all for continuing the way we’re doing it,” he said. “They’re passionate people who come here to voice their opinion. But if we get somebody that will not back down … then, we could have them removed. I don’t want anybody arrested, but we need to have control of the meeting.”
Baldwin said bylaws are reviewed every two years.
Eventually, Fletcher said they should consider canonizing the yielding of time as an allowed practice in policy.
“The rules have nothing about yielding time. So, that’s something you see on TV where Congress does it,” he said. “And out of respect to the people who wanted to speak, obviously, so they got the chance to say everything they wanted to say, it just sort of took off. And it’s happened. … I think at some point when things settle down and you re-review your rules, you have to decide whether you want this to be an ongoing practice where people can yield time and you could have somebody up there for 15, 20 minutes.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: County board should address public comment rule down the road, attorney says
