How do you balance the right of residents to tell Orange County supervisors in person what they think with the need for efficiency and public decorum at regular meetings of the board?
Supervisors continued their struggle with the issue at Tuesday’s meeting with some tweaking of the way they take public comment.
The rule changes came on the same day that one man refused to leave the podium as he addressed the supervisors and another man made what was taken as a bigoted remark.
The board in November changed the way it takes public comment after years of a few gadflies attempting to bootstrap their personal complaints to issues on the agenda that had nothing to do with their gripes.
Instead of allowing the public to make a comment on each agenda item, the board opened up commentary at the beginning of the meetings to any topic regardless of whether it was on the agenda.
The effect has been more public commentary with sometimes a line of commentators taking turns for hours before the board gets to its business.
Responding to some issues raised by the ACLU, the board Tuesday tweaked its rules to allow spectators at the supervisors’ meetings to bring signs and to not limit the public comment session to 20 minutes. The 20-minute cap was in the board’s rules, but never enforced.
According to the board’s staff, the rules changes in November “significantly” boosted public participation. About 80 people made comments to the board in the seven board meetings prior to the rules change, but in the seven meetings following the change the board has taken comments from about 280 people, according to staff.
The new rules will also allow anyone who relies on a translator to have double the time.
Homeless activist Muhammad Ali deliberately broke the rules and refused to leave the podium, claiming he wanted to take 30 minutes to deliver his message at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I’m not the best attorney in the Orange County Bar Association, but I’m the best criminal defendant in the Orange County Bar Association,” Ali said to start his remarks. “I was arrested protesting your unconstitutional, illegal and immoral acts in the Santa Ana riverbed last week.”
Ali said he “met with Supervisor (Shawn) Nelson at the Burger King on Chapman nearby the riverbed and I led him to a homeless family.”
Then, referring to a rule against directing comments to an individual supervisor, Ali said, “I don’t like your rules. I’m going to be addressing you all by name… and I’m going to give myself 30 minutes. I’m going to be talking about homeless children for the next 30 minutes. You’ll have to arrest me and drive me from this building.”
Orange County Board Chairwoman Michelle Steel turned off Ali’s microphone and ordered deputies to clear the board room moments later.
“My mic is off but I’m going to yell,” Ali said.
Sheriff’s deputies got everyone out of the board room as Ali refused to leave the podium where speakers address the board. After everyone left, Ali also left the building, though deputies offered to let him stay for the rest of the meeting and did not make any moves to arrest him.
“He was told he could return to the meeting, but not speak again,” said sheriff’s Lt. Lane Lagaret. “He never returned again.”
Nelson said Ali is a “self-appointed advocate, who’s not working and has tons of student debt. I told him, `You’ve got other priorities.’ “
Nelson said he spent three hours with Ali last week, but the supervisor concluded, “Either you do it his way or he’s just not interested.”
Nelson said the activist appeared to be trying to egg officials on to get arrested on camera so he could “make a YouTube video.”
But when Steel cleared the room “`he wasn’t able to make a spectacle and all of a sudden he lost interest.”
Darrell Nolta, a longtime board observer who has even drawn praise in the past for his criticism, made a comment at Tuesday’s board meeting that drew rebukes from the board.
As Nolta criticized the board for the changes in its policy regarding public speakers, he appeared to question the patriotism of Steel and Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, who both emigrated to this country and became citizens.
“Some of you are foreigners, are un-American,” the Westminster resident said. “You do not believe in the Constitution. You don’t know what the Constitution stands for.
You profess to believe you know, but you do not know. You do not have it in your heart what the (constitution) stands for, the substance, the meaning of what is in this document.”
Do said he has found Nolta’s comments in the past insightful, but he was quick to condemn his remarks Tuesday.
“It demands a response because it is unacceptable,” Do said.
Do said some thought must be given to dealing with critics who make remarks that “go beyond the realm of acceptable conduct.”
“I have a right to have my dignity respected,” Do said. “The next time someone says something like that I’m going to ask the chair to hold that person out of order and I’m going to ask county counsel to look into what can be done in the future to prevent things like that from happening.”
Steel said, “I never ate dogs or cats. It was very offensive by those public speakers. I’m asking county counsel how are we going to stop them.”
Supervisor Todd Spitzer, however, argued that the elected leaders have to be more philosophical about the Bronx cheers from the public.
“We got elected to put up with this and we are in the arena,” Spitzer said. “The things that people say — it’s hurtful and horrible and everything else, but the First Amendment gives such a wide latitude to say almost anything about us because we’re public figures.”
Spitzer was quick later to clarify that he condemned Nolta’s remarks.
Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said she understood “First Amendment rights are important, but there should be some level of respect and common courtesy and a proper decorum. We shouldn’t have personal attacks coming at us from the dais.”
Spitzer argued for a change in policy to give board spectators the option of making a comment at the beginning of the meeting, or waiting for the agenda item to be discussed by the supervisors, but that was rejected by the board.
—City News Service