Politics & Government

Richmond City Council Okays Proposal to Consider Cracking Down on Meeting Disruptors

During a characteristically disruptive meeting Tuesday night, the Richmond City Council voted to have city staffers explore possible ways to curb the unruly remarks that frequently interrupt council meetings.
 
Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles, an openly gay woman who has been the subject of vulgar, sometimes homophobic attacks from members of the public at meetings, proposed the item asking City Attorney Bruce Goodmiller and police Chief Chris Magnus to study different policies the council could adopt to crack down on disruptions.
 
The council voted 6 to 1 in favor of the proposal, with Councilman Corky Booze dissenting. The vote came a week after a shouting match between Beckles and city council candidate Rev. Kenneth Davis that was captured on cellphone video and widely circulated after last week's council meeting.

Davis, who Mayor Gayle McLaughlin at one point had escorted from the meeting for being disruptive, twice played audio of the fight. Beckles has said Davis and another community member cornered her, while Davis said the councilwoman lashed out at him, and he was only reacting.
 
Since then, and on Tuesday night, several residents have called for Beckles to step down while others have rallied to her defense.
 
"She has been the target of relentless homophobic and misogynistic attacks in these chambers and if she speaks out against it once or twice, she gets blamed," said city Planning Commissioner Marilyn Langlois. "The harassment of our vice mayor has got to stop," Langlois said. "Let's show some respect."
 
Beckles told the audience that the proposal was not about her but was intended to create a less hostile environment in the council chambers.
 
"This chamber becomes so toxic and so hostile that you can feel it through the television sets," she said. "This prevents people from participating, and that's a violation of their free speech and their ability to participate in our democratic process."
 
The city attorney, who wrote a seven-page memo addressing Beckles' proposal, said Tuesday night that city governments typically have few legal options when it comes to limiting free speech.
 
"Irrelevant attacks are out of order but the government has to be really careful about prohibiting those," Goodmiller said. "The citizens have an absolute right to get up and criticize their public officials."
 
He also advised the council against pursuing the option of banning individuals from council meetings for six-month periods.
 
"Our memo specifically addresses that point, banning future attendance, and concludes it is not legally permissible," he said. Booze noted that elected officials should be prepared to take criticism from the public.
 
"You chose to be elected so you have to take what the public has to say," he said. Other council members disagreed.
 
"Hate speech has no place in the public square," Councilman Jael Myrick said.

During the 4.5-hour meeting, the mayor called for several recesses due to disruptions from other council members and pounded the gavel when one speaker hurled insults at the council.
 
As is increasingly customary during the City Council meetings, council members repeatedly interrupted one another to postpone or overturn items proposed by their colleagues.

—By Bay City News


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