Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Civic Procedure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
After executive session, council asks staff to draft emergency expansion of facility-suspension authority and to enforce meeting rules
Summary
After an executive session on meeting management and First Amendment concerns, Boulder City Council on Feb. 6 asked staff to prepare an emergency draft expanding the city manager's authority to temporarily suspend individuals from additional city facilities when they disrupt meetings.
After a virtual executive session at the start of the Feb. 6 meeting to receive legal advice on meeting management and First Amendment questions, Boulder City Council discussed operational steps to reduce disruptive behavior during meetings.
City staff explained the city currently has authority allowing the city manager to suspend a persons privilege to use certain city recreation and facility spaces when those persons violate code provisions. Staff recommended expanding that authority to additional city facilities — including council chambers and other meeting venues — as an operational tool to restrict access for individuals whose conduct disrupts public meetings.
"The city manager may suspend the privilege of any person to use any recreation, senior center, youth services, open space, or park facility owned or managed by the city who has violated any provision of this code ordinance of the city or other law and rule," staff read during the discussion and then described options to extend similar temporary-suspension authority to other facilities.
Council members discussed several other possible changes: restricting use of slides or videos during public comment under existing rules; limiting how frequently an individual may speak during public-comment periods; and clarifying that open comment should be treated as a limited public forum. Council members expressed differing views on whether those changes should be pursued immediately. Some members cautioned that changing public-comment parameters would prompt broader public engagement and could require significant staff time.
By the end of the discussion council asked staff to return quickly with a draft emergency measure to expand the city-manager suspension authority to additional city facilities. A show-of-hands straw poll indicated at least five council members supported bringing back that expansion as an emergency item; staff said operations and safety-planning work on metal-detection or other screening measures would remain under the city-manager purview and would be pursued through operations staff as appropriate.
Council also directed the clerks office and staff to adhere to existing rules governing demonstrations and the use of presentations during public comment; staff said no additional council action is required to enforce those provisions and that the clerks office will publicize the rules to meeting attendees.
Actions and next steps: Staff will prepare a draft emergency measure expanding temporary-suspension authority for the city manager to additional city facilities, return it to council for consideration, and publicize enforcement of existing rules on in-meeting materials and demonstrations. Council did not direct an immediate change to open-comment frequency rules; several members asked for future discussion later in the work-plan cycle if needed.
