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Emeryville council temporarily suspends meeting after disruptive public comment and removal
Summary
A public commenter disrupted the Emeryville City Council meeting, refused to yield time, alleged unequal treatment, and was removed; the meeting was suspended, the recording stopped, and proceedings resumed about 20 minutes later.
A council meeting at Emeryville was briefly suspended after a public commenter refused to leave the podium and repeatedly challenged council procedure.
The commenter asserted unequal treatment and repeatedly demanded that other members of the public yield time to him, invoking the Fourteenth Amendment and accusing council members of failing to provide "fair and equal treatment." The mayor ordered the speaker removed when the person would not comply with directions to leave the podium. The mayor announced: "This meeting is suspended at this time because a member of the public has disrupted the meeting, and there is no quorum action." Recording was stopped; the meeting was reconvened at 7:23 p.m.
City staff and the city attorney intervened during the removal; the city attorney stated there was no Fourteenth Amendment protection at issue for yielding public-comment time and explained that if no member of the public had yielded time to the speaker, the speaker had used up his allotted time. No criminal charges were announced during the meeting and proceedings resumed after the interruption.
The council continued with the agenda once the meeting was reconvened.
