ST. GEORGE — A change in policy over how the city accepts public input drew what were initially silent protests during a St. George City Council meeting Thursday.
Soon after some protesters turned to raised voices and accusations that the mayor and City Council were stifling the public’s free speech.
Nearly a decade ago, then newly-elected St. George Mayor Jon Pike instituted a policy allowing residents to approach the council with questions and concerns during the first council meeting of the month. Residents were able to comment on anything as long as it wasn’t on the council’s current agenda.
Mayor Michele Randall announced this week, and reiterated during Thursday night’s meeting, that allowing residents to address the City Council directly was being halted in favor of taking comments over email or traditional mail instead.
“In an effort to maintain efficiency in conducting the city’s business, we’re changing how public comment will be taken,” the mayor said as she read a prepared statement.
Instead of signing up to speak for an allotted 3 minutes before the council about whatever concern they may have, citizens are now instructed to email comments to [email protected] or send written comments to “Public Comments – City Recorder” at 175 E. 200 North, St. George, Utah 84770.
According to the policy change, individuals must be a resident of St. George and include their first and last names along with their full residential address. Comments also cannot be related to pending applications coming before the City Council.
Comments sent Friday at noon to the following Friday by noon will be posted to the city’s website or the Utah Public Notice site by 3 p.m., the mayor said.
However, those comments will not be read during council meetings or be included in the agenda packets the council references during those council meetings. Randall noted this will allow residents to comment on agenda items where they were unable to before.
Twenty-four pages of written comments were posted by the city of St. George Friday afternoon. A majority of the comments came from residents opposed to the comment policy change.
“It’s a shame our mayor is removing our right to publicly address the council,” Kassandra Levitt wrote.
“The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right of free speech of the people,” Kristen Hafen wrote.
The policy change affects comments had at the first council meeting of the month only. Public hearings, which are required by law, are not impacted.
Allowing public comment outside public hearings is also the choice of the mayor or whoever is running the meeting. As a former St. George mayor allowed for it, the current mayor has chosen to end the practice – for now.
Randall has said the city wants to see how the new process goes for a while. If the in-person public input is more effective, it may return in the future.
Though Randall did not go into specific detail during the council meeting as to why the policy changed, she shared some of the reasoning behind it during a call Friday with St. George News.
Randall said she began to notice that it was the same people getting up each month to speak, many of them the same ones who attend Washington County Commission and Washington County School Board meetings. Each time they came with prepared statements that, while directed at the council, also seemed to be more for the “audience” of supporters they brought with them.
“They don’t bring something substantive to the council,” Randall said. “The more it goes on, the more division it creates.”
The mayor also said she felt the speakers have taken time away from other residents who had issues the council may actually be able to address versus those who told the council they were “communists” and “violating the Constitution.”
“It’s become a mob mentality to me,” Randall said.
Another reason for the halt on the monthly public comments is to get ahead of people who may abuse the platform to campaign for themselves or others as the municipal election season gets underway, she said.
“It’s all trickled down here from national politics,” the mayor said. “But you can disagree respectfully and not yell at each other.”
Addressing the way speakers and their supporters have acted in previous council meetings, Randall said, “This is not who we are … This is not the Dixie Spirit we’re seeing.”
Among those who disagreed with the policy change was Councilwoman Michelle Tanner.
“I just want it a matter of record that I oppose the decision to take away the oral public comment,” Tanner said. “I can certainly understand the reasons, and I don’t fault anyone for some of those reasons – but I think we have to default to what holds us most accountable – and I do agree you can obviously always email us and call us – but there’s a difference in being able to come to a public meeting and speak in person and make it a matter of public record.”
Tanner’s words drew loud cheers and applause from supporters in the crowd, many of whom held small signs that read, “MAYOR RANDALL IT’S UN-AMERICAN TO NOT LET US SPEAK.”
Prior to the meeting, notices were posted on the entry of the St. George City Offices that signs, posters and similar items wouldn’t be allowed in the council chambers. The signs the protesters had were the size of a regular sheet of paper and not shown until the mayor began to announce the change to the comment policy.
“We asked for no signs to be in here, so please take them down, and if you don’t want to take them down, we’ll have the police come around and gather them up,” Randall said. She had also warned that disruptions to the meeting would lead to it being paused and the police asking the disruptive parties to leave.
Some people put away their signs while others had them collected by police officers.
Following the cheers for Tanner’s comments, someone shouted, “What are you afraid of ?” which was followed soon after by a man standing up and loudly reading the text of the First Amendment. Another man called the mayor a “tyrant.”
The outbursts led Randall to pause the meeting and leave the council chambers. Members of the council soon accompanied her as police officers kept watch.
St. George Police Chief Kyle Whitehead asked those who remained in the council chambers to calm down – and they eventually did. Many of the protesters remained in the council chambers as the meeting resumed and police officers stood at various corners of the room. The protesters gradually left the meeting, which didn’t conclude until after 9 p.m.
Under Utah law, anyone who disrupts a public meeting can be subject to a class-B misdemeanor criminal charge. This can include up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine or compensatory service.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.