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With reservations, Largo moves public comments to the end of meetings in response to a couple of strong critics.
By MICHAEL SANDLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2002
LARGO -- How do you deal with people who line up to criticize you?
If you are the Largo City Commission, you force them to wait until the very end of a meeting before they can speak.
That's precisely what Commissioner Pat Burke persuaded her colleagues to do when she became irritated by a pair of regular critics who habitually blast her and the commission.
"I personally find the opportunity to address the commission at the beginning of the meeting for the sole and exclusive purpose of harassing and intimidating individual city commissioners to be distasteful," she wrote in a March 29 memo to the commission.
Burke requested they move the citizen comments portion of the agenda from the beginning to the end of public meetings, reasoning that the move would effectively deal with ornery critics. Her colleagues on the commission agreed. The city clerk conducted a study and found nearly a dozen local governments in Pinellas that allowed comments toward the end, instead of the beginning, of meetings.
This month the commission unanimously supported her request.
So, people accustomed to speaking at the beginning of biweekly meetings -- which start at 7 p.m. -- must now wait until the end, often two or three hours later. Some meetings drag on even longer. "That could have a chilling effect on the public's willingness to come to those meetings and to make comments on various issues," said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, a nonpartisan government reform advocacy organization. "I question the reason."
In Largo, people come to let the commission know a stoplight is not working, or that an area business has attracted a noisy crowd. Earlier this month, nearly a dozen people waited patiently for more than two hours to voice concerns about the city terminating its lease with the Bay Area Renaissance Festival.
But not everyone speaks politely.
Residents Ross Herman and Mark Klutho lob what some have interpreted as inflammatory speech. At one meeting Herman called the commission "inept" and said Burke needs a "serious counseling session with a trained psychiatric professional."
Klutho has accused the entire commission of "malfeasance," reading the word from a dictionary he carried to the lectern.
"People come for the sole purpose of agitating and disrupting the meeting," said City Manager Steven Stanton. "That's wrong, especially when they target specific members. It reached a critical nature."
Herman calls Burke the "corporation commissioner" because she is employed by Time Warner. He has called Commissioner Charlie Harper a "hypocrite" and a "liar."
Herman cannot vote because he was convicted on charges of kidnapping and sexual battery 11 years ago in Illinois. He served one year of probation for the domestic crime.
"I'm just a tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy," Herman said. "I try to keep my facts straight and emotions from getting involved. I used some strong words.
"I really think it was wrong to move the citizen comment to the end. You have to have a thick skin."
Safety is a primary concern for Stanton, who said Herman's language and actions have grown increasingly threatening since March.
After Herman spoke at the end of the April 16 meeting, the first since the policy change, he approached the dais and handed Burke a note. It read "We need to talk" and had his phone number below.
"She was concerned, and his criticisms have gotten more caustic," said Stanton, who has initiated several new policies.
A uniformed police officer once stationed at the back of the chamber is now in front during meetings, barriers are being planned to separate the commission from the public and the city attorney is drafting a memo on guidelines for cutting off unruly speakers who use "fighting words."
"They are words that cause someone in the audience or on the commission to actually want to fight that person," said Tammi Bach, the assistant city attorney.
In Largo as in most cities, the public comment part of the meeting agenda is for comments on anything not on the agenda.
Dunedin, Clearwater and Pinellas County have public comments near the beginning of the agenda. St. Petersburg and Safety Harbor have them toward the end, but St. Petersburg moves it up if a large number of people show up to comment on a subject not on the agenda.
Many say making someone wait is unproductive, especially if they are angry.
Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne said the city has a decorum standard to handle those who become unstable, no matter when they speak.
"We expect people who speak before the commission to behave a certain way, and the mayor as a chairman is expected to enforce that standard," he said.
Some say Mayor Bob Jackson should do the same in Largo.
"We asked the mayor over and over to intervene," said Commissioner Pat Gerard. "He wouldn't. I've never seen anybody continue making abusive or out of line comments when they were asked to stop."
Commissioner Harriet Crozier said Jackson needs to take more control. "I don't believe that is truly being done, and I believe it has gotten out of hand," she said.
Even though she supported it, Crozier said the new resolution does not solve the problem.
"People who are that angry stay the whole meeting," she said. "People not that angry, with a legit point, may leave."
Every commissioner interviewed expressed some regret with the new resolution. Many said they hope to revisit it in six months and see if public comment deserves to be put back at the beginning of the meeting.
Even Burke had reservations.
"Hopefully, the public says to us they really object to it," she said. "We certainly can revisit it, just like we did this time."
-- Michael Sandler can be reached at 445-4174 or sandler@sptimes.com.