Denver Post 1/11/1994
SILENCING CITIZEN COMMENT?
Council decries TV time for free plugs
by Mary George, Denver Post Staff Writer

Weary of time-wasting harangues and unsolicited sales pitches, some Boulder City Council members have suggested unplugging the TV cameras during citizen participation at city council meetings.

"It's `I'm having a garage sale' or `My private nonprofit is having this fund-raiser,' and this is free TV exposure," said Mayor Leslie Durgin. [Note: regular attendees say they've never heard a yard sale advertised and few fund-raisers. This "bald-faced lie" as it was described by one citizen, is probably why Council never took citizen participation off TV. We'd like to see a Council meeting video to the contrary. -ed.} "Or it's I don't live in the city or the county, but I think this is how you should do things,' or `I want to bash another institution and this is free TV.'"

Durgin said she's sure that the proposal will bring "all the crazies" out in criticism. "But is this a city council business meeting," she asked, "or is this open mike?"

Idea floated at retreat.

The blackout idea was floated at the city council's annual goals retreat last weekend during a discussion about how to shorten council meetings. [The idea sank.]

The every-other-Tuesday council meetings are broadcast start-to-finish and replayed, too, on Municipal cable Channel 8.

The meetings begin at 6 PM and often run until the early hours of the next day, then sometimes still must be continued.

The council interrupts its agenda at 6:45 PM to hear from citizens about issues not on the agenda. [Now citizen participation goes from 6 to 6:45.] The comment period is scheduled for 45 minutes and citizens are limited to three minutes each, but the session often goes longer.

"We're not sure how to discourage a category of folks who are promoting their projects, services and products...(things) that have nothing to do with the city of Boulder and its public policy." Said Councilman Spense Havlick. "It's a radical departure from our usual policy of encouraging everyone to speak."

Other input routes

Havlick said he would support the blackout only if electronic mail, voice mail, letters and other ways of collecting public input are made easier.

Councilwoman Sally Martin caled the blackout proposal "draconian," but agreed that public participation at council meetings can be trying.

The proposal worries Carla Selby, president of the Boulder chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The council can't pic and choose which parts of its meetings to broadcast, she said.

But Jim Joy of the American Civil Liberties Union in Denver said the proposal violates no rights.