The Puyallup City Council has rejected a proposal that would have required citizens to be “courteous in their language and deportment” when speaking at council meetings.
After hearing objections from a dozen citizens at Tuesday night’s meeting, the council said no to the proposed rules for citizen conduct on a 4-3 vote.
Residents said the rules would infringe on people’s First Amendment rights to free speech and prevent them from publicly criticizing city officials’ decisions.
Besides requiring courteous language, the rules would have banned any “derogatory, impertinent, or slanderous remarks or insinuations” against council members, staff or citizens, and given the mayor the power to determine whether a citizen’s remarks were “germane and relevant.”
Most residents who spoke at the meeting thought those weren’t objective standards.
“What is rude?” asked South Hill resident Mark Stewart. “You know as well as I do that the answer to that question is completely subjective. I suggest you take your lumps.”
Council members ultimately dropped nearly all the proposed changes to their rules and procedures. The only change they made was to allow citizens to speak at meetings without having to sign up in advance.
Council members Kent Boyle, Rick Hansen, John Knutsen and Nicole Martineau voted in favor of keeping the citizen comment rules mostly the same.
“If I do something wrong, it is your duty as a citizen to tell me that,” Boyle said. “I believe that is your right.”
Martineau said that though she believes meetings should be held “in an orderly fashion,” she would prefer to do nothing rather than risk infringing citizens’ rights.
“I don’t want to censor anyone,” Martineau said. “That’s not why I’m here.”
Council members Don Malloy and Tami Brouillet and Mayor Kathy Turner favored amended language that would have banned the public from making libelous, obscene or indecent comments. Their proposal also would have banned citizens from making personal attacks on city staff.
“I think it is appropriate to make professional comments,” Malloy said. “Personal comments should be done in private.”
Other cities in the region, including Edgewood, Federal Way, Bremerton and DuPont, have policies barring citizens from making slanderous or personally abusive remarks, Puyallup City Attorney Cheryl Carlson said. The City of Tacoma adopted a policy in 2005 that contains language nearly identical to Puyallup’s failed proposal.
Tim Ford, the open government ombudsman for the state attorney general’s office, said earlier this week that city councils can ban disruptive behavior in their chambers, as well as impose time and noise limits on citizen speech. Requiring courtesy is a less neutral restriction, he said.
“I’m a little concerned about that,” Ford said. “It seems subjective.”
Ashley Brooks, a senior at Rogers High School, compared the city’s attempt to regulate citizen comments to censorship of her high school newspaper.
“Just because a few people are going to go up and be derogatory doesn’t mean everyone has to be punished because of it,” she said Tuesday night. “When someone comes up here and they feel passionately about something, words are going to slip out. They have that right.”
Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058
melissa.santos@thenewstribune.com
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