When is halting public speech justified?

July 13, 2009

Valencia County Commission Chairman Pedro Rael used his “discretion” last Wednesday night to stop a citizen from speaking during the public comments item of the commission’s public meeting agenda.

Mike Wood, a sometimes combative figure at meetings, attempted to speak out about what he said is an ongoing state investigation of one of the five commissioners. That commissioner has been accused by Wood of improperly using just under $500 of public funds.

For months, residents of eastern Valencia County, primarily Rio Communities, who have fought hard in favor of the county hospital and against a proposed metal recycling plant, have complained Rael doesn’t always allow them to speak openly about issues. In the past, residents have been escorted or threatened to be escorted out of the commission chambers because of their tone or allegations they’ve made.

The explosive nature of some public comments, and the stern reaction of commissioners, is not an uncommon occurrence at commission meetings. At nearly every meeting, Rael finds himself, as chairman, needing to balance control of a citizen who’s teetering on the edge of being out of hand with that citizen’s right to speak.

According to words written on every commission meeting agenda, all public comments can be limited “at the discretion of the chair.” It’s fully within the chair’s right to stop any and all public comments.

Rio Communities residents, however, have gotten upset when they think Rael isn’t consistent in his discretion — allowing select speakers to go over the two-minute time limit per person, — toys with the public comments agenda item by pushing it to the end of what are usually hours-long meetings, or uses his discretion to seemingly curtail comments that are in opposition to his opinions on issues.

Rael said he lets people go over the two-minute mark for two reasons — if they’re close to finishing their point or if he forgets to look at his watch.

“If I think it’s going to be dragging on and on, I tell them their time is up,” he said.

He has only twice in recent memory had the public comments item moved toward the end of the agenda. He didn’t clearly articulate why that needed to happen one of those two times.

While it’s unclear if Rael’s motivated to curtail comments because of his personal disagreements over an issue, the contentious issue typically addressed is the county hospital, an issue where he often finds himself in disagreement with citizens who attend commission meetings. Rael has shown himself to be willing to hear out hospital supporters, because he likes to have the opportunity to publicly counter supporters’ points or glean facts about the hospital he’s never heard before.

According to the audio recording Valencia! produced of the most recent meeting, Rael, saying “your time is up,” stopped Wood after Wood had spoken for only 49 seconds.

Despite asking Wood to stop, asking for staff to locate a sheriff’s deputy to escort Wood out of the room and calling Wood’s words “inappropriate,” Wood spoke over the chairman to finish what he had to say, all while the chairman’s wooden gavel was repeatedly beaten against its accompanying sound block.

The details of the allegations made against the commissioner are independently unverifed and publicly disputed by county officials. Valencia! tried to verify the details with the state offices we were told are handling the investigation. One office had no record of the complaint and the other said they don’t comment on pending investigations.

Regardless of the back-and-forth facts, the question that lingers is if Rael should be using his discretion at commission meeting to stop a citizen from speaking, even if the information the citizen is providing may be scandalous, so long as the citizen remains within the facts as he or she understands them.

“Primarily I look to see if they are contributing anything positive to public comments,” Rael said, “or if they’re just insulting or attacking the character of one of the commissioners, or anybody else for that matter, though it’s usually one of the commissioners.”

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