Back in January, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors tried and failed to tighten its public participation rules in an effort to quell the shouting matches that often break out and disrupt meetings.
The proposal appeared to be dead in the water after failing in a split vote, with the supervisor who’d brought forth the changes saying it wouldn’t be resubmitted for consideration.
That is, until last month, when Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer enacted stricter rules while presiding as chair during the July 16 meeting that she says resulted in the meeting running smoothly.
“The rise in some pretty vicious incivility and toxicity has made it really difficult for a lot of of our community to participate and … to feel that they could come down and have their voice heard in the way decisions are made,” Lawson-Remer later told me on a phone call. “That’s really the point of these board meetings, is to be a public forum.”
I’ve written about — and commented on — the issue enough that I’m no stranger to county’s most frequent public commenters. They know me by name, and sometimes redirect their anger toward me when I’m in the chambers. So I knew it was only a matter of time before the rules of public participation were taken up again.
What surprised me was that they were changed without another vote — and therefore without public debate.
Supervisors say the impetus of most of these changes was a threat made to county staff the prior meeting in June, where a public commenter had held a sign that said something like “hang yourself.”
Chair Nora Vargas said she immediately began discussions with the county’s top executive, its lawyers and sheriff’s officials to develop new safety measures.
Furniture was rearranged in the chambers. An extra sheriff’s deputy was added. And adjustments were made to the public speaker lineup process, moving where they lined up to speak and limiting how many were called at a time.
All the changes, Vargas said, were in the purview of the current rules of procedure.
And for the July meeting, Lawson-Remer also limited time for public comment on discussion items to just one minute per speaker if there were 10 or more speakers and enacted a one-warning system, instead of the usual three-strike policy, before removing anyone who violates the rules.
She called the move “a precaution in light of the recent political violence that took place in Pennsylvania over the weekend,” referring to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The meeting recessed twice, and sheriff’s deputies escorted out two people. But the meeting did run a bit more smoothly — that is, after violators were removed. Lawson-Remer said her colleagues “thought the meeting was just so much better. It definitely was received very positively.”
But those changes aren’t permanent, and won’t be unless supervisors vote to make them so.
They can move furniture, but they can’t make permanent changes to procedure — like shortening speaking times — without voting to amend the rules, after letting the public comment.
Vargas said the rules are meant to “give the chair authority to manage the meeting in a variety of ways that ensure the public is being heard and that business is conducted in a timely manner.”
But they certainly haven’t appeared to be working as such.
“There’s a lot more changes that we could make that we’re certainly looking into,” Lawson-Remer said. “I think this is the beginning of us trying to tackle this issue.”
I’ve seen my share of disruptions, and I hope she’s right. For now, when the board returns later this month from its summer recess, they’re are sure to return.
