It’s no secret to reporters who have covered them that public comment can turn San Diego County Board of Supervisors meetings into shouting matches and contrarian standoffs.
It’s the public’s right to debate and exchange ideas — a First Amendment right to free speech that I truly value as a journalist.
But not like this.
When I first attended a county board meeting in person two years ago as a freshly-hired San Diego Union-Tribune reporter, I watched in shock as a commenter insulted county staff and supervisors.
Earlier, I laughing in disbelief with colleagues at a video that had gone viral of an Ocean Beach man full-throatedly screaming at San Diego County supervisors in August 2021 over county vaccine policies. “That’s the wind blowing through your ancestors’ bones, begging you to do the right thing,” the man later added, as he whistled into the microphone.
We’d never seen anything like it. Sure, we’d all covered government meetings, which had their fair share of disruptions — especially during the pandemic. But this felt different, angrier.
Recent research bears out that feeling. A survey last year by the University of San Diego found that three quarters of local elected officials report being harassed or threatened, and two thirds say the problem has gotten worse.
And later in 2021, after public commenters used racial slurs to attack the county’s top public health official during a routine COVID-19 update, supervisors approved new rules to curb disruptive comments in board meetings.
Now, many of the same public commenters still show up every other Tuesday.
Many get to the podium only to hold up their phones to the mic and play videos promoting conspiracy theories of a secretly emerging “New World Order.”
Last month, a man who called himself “Karma” signed up to comment on every single item on the agenda in protest against supervisors’ decision to limit public comment to one minute. He spent every single one of those minutes speaking off topic.
At least two people were escorted out of that meeting by sheriff’s deputies.
And back in October, Board Chair Nora Vargas — the first Latina elected San Diego County supervisor — nearly lost her cool after public commenters repeatedly called her racist slurs.
This week, at their first regular meeting of the year, supervisors will once again revisit updating their rules and procedures in an effort to further curb the disruptions and disorder.
The motion was first put on the agenda in November but has yet to face true public scrutiny. Even prior to public comment at that meeting, Vargas was interrupted various times by angry shouts as people prepared to protest the proposal.
The proposal coming back before the board Tuesday includes a recommendation for county lawyers to explore options for individuals who “engage in a pattern and practice of disruptive behavior.” It doesn’t say what those options might be.
Whatever they are, the opposition could get ugly. And such chaos risks overshadowing the real purpose of public comment — healthy public debate.
