Board Urged to Be ‘Less Harsh’ in Public Comment Rules

CREST HAVEN – County Commissioner Will Morey has presented his fellow commissioners with a proposal for amending rules established this year to control public outbursts or disruptive behavior at board meetings.

The board agreed to consider Morey’s recommendations once they are reviewed by the county counsel, who was not present for the April 22 meeting.

On Feb. 11 the commissioners passed a resolution that outlined appropriate behavior for making public comment. Morey said it was good to have rules for public comment, but he believes the commissioners might have gone too far.

“The pendulum might have swung further than we intended,” he said.

Morey said he felt the rules might be too harsh or have a chilling effect on public comment. The “Rules of Order for Public Comment” prohibit speech that is argumentative, aggressively defiant, slanderous, violates an individual’s privacy or “interrupts the fair and efficient operation of the meeting.”

The rules were introduced after multiple visits to meetings by an individual who was attempting to engage in a back-and-forth with the board and who was taking a belligerent tone with all of the county officials.

However, Morey suggested the county apply a different tone to asking members of the public to conduct themselves in a courteous and cooperative manner. He kept the conditions saying members of the public wishing to comment should raise their hand and wait to be called on by the commission director or his designee. Speakers are asked to step up to the podium and give their name and the municipality in which they reside, and they are allowed to speak for five minutes.

A timer was installed on the commissioners dais to indicate when the five-minute time limit expires. Morey said seven of the county’s 16 municipalities also have a five-minute time limit; one has a four-minute limit; one has a three-minute limit; and five, Stone Harbor, Dennis Township, Middle Township, North Wildwood and West Cape May, have no official time limit. Two towns were not accounted for.

Following the stated time limit, Morey recommended that the rules read: “Speakers will forfeit their time if the content of their comments is abusive, violates an individual’s privacy or is conveyed in a manner that interrupts the fair and efficient operation of the public comment portion of the meeting.

“To encourage and enable the full expression of all views and so as to maintain the order of the meeting, excessive clapping, booing and/or shouts of approval or disagreement from the audience is not permitted.”

Morey’s use of “not permitted” was in place of the word “prohibited.”

Morey, in describing time limits placed on public comment in the various municipalities in the county, also listed statements guiding comments in some of those towns. Most were directions to speakers to identify themselves and their town of residence for the record, and for facilitating remote comments. None of them outlined prohibited behaviors in advance of comment.

“There is a significant difference between what we are currently doing and what the municipalities are doing,” he said.

The commissioner said the board wants to have control of the meetings, but people also have to feel they have latitude to express themselves.

“I think we should express this in less harsh ways,” he said.

Commissioner Director Leonard Desiderio said, “I see you did a lot of work on this – a lot of time went into this,” and added that he would like to refer Morey’s recommendations to County Counsel Jeff Lindsay.

Morey also recommended the county make resolutions available for the public to read prior to their being voted on by the board. Now, resolutions are provided by number and title before meetings, but the public can only read them by making an OPRA request after the meeting at which they are adopted.

Some municipalities, such as Lower Township and North Wildwood, make all of their resolutions, ordinances and bill lists available online before meetings.

“If someone is interested in getting more information generally they need to read the resolution,” Morey said.

He suggested amending the rules to allow resolutions to be posted in advance of a meeting. There was no comment on this suggestion from the other members of the board.

Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.