Rules of Decorum? Council president clashes with resident at meeting

Soon after borough council passed rules of decorum, the council president broke those rules by using an expletive and telling a resident to "knock it off."

At the February 12 Columbia Borough Council meeting, Council voted unanimously to adopt protocols and rules of decorum for public meetings, with minor changes. A copy of the draft document is HERE, and one particular aspect of the document is notable:

A little over half an hour later after the vote, however, decorum gave way to emotion, when resident Frank Doutrich began this exchange as he commented on borough finances:

Doutrich: "It looked to me like John [Novak] and Todd [Burgard] is the only two was awake at the budget."

Council President Kelly Murphy: "You know what, Frank, that's really . . . that's uncalled for, and I'm not going to listen to that . . . that's . . . If you want to give your opinion, that's fine, but to sit there and say the others didn't think about it, that's just bullshit, so just knock it off. I get tired of it."

Doutrich: "What did I say wrong?"

Murphy: "You're - you're accusing everybody else of . . ."

Councilman Cleon Berntheizel: "Of sleeping. "

Murphy: "We're the only two that, they're the only two paid attention. [Councilwoman Pam Williams interjects, but is unintelligible on the recording. ] You have no idea how hard that position is."

Doutrich: "I guess I meant that, Pam."

Murphy: "You have no idea . . . "

Williams: "[unintelligible] . . . that was a terrible decision to make."

Murphy: "You have no idea how hard that decision was to make and how many days and how many people I've talked to as well."

Doutrich: "You're right,  I didn't, I don't know that, because I didn't get the financial reports to back that up."

An important parallel to note is the recently decided US Supreme Court case LOZMAN v. CITY OF RIVIERA BEACH, FLORIDA in which a council president had citizen Fane Lozman removed from a public meeting essentially because she didn't like the content of his comments. Lozman was subsequently arrested and briefly jailed. The incident, which occurred in 2006, can viewed below, beginning at 0:31.

Lozman challenged the council's actions and ultimately prevailed at the Supreme Court after a 12-year legal battle. The Miami Herald published this article on the outcome of the case, which states, in part, "Lozman became consumed with his First Amendment fight for people like him who are thrown out of public meetings for needling elected officials."

Although the exchange at Tuesday night's meeting did not escalate to the level of removal or arrest of a citizen, the case should serve notice to public officials who attempt to push back on citizens speaking out at such meetings. (One hurdle for citizens, however, is that they must prove the municipality acted with animosity.) At the very least, Columbia Borough Council failed to follow its own rules of decorum.