City Administrator Carol Mitten attempted to put a new spin on the recent attempts by the City of Urbana to regulate speech at public meetings.  Mitten declared that meetings of the Council, and its associated boards and commissions, should have the same rules and expectations that the Urbana School District places upon school children.

The issue arose at the October 5^th City Council Committee of the Whole meeting, wherein Mayor Marlin brought forth her second variation of an ordinance that would impose content-based speech restrictions upon members of the public wishing to speak at meetings.  Marlin’s new rules had already been famously exercised (before passage by the Council) at the September 14^th City Council meeting when Marlin interrupted and muted members of the public more than a dozen times (Council members Dennis Roberts and Julie Laut also helped to interrupt speakers).  The new rules allow the presiding officer of a meeting to mute speakers if they determine that their speech is “abusive”, “harassing”, or “defamatory”, or even if the speaker is not clearly speaking about an “action item” on the meeting agenda.

Reading from the school policy manual, Mitten tried to justify Marlin’s authoritarian rule by comparing Urbana residents to school children (and by corollary, the Mayor is their more-mature and better-knowing teacher).  Mitten implied that residents who would cite misconduct or illegal behavior committed by City staff are akin to school bullies and ought to be shut-down.  She claimed that government meetings should be a “safe space”.

Mitten went on to argue that when residents point out such misconduct by City staff, it puts the reputation, income, and employment of those staff members at risk.  Though residents have frequently cited extremely specific instances of misconduct (often citing the person’s name, and describing the exact actions, time, and place of the alleged misconduct), Mitten claimed there were “no specific allegations” and that they were “baseless accusations”.  Certainly, some of the specific allegations made during public input at Urbana meetings have also been painstakingly documented on CheckCU.org.

Mitten gave no consideration whatsoever to the notion that the grievances of Urbana residents might actually be true, or that the City should take them seriously.  She did not contemplate the ethics or liability of restricting or muting members of the public who attempt to report misconduct.

Mitten also did not consider the requirements of the First Amendment as it relates to the public’s right to speak at meetings of public bodies.  This right is established in the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA), and no authority is given to make content-based speech restrictions.  The Illinois Attorney General (IAG) has frequently indicated that a public body can only make time, place, and manner restrictions.  In fact, the IAG has even been very clear that one of Marlin’s new speaking rules, the requirement to speak about an agenda item, is illegal (see Illinois Open Meetings Act Request for Review 2015 PAC 38037).

Every member of the Urbana City Council, with the notable exception of Jared Miller, seemed to be agreeable to the speech restrictions being brought forth, and the shaky arguments being used to support them.

Carol Mitten’s full speech can be viewed here:

-Christopher Hansen, Urbana