Courtesy Requested By County Commissioner Roskelley Sets Formal Rules For Public Forums

Spokane County commissioners on Tuesday allowed Chairman John Roskelley to formalize rules regulating what citizens can talk about during the commission’s twice-monthly public forums.

The “Spokane County Board of County Commissioners Procedural Guidelines for Public Forum” will go into effect immediately.

The one-page document contains eight policies on what citizens can address at the public forums and how they should conduct themselves.

They preclude citizens from criticizing county officials by name and dictate that speakers be polite.

Roskelley said Tuesday the rules will maintain decorum during the public comment sessions and ensure that reputations of county elected officials and staff are not besmirched.

“I think it’s important that we listen to the public about public things,” Roskelley said. “But it’s important that we protect staff and ourselves and other elected officials from being taken apart in public. If somebody has a specific complaint about someone, they can approach us after the meeting.”

But Commissioner Phil Harris, who ultimately agreed to allow Roskelley to implement the rules, said commissioners should be willing to take their lumps.

But Commissioner Phil Harris, who ultimately agreed to allow Roskelley to implement the rules, said commissioners should be willing to take their lumps.

“That’s part of being an elected official,” Harris said. “I don’t want them spitting at me, but other than that, they should have their say.”

The forums are held at the end of the commission’s 5 p.m. meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month.

They were instituted about five years ago to give county residents a chance to address their representatives in a public setting. The forums are broadcast live on cable TV Channel 5.

Participation in the forums has been erratic. Sometimes, no one speaks at all. At others, people have lined up 10 deep.

In the past, the 15-minute forums were facilitated by the commission chairperson under informal rules announced ahead of the session: no personal attacks, no speaker longer than three minutes, comments must address county business.

Rarely has anyone been ruled out of order. Usually, an admonishment from the chairperson has been enough to keep speakers in line.

Roskelley has never liked those informal rules. In 1996, after weekly attacks from a private-property rights activist, he attempted to restrict forum rules.

But Harris and then-Commissioner Steve Hasson overruled him.

The new policies encourage speakers, if possible, to sign up four days ahead of the forum date, to limit themselves to three minutes each and to address the entire board when speaking, not an individual commissioner.

They also spell out what citizens can comment on during the forums, which were instituted in the mid-1990s to give county residents a chance to address their representatives in a public setting.

Off limits are comments regarding pending land-use permit applications, complaints about specific county elected officials and staff members and court cases in which the county is embroiled.

The policies also set up punishments for those who violate the rules.

Policy No. 6 states: “Any citizen making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks or who shall be boisterous while addressing the (commission) may be requested to leave the meeting as well as being barred from further audience before the (commission) by the Chairperson.”

Policy No. 7 continues on that theme.

“Any citizens whose comments have been ruled out of order by the Chairperson shall immediately cease and refrain from further improper comments,” it states. “The refusal of the citizen to desist from inappropriate, slanderous or otherwise disruptive remarks after being ruled out of order by the chair may subject the individual to removal from the (commission) hearing room.”

The rules were drafted by Jim Emacio, the county’s chief civil attorney who advises commissioners. Emacio said the policies should make it easier for the chairperson to maintain order.

“I think it’s been hard to do sometimes because we don’t have a policy,” he said.

But Harris said the new rules are a layer of unnecessary regulation.

The commission chairperson already has the authority to deem unruly speakers out of order and demand that they stay on point or shut up, he said.

Besides, Harris said, people with chips on their shoulders are going to unburden themselves whether there are written rules or not. “This piece of paper is not going to stop them,” he said.

In the end, Harris relented, however. As chairman, Roskelley has the right to set the rules for commission meetings, he said.

Commissioner Kate McCaslin agreed.

“This seems like a good compromise,” she said.

But Harris said the rules would only last until Jan. 1, when he takes over the rotating chairmanship.

“I’m not going to be bound by that piece of paper while I’m chair,” he said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: HISTORY In the city

The Spokane City Council has had its own struggles with public forums. In January 1996, council members voted to remove the public forum session from the cable telecast of their weekly meetings, saying the forums had taken on a circuslike atmosphere. The forums are again on TV, however, with few formal rules governing them.