Council lays out rules for behavior

By Adam Swift

Decorum prevailed at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Council President Patrick Keefe addressed the incident that happened during the March 27 meeting, when tempers flared during the continued debate over the high school building project. A halt was called during the meeting as a scuffle broke out. Resident and former council candidate Wayne Rose was charged on counts of assault and disorderly conduct.

At the April 3 meeting, Keefe had City Clerk Ashley Melnik read the rules for videotaping, behavior, and procedure during council meetings.

“We don’t mean to overburden the crowd, and we don’t want to overburden the public with rules that may or may not be as understandable,” said Keefe. “In essence, we want to explain that we want as much public participation as possible. We owe it to you to open that process and ensure that residents and people are involved in the public process.”

Keefe said that the action of a few people should not outweigh the participation of the many.

“Last week, we had a very good meeting, believe it or not,” said Keefe. “There were 60, 80, 100 residents in here that were doing a very nice job, but unfortunately at times, the actions of a few can really overshadow that. We owe it to our children, our families, and those we represent to be better, and I know that we are.”

Ward 1 Councillor Joanne McKenna thanked the police officers who helped de-escalate the situation at the March 27 meeting. She said the situation could have gotten out of hand without the actions of the officers.

Over the past two years, there have been a number of times when there have been additional police details on duty in the council chambers as issues such as the new high school, biolab safety procedures, and the human rights commission have come up for debate.