Oxford Commissioners pass meeting policy, residents express concerns

OXFORD — Gasps, sighs and exclamations could be heard throughout a Commissioners of Oxford discussion on Tuesday evening that ended in a 2-1 vote to pass a resolution establishing town meeting procedures.

The resolution, introduced by Commission President Norm Bell at a town meeting on Sept. 10, establishes general rules and procedures regarding public participation at town meetings. During the Sept. 10 meeting, Bell said the purpose of the policy “is to create an atmosphere where the elected officials, staff and members of the public can attend to business efficiently, fairly and with full participation.”

Specifically, the policy limits when and for how long public commenters can speak and prohibits heckling, defamatory comments and profanity. The resolution also makes it so commissioners do not have to answer questions residents ask during public comment.

The different limitations, as well as the way in which the resolution was passed, drew concern from residents.

Both Bell and Commissioner Tom Costigan said during the discussion that the commissioners had been receiving responses from residents regarding Bell’s proposed resolution since the previous town meeting when it was introduced.

Commissioner Katrina Greer — who voted against passing the resolution — brought up the town’s charter, which says, “the rules of the commissioners shall provide that residents of the town shall have a reasonable opportunity to be heard at any meeting in regard to any municipal question.”

Greer said she is proposing a different resolution, which hadn’t yet been posted on the town website prior to Tuesday’s meeting. Greer said she wanted to schedule a workshop, gather input and put together one merged resolution to vote on.

“There is a need, and most towns have it, for a little bit of rules,” she said. “But this is something that the town needs to participate in and see the documents.”

Greer said that unlike Bell’s proposal that restricts public comment to the end of a meeting, hers would allow for public comment before actionable items, or items that are voted on.

“Letting people talk at the end of the meeting about something that has already been voted on is useless and does not satisfy the requirement for a reasonable opportunity to be heard at the meeting,” she said. “It is also dismissive of the right of citizens to participate.”

Tensions rose throughout the discussion, which public comment was not allowed during. At one point, one resident asked the commissioners, “Are you really not going to allow public comment on this?”

Bell responded that the commissioners had received feedback prior meeting. When another resident spoke up, Bell said, “Excuse me, there will not be back talk. Please.”

At another point, when resident Susan Kordell started to make a comment, Bell banged his gavel and told her to “sit down, please.”

At the end of the meeting, Bell said he acted “quickly” to try to stop commenters due to concerns about the commissioners’ time to discuss the matter at hand.

Although Greer felt the commissioners should not vote on meeting procedures Tuesday evening, both Costigan and Bell said they were ready to vote.

“It’s a resolution, and if there are any amendments to it, we can certainly address them in the two weeks, and we (can) vote on any amendments or changes or adoption of one over the other,” Bell said.

Along with approving Bell’s proposed resolution, Bell and Costigan agreed to schedule a workshop on the topic for next week so at the next town meeting, the commissioners can consider any amendments that might be suggested.

At the end of the meeting, resident Emilie Knud-Hansen said she though thought the procedure around the resolution at the meeting was unfair.

“We deserve to find out what you’re voting on before you say, ‘We’ll vote on this resolution and then we’ll deal with amendments,’” she said. “I think that’s really backwards.”

Resident Dave Donovan said at the end of the meeting that there was irony in the fact that a resolution on public comment “was itself enacted without public comment.”