Aurora committee moves toward repeat-violation threshold for public-comment sanctions
The proposal would require violations at two meetings within three months before a speaker could face sanctions; the City Council has not adopted a revised rule.
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Aurora’s Rules Committee chair said Oct. 27 the committee would move forward with a proposal requiring public-comment speakers to violate the three-minute limit at two separate meetings within three months before they could face sanctions. The full City Council has not adopted a revised rule.
One committee member said the approach was acceptable, while Mayor Mike Coffman opposed it, according to the committee’s discussion of the public-comment rules. The chair did not specify what sanction would apply. An earlier draft included a warning and a possible bar from speaking at the next meeting, but the chair did not restate those details when describing the threshold.
Members who favored time limits said repeated overruns can disrupt meetings; others raised concern that sanctions could discourage people from speaking. Those were arguments in the discussion, not findings about how a rule would affect participation.
The committee also discussed speaker priority. Members supported continuing the existing practice of prioritizing speakers under 18, but did not settle the rule language. They considered priority for parents with young children, drawing concerns about how staff would verify eligibility and whether age should determine priority. The chair and staff discussed handling disability-related accommodation requests, such as speaking earlier, case by case rather than through a blanket priority.
The chair supported removing language encouraging people or groups speaking on the same topic to designate one spokesperson. Members said the language could pressure groups to consolidate comments or create perceptions of bias. Staff was asked to explore options for an online process for written comments and accommodation requests; no online-comment system was approved.
The Council returned the proposed “Public Participation” section to the Rules Committee for further discussion on Sept. 14. The city’s decorum project page says the committee’s final recommendations will go to a Council study session and regular meeting, but does not give a date for that consideration.