Commision could adopt new rules on citizen comments
Comments from an Oak Ridge resident spurred the Anderson County Commission to discuss the future of its citizen comment period.
No vote on changes took place at the Sept. 16 meeting.
However, Commissioner Joshua Anderson suggested bringing the topic before the commission’s Rules Committee.
Annette Prewitt, Anderson County clerk, said the Rules Committee meeting will take place Nov. 14.
Oak Ridge resident Nathan Mullins spoke during the time for citizen comments, disputing the Republican primary election of Rick Scarbrough for District 33.
Scarbrough was at the meeting to discuss roads, but did not speak about the election.
Mullins also touched on the issue of library books he says he considers inappropriate, a cause he has spoken about during several commission meetings in a row, although the board has taken no votes on that issue recently.
Mullins blamed both issues on the Democratic candidate for that seat, Ann Backus, accusing her of helping Democrats fake voting forms by posing as Republicans and voting for Scarbrough.
Voters, however, do not need to be registered to a particular party to vote in its primary.
“I’ve been a prophet crying in the wilderness exhorting you to take back your children from the High Priest Ann Backus and her leftist sex cult converts pushing gay sex-ed books into your libraries,” Mullins said.
“Because you sanctioned her book-obscenity crimes, now you’ve empowered her to commit large-scale election fraud,” he said.
He then criticized Scarborough’s church, First Baptist Church, for leaving the Southern Baptist Convention and hiring what he said were liberal pastors.
It was at that point that Commissioner Jerry White interrupted him.
“Is this really necessary?” he asked.
Commission Chairman Tyler Mayes gave Mullins a few more seconds to finish.
Mullins’ comments set off a discussion not about any of the issues he brought up, but about the reasoning behind having citizen comments in the first place.
“This is an example of when you open up the agenda for citizens to talk about anything and everything they want to,” said Mayes. “I don’t like what he has to say. I don’t like any word that he’s said, but under our rules he has a right to say what he’s saying,”
White, in response, apologized to Mayes for the interruption.
Mayes talked about the comment policy and said the commission had “committees to talk about issues.”
He said in a later phone interview that Anderson County is more generous than other counties in allowing comments on items that aren’t on the agenda.
He clarified, however, that he was not endorsing limiting citizen comments to these committees rather than the full commission.
Rather, he said he was focused on discussing rules regarding the tone of comments.
“What is the best way to keep an open floor for our citizens but also keeping it respectful?” he said.
Anderson, in an email, expressed similar concerns.
“I’m a staunch supporter of the First Amendment, which the first speaker felt we violated by limiting his time,” Anderson told The Courier News.
“There’s another component of the First Amendment: freedom of religion,” he added, criticizing the attack on First Baptist Church.
“Disagreement is OK,” Anderson said. “Legally, County Commission could limit public comments only to items on the agenda. I think that goes a little too far, and think we at least should hear about anything we can take action on.
“However, it’s hard to discern any actionable items from someone who comes every month and rants about churches, twists facts, and flat-out makes up stuff during his three minutes.
“So, my question is, what do we do?,” Anderson said. “Do we cut off mikes? Do we limit what topics we will hear? Do we move public comments to the end of the meeting? Or, do we just leave it as is. Does free speech at a County Commission meeting mean someone can come every month and disparage private citizens for three minutes?”