City councilors and City Attorney David O'Meilia have agreed that only the council's chairman has the authority to silence or eject a member of the public at City Council meetings, Councilor Karen Gilbert said Wednesday.
Gilbert and Council Chairman David Patrick met with O'Meilia after his recent decision to eject political activist Mike Workman from a council meeting without council approval - an incident denounced by several councilors as an overreach of authority.
Gilbert said O'Meilia agreed to follow what the councilors had always thought was the standard procedure.
"It will be up to the council chair, and the city attorney is there to make sure that it's within code of order," she said.
The group also decided, though, to begin stating the council's policy for public comments at the beginning of each meeting, hoping to avoid similar situations in the future.
Members of the public who sign up to speak under an agenda item must limit their comments to the topic of the item. The council chairman will warn speakers who stray from the topic several times before asking them to sit down, Gilbert said.
O'Meilia interrupted Workman on Aug. 29 as Workman spoke under an agenda item to consider reappointing Tulsa trash board Chairman Randy Sullivan, saying Workman strayed from the topic by criticizing Mayor Dewey Bartlett over the trash board.
Workman had requested a separate agenda item under a broader public comment segment where speakers can address any topic they wish, but O'Meilia pulled the item on objections that it violated the state's Open Meeting Act because its language was too vague "to tell what the topic was."
Workman's item called for "public comment regarding the Dewey (Bartlett) deception, the Dewey double-down dodge, and the Dewey debris delay debacle."
He began his address to the council by referencing his pulled item, saying "the Dewey deception is (the trash board)," prompting O'Meilia's objection.
Workman has signed up to address the council on Thursday under the broad public comments segment with two separate agenda items.
Gilbert said Workman is "more than welcome" to do so.
The new items call for "public comment regarding council oversight of Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett deception of the TARE (trash board) green waste scandalette" and "public comment regarding council oversight of Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett on debris delay debacle, slow pace of curbside storm debris removal."
The items were placed at the end of the council's meeting after four other public comment agenda items and several hearings of appeals regarding nuisance-abatement cases.
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Policy on meeting ejection clarified
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