New Salina City Commissioner Gary Norris called Monday for the city to review its rules governing public participation at City Commission meetings, citing conduct he witnessed during the Aug. 24 meeting.

Norris, who was appointed to the commission during that Aug. 24 meeting, said his experience attending public meetings during more than three decades as a school superintendent did not prepare him for what he observed.

“In my 32 years as a school superintendent, I've sat through over 1,100 public meetings,” Norris said. “A few of them were very tough, and I vividly remember those tough ones. However, nothing that I've ever witnessed came close to the August 24th meeting right here in this room. Nothing.”

Norris said he later listened to the comments from the meeting and described the behavior of some participants as “simply unacceptable and undemocratic.”

His comments focused on the public microphone portion of City Commission meetings, where residents are generally given an opportunity to address commissioners on matters that may not otherwise be scheduled for a formal public hearing.

Norris distinguished those public comment periods from legally required public hearings and the public's right to observe government meetings.

“You have a legal right to watch us conduct meetings and to participate in certain public hearings, like the budget hearing,” Norris said. “But I know of no absolute right to conduct an open public forum.”

He said public meetings should still be governed by standards of decorum.

“There's no right in Kansas law to ignore decorum and reasonable standards of participation,” Norris said.

Norris then asked Mayor Mike Hoppock and the commission to direct city staff and the city attorney to examine public participation rules used by other Kansas cities and determine whether Salina's existing rules should be changed.

“Mr. Mayor, I'd like the commission to direct city staff and our attorney to review other cities' participation rules and propose any amendments we might need to our own,” Norris said.

Norris also raised the possibility of temporarily suspending the public comment portion of meetings while the city reviews its procedures.

“We may want to temporarily suspend public comments until a new agreed-upon format is established, or we may want to take a moment to review our current rules of participation, which are not being followed in some cases,” Norris said.

Norris emphasized that he supports allowing residents to address their elected officials but said the opportunity should not be used for what he characterized as “character assassination,” extreme rudeness or refusing to yield the podium.

Any change to the city's public comment procedures would affect how residents are permitted to address commissioners during future meetings. Norris' comments were a request for the commission to consider reviewing the rules; they did not, by themselves, change the city's existing public participation policy.