Council president gives tips after protest at meeting
Chants of “business as usual, it ain’t gonna happen,” echoed inside City Council chambers Thursday night.
The din forced the hand of the council president to relocate the meeting and block access to a group noisily advocating for access to city meetings.
Nothing was out of ordinary, said Council President Randall J. Allison, observing how about a dozen members from the Center for Independent Living and Adapt sat quietly waiting for the meeting to begin.
They held posters in their hands, and then, a few minutes before the start of the session, the chanting began in cadence.
It didn’t stop when the council meeting started at 7:30 p.m. had arrived, so Allison huddled with city Solicitor Norman Lubin, city Chief of Police Damon Hagan and Mayor Derek Slaughter.
The ruckus was too loud to conduct business and those in the meeting room were told they would need to reconvene down the hallway at the Sechler Community Room.
As Misty Dion, executive director of the Center For Independent Living Roads to Freedom, and Karen Koch, an organization representative, approached the entrance to the room, Hagan used his body to block them, and he spread his arms out wide and grabbed each of the doors shutting them.
“Their behavior led to the charges,” according to Hagan, who declined Friday to identify either of the women.
Instead, Dion voluntarily said she and Koch were cuffed by city officers and charged with disorderly conduct.
Each will receive a summons to appear before a local magistrate judge, presumably District Judge Aaron Biichle, whose jurisdiction covers City Hall.
Allison said it was unfortunate but caused entirely by the noise.
Public protests are permitted outside of City Hall, under the First Amendment, he said. And there is a mechanism to address council in a civil manner, he said.
“We have two policies on addressing council,” he said. One is called “courtesy of the floor,” which is time prior to the votes taken to discuss what is on the agenda. The speaker first must notify the city clerk a day ahead of the meeting and list what items on the agenda he or she wants to speak on.
Individuals also may speak for three minutes after council has finished going through all items on its agenda, addressing their statements on most any subject, not specific to the agenda, but only to the president of council.
The president and council do not respond to these public comments at the meeting, Allison said.
Allison said council will not comment on the ongoing legal matters with the organizations involved Thursday night, in keeping with the city solicitors’ advice.
At the center, Dion said they had no recourse but to get loud.
“It is a shame it has to come to this,” Dion said, acknowledging that she and Koch were told to be quiet but are advocating for a cause much bigger than the organization and themselves.
“We have been asking for a good faith effort in holding meetings where the public can attend safely where it is accessible,” Dion said.
Various forms of civil disobedience and protests have been tried over the past few months, she said, including at the inauguration for all Lycoming County elected and appointed officials inside the Community Arts Center.
Lycoming County District Attorney Ryan Gardner and police chose not to file the charges at the inauguration event.
Dion said they are not going to stop protesting for accessibility.
She noted that it is a false assumption that those who attend council and public meetings comprise the organization.
There are individuals who are not going to meetings at City Hall because they are not provided an interpreter and are feeling unsafe to get into the building from outside, she said.
Dion said the group wants to advocate for council meetings to be moved to the Trade and Transit Centre II on West Third Street.
The building is accessible, with elevators and a level entrance; it also has the ability for individuals with hearing and sight limitations to take part in the meeting, she said.
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