TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – A dust up over the City of Tallahassee’s policy regarding signs in the commission chambers brought last week’s meeting to an abrupt end.
City officials are arguing decorum is needed, and activists claiming the city wants to suppress descent.
On the city’s official livestream, a commotion can be heard off screen during “unagendaed speakers,” a time residents can address the commissioners and mayor about issues that aren’t on the formal script.
Many speakers were criticizing the police chief’s decision to sign an agreement with ICE in which in detective would be trained to conduct immigration enforcement. They called on the city commission to reverse the police chief’s decision.
“I’m going to have to adjourn this meeting if I can’t get control of this meeting,” Mayor John Dailey told a mixed group of activists from different organizations.
Seconds later, the livestream ends, and commissioners never adjourned. Delaitre Hollinger, president of the National Association for the Preservation of African-American History and Culture, said some of the remaining public speakers never got the chance to address the commission.
“The first amendment does not require you to be civil. The first amendment gives you the right to address your government for a redress of grievances. And that’s what our citizens are doing, but they are being unfairly blocked from entering city hall with certain materials,” Hollinger said.
Hollinger said that even signs directed towards specific commissioners should be allowed.
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The sign issue has actually come up at City Hall before, during a debate about whether the Tallahassee City Commission should’ve sold one of its golf courses which contained a cemetery for the formerly enslaved.
Hollinger attempted to bring a piece of paper through then, but security denied him and his colleagues saying signs weren’t allowed. In that first dust up, a city employee told Hollinger that Tallahassee Fire Chief Gene Sanders was in charge of securing the building.
In an interview on Monday, Chief Sanders confirmed that he, as fire chief, is in charge of building security instead of the Tallahassee Police Department, which also provides officers during the commission meetings.
Sanders said the prohibition against signs had been in place since before he became chief, and that signs are banned to maintain civility and decorum in the proceedings. He added it’s also to prevent disruptions.
“And oftentimes, we catch people who are bringing signs in and we explain to them that there’s a rule on not having signs inside of the chamber. And oftentimes citizens who were unaware, they will leave their signs at the guard desk and comply,” Sanders said.
We also asked the mayor and all commissioners for a written statement. We’ll update this page as those responses come in.
A fire department spokesperson said the city could not share its written policy on signs because it’s contained in the security company’s “post orders.”
A high ranking city official told WCTV that the city commission never formally adopted a written sign policy in a vote, but that the city did adopt a policy prevent personal attacks.
Commissioner Jack Porter
“The First Amendment right of free speech is one of America’s most important freedoms.
There are rare, narrow cases when expressions at public meetings should be curtailed but I do not think this was one of them. The public has a right to give their view freely and we all have a responsibility to maintain decorum and prevent meetings from becoming disorderly.
We’ve got to strike a better balance at City Hall than what we saw at the last meeting and that starts with the people who have the most power over the situation.”
Commissioners Jeremy Matlow, Curtis Richardson and Mayor John Dailey have not yet responded to our request for comment.
Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox declined to comment, instead referred WCTV to our interview with Chief Sanders.
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