SPOKANE, Wash. — The saga in the Spokane City Council chambers continued Monday night with more proposed changes to open forum rules.
Monday night's proposed changes are just the latest in a string of revisions spanning months, and it drew a lot of public comment.
The changes stem from a November city council meeting being interrupted by pro-Palestine protestors.
In January, Spokane City Council approved some changes to their open forum rules, including increasing the number of speakers to 20 and moving the open forum portion to the end of the council meeting.
Monday night's meeting brought more changes to city council's rules of procedures, particularly for the rules of public participation in meetings.
One of the night's most contentious topics was the proposed amendment by council president Betsy Wilkerson and councilmember Zack Zappone about standing during council meetings.
"Standing is speech," said Zach McGuckin, a member of Spokane's Party for Socialism and Liberation. "I don't think anyone's denying that, but it's a speech that's protected by our First Amendment rights.
While the amendment says standing is allowed, it also says it has to follow fire code & the Americans With Disability Act, make sure it doesn't impede getting in or out of the council chambers or block the aisles and pathways and doesn't block the view for other audience members.
Later during the meeting's open forum, audience members standing in front of others led to a tense moment in the chamber.
"The action is clearly there to intimidate," councilmember Jonathan Bingle said. "This is a problem. We're trying to do what's in the rules, but there are a couple people who are specifically trying to cause problems. This is not acceptable behavior here."
Other public commenters wanted the open forum moved back up to the start of city council meetings.
"Lot of this is still lingering from that night in November, and we're still dealing with that," councilmember Paul Dillion said.
"I agree if nobody's happy, then we may almost be right there in the middle to accomplish other things in our city government," Wilkerson said.
The proposed amendments passed 6-1.
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