THE KAREN CHRONICLES: Is public comment during Council meetings too belligerent?

Karens and Chads, quaking in their boots

COLUMBIA, Mo 10/21/24 (Beat Byte) -- Are public speakers and Columbia City Council members ignoring Roberts Rules of Order and the decorum it demands? Is Mayor Barbara Buffaloe failing to enforce these rules, her job during public hearings?

Could the City Council develop arcane public speaking rules in the wake of a potential backlash, like the Columbia School Board did during Covid?  Such rules do more to shut down speech than encourage it.

Fair questions, if the October 7 Council meeting is any example. Speaker Chriss Jones announced herself during the FLOCK license plate reader debate with a warning about profanity to come, later using profanity with a Council member.

"Tell every person in Jefferson City and DC to go flock themselves. Only I'm probably gonna say fuck because I do have a potty mouth and studies show that people who have potty mouths actually have better vocabularies," Jones said. "It feels like I'm yelling! I am not yelling."

The F-bomb went unaddressed, but Mayor Buffaloe did intercede when the one-on-one exchange began.

"Don: you know how I feel about you. I really don't like you all that much," Jones said to Fifth Ward Councilman Don Waterman, leaning forward and cupping her cheeks on the podium. "I know the feeling is mutual -- you really don't like me a lot either. And it's because I call you out on your shit. I wanna call you out on your shit just one more time."

"Stop cursing," Mayor Buffaloe warned.  "We do have kids who watch this."

"It is after ten o'clock at night. They're not," Jones responded. "And that would be a First Amendment violation. You would be violating the First Amendment."

"Just asking you politely," the Mayor said.

"It's not polite when you're violating my First Amendment rights," Jones rebutted. 

Public speaker behavior at Columbia City Council meetings has had its controversial moments all the way back to public comment regular Paul Albert decades ago. Loved by activists but loathed by the establishment, Albert practiced a brand of browbeating that prompted senior city administrators and Council members to recoil at even the thought of him.

Albert, however, did not have a cadre of fellow speakers waiting in the wings, a phenomenon social media and cell phones facilitate. Planned or not, the effect can be intimidating, and may be off putting to potential Council candidates and other speakers.

"I'm a member of several groups and while you guys are talking, I am in contact with dozens of people and we are discussing what you are saying and we are posting it on social media," Jones told the Council, characterizing other FLOCK speakers that evening as
"Karens and Chads who were quaking in their boots about those people, those boogedy men."

Waterman, meanwhile, took the punches during a Roberts Rules-violating one-on-one engagement, as Jones explained her latest beef with him. 

"Don said, I just don't understand why Roy [Lovelady], as a Black man, isn't comfortable with all police officers," Jones recounted. "That's what you said, Don."

"I would love to see the transcript," Waterman responded. "Tell me where it is." 

"You said that. You said you just did not understand why Roy is not comfortable with all police officers," Jones continued. "What a horrible person you are. I want you to think about what you said."

Councilman Lovelady, who represents the Third Ward, did not respond, either during Jones' remarks or during Council comment thereafter.

Jones was not alone in arguing with Council members or calling out others on the Council dais, including police chief Jill Schlude. Former US Senate candidate December Harmon refused to leave the podium when her time was up, insisting the Mayor "stole" her time.

Regular Council commenter Eugene Elkin went over time during his presentation -- on bedbugs at Room at the Inn and gas stations closing early because homeless persons cause problems -- arguing with the Mayor to allow him to continue.

"Thank you Eugene," Buffaloe said at least six times after the clock had stopped.

"You say shut up," Elkin snapped back, finally ceding the podium.

Video, Oct 7th City Council meeting