Toler promises law enforcement for ‘unruly mob’
Chairman says ‘It’s only fair’ to allow citizens to speak uninterruptedly during public meets
From our weekly issue dated April 30, 2008
“Unruly” audiences during public meetings was addressed by the Josephine County Board of Commissioners during its weekly business session Wednesday, April 23 in Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
The board’s weekly business session turned rancorous the week before, as citizens alternately lambasted and encouraged the commissioners for their decision to quit a radio call-in talk show.
Among the critics on Wednesday, April 16 was Grants Pass resident Michael Kline, who stated that part of the commissioners’ job is to “take a punch in the nose” and answer the questions put to them by the public.
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“I’ve lived here for 47 years and I’ve never called a radio station,” Kline said, “but I’m here tonight, and I’d like to punch you in the nose,” he told the board.
Nearly a dozen people noisily stalked out of the auditorium April 16 in protest after board Chairman Dave Toler told one man to leave for repeatedly interrupting a speaker.
Commenting on what he characterized as “an unruly mob” during that meeting, Toler promised that “from now on, when citizens act in that manner to intimidate other folks from speaking, we will have law enforcement here. It’s only fair.”
He said that the outbursts have a chilling effect on citizen attendance.
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“My biggest concern is the effect this has on citizens coming to this board and having that three minutes at the mic,” Toler said. “Everyone has that right, and no one has the right to intimidate folks from doing that.”
Rycke Brown, of Grants Pass, was booed by audience members when she said that she didn’t blame Toler and Commissioner Dwight Ellis for discontinuing their KAJO Radio appearances.
She commented, “It’s interesting to hear all this talk about censorship while speaking on public television.” She remarked that the weekly business session forum is an ideal avenue for public comment, because everyone is allowed three minutes to address the commissioners.
Those meetings are televised, exclusively in Grants Pass, and the video is archived on the county’s Website, although updates are not timely.
Toler has expressed his concern for the safety of meeting participants.
“My concern with that kind of unruly behavior,” he said, “is that it scares other people -- regular citizens -- from coming. They don’t come to these meetings because they feel intimidated. They’re getting hissed and booed and name-called.
“I want citizens to feel safe and free to be able to come to that podium and say what they need to say,” the chairman maintained.
