Commentary: Council hecklers are chilling speech for other Costa Mesans

Most of my friends and supporters will no longer speak at Costa Mesa City Council meetings. They are turned off by bullies in the audience who laugh at, mock, talk over and jeer anyone who comes to the microphone and supports the council majority.

They say they feel like they are in the middle of an audience at “The Jerry Springer Show.”

The boos, cackles, running commentary and other rude behavior by a small group of council regulars has created an atmosphere of intimidation and effectively limited free speech for those who support the City Council majority. The bullies believe that some free speech is more important than other free speech.

The latest episode happened at the Oct. 7 meeting, when a visitor yelled at the mayor (including “You’re an ass!”) from the back of the council chambers. She then stormed out of the chambers.

Only a few brave souls are willing to face these hecklers, and I don’t blame them. And if they are courageous enough to speak, they are often described as “bootlickers,” “sycophants,” “brown nosers” and worse in a local blog. This two-front attack has done its job and kept many Costa Mesans at home — with their mouths shut.

Unfortunately this appalling audience behavior is no longer limited to the City Council chambers. At the recent Feet to the Fire Forum, the liberal-leaning audience was unruly, intimidating and rude. One woman frequently shouted profanities at our mayor. It seemed less like a spirited debate and more like a verbal mugging. I left depressed by the audience’s lack of decorum.

This is ironic because the intimidators in the audience, and in local blogs, have loudly criticized Mayor Jim Righeimer’s common-sense policy of allowing 10 people to speak on general matters at the beginning of a council meeting and the rest to speak at the end.

The mayor simply wanted to make sure residents who want to speak on agenda items don’t have to wait until the wee hours of the morning because of a lengthy general public comment period (generated by mostly regular speakers) at the start of the meeting. It was an appropriate compromise that balanced the needs of competing interests.

Under the mayor’s policy, everyone still gets to speak, and residents speaking on agenda items get to speak earlier than they had previously. The main change is that some speakers who make general comments have to wait until the end of a meeting to speak on general matters.

In contrast to the mayor’s policy, the bullies in the audience at City Council meetings actually chill free speech. Residents who want to support the council majority and its initiatives have been driven out of the council chambers by their tactics.

If the council chamber bullies truly want to encourage free speech, then they should follow the rules they should have learned in kindergarten and be polite, respectful and quiet when each speaker comments. That would go a long way toward returning meaningful resident input from all sides to council meetings.

In the meantime, it would be enlightening for Costa Mesa residents who haven’t witnessed this to come to a City Council meeting and sit in the back of the chambers. Soon they would be wondering when Jerry Springer will take the stage.

JIM FITZPATRICK is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner.