Fontana: Mayor concerned about outbursts during meetings

FONTANA – It may not be a high crime, but heckling during City Council meetings might be a misdemeanor.

The council’s Wednesday night agenda cites Penal Code Section 403 in warning that every person who willfully disturbs or breaks up any lawful public assembly or meeting is guilty of a misdemeanor.

The language has been added to the agenda on the heels of recent council meetings where Latino activists have clashed with officials and residents in attendance over illegal immigration.

“Our council meetings aren’t going to turn into a circus,” Mayor Mark Nuaimi said Monday.

Nuaimi is fed up with outcries from the audience when speakers during the meeting’s five-minute public comment time voice their opinions at the podium.

At the most recent meeting, Nuaimi used the gavel to quiet outbursts from audience members who opposed Gil Navarro, a trustee for the San Bernardino County Board of Education, when he condemned Councilwoman Acquanetta Warren for supporting Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration laws.

“You can’t use free speech to start a riot,” Nuaimi said.

The agenda also cites Fontana City Code Section 2-33 in warning the public that:

“any person in the audience who, while in attendance at any council meeting, uses profane language, or language tending to bring the council or any of its members into contempt, or any person who persistently interrupts the proceedings of the council or refuses to be seated and keep quiet when ordered to do so by the presiding officer, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Navarro said Tuesday that officials should be careful not to broadly apply the codes.

“I’m more concerned about them interpreting those comments that I or anybody would make at the podium as a misdemeanor, because they are treading on sacred ground that’s protected speech,” he said.

Richard McKee, an expert with the nonprofit open-government organization Californians Aware, said Navarro’s concerns are well-founded.

“I think it’s a reasonable fear,” he said. “I’ve certainly seen this before and when things get contentious, there are elected officials who want to shut down opposition.”

McKee said the admonition in the city code against language tending to bring the council or any of its members into contempt violates protections granted to the public by both the United States and California constitutions, and the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open-meetings law.

“How do you interpret that?” McKee said. “This kind of ambiguous language that can be interpreted by others cannot be tolerated in a public forum.”

One government analyst said the warnings demonstrate the balancing act officials face in conducting open meetings that function in an orderly manner while trying to accomplish city business.

“That’s basically what’s happening here,” said Jessica A. Levinson, director of political reform for the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. “There is a difference between the right to speak and the right to drown out.”

The warnings may permanently remain on the agenda.

“I think unfortunately it’s going to have to be, to put people on fair notice,” Nuaimi said. “It’s my job to make sure order and dignity remains in the meeting and there’s not a potential for it to become unruly.”

Copyright 2010 Bay Area News Group