Commentary: Free Speech or Freedom to Abuse Others?

By Doug Spoon
Editor, Menifee 24/7

Some would have you believe there is a fight for the right to free speech going on at Menifee City Hall. But is that what it's really about?

The "public comments" agenda portion of the last two Menifee City Council meetings have included allegations by individuals that they are being "bullied" by Mayor Scott Mann and their right to free speech has been violated. At Wednesday night's meeting, city attorney Jeff Melching also was criticized by speakers for intervening in comments made by an individual at the Feb. 4 council meeting.

Don't get me wrong. I respect an individual's right to free speech as much as anyone. However, it's possible for one to abuse that right, and it appears that's what's happening in Menifee.

I won't name the individuals who have accused Mann, Melching and other council members of misconduct in the last two meetings. There is no need to embarrass them any more than they have already embarrassed themselves. Let's just say that there's an effective way to state one's grievance in a public meeting, and then there's an ineffective -- and inappropriate -- way to do the same.

Telling city council members from the speaker's podium that "there isn't one set of gonads among the four of you" certainly falls in the latter category.

Yes, that happened on Wednesday night. The speaker who made that statement was directing it toward the four council members seated on the dais. That did not include Wallace Edgerton, who was absent while recovering from surgery and thus spared the humiliation.

A little background: During the entire two years I have covered Menifee City Council meetings for Menifee 24/7, virtually every meeting has included negative comments, accusations and name calling by a few local residents during the "public comments" portion of the meeting. I get it. Apparently, these are people who never wanted Menifee to incorporate in the first place. They are unhappy about commercial development, allege health risks that are being ignored, and constantly hurl rude and offensive accusations at the mayor, other council members, the city manager and anyone else they can think of.

It's hard to tell, but somewhere in their rantings, it's very possible that some legitimate concerns exist. However, because they choose to be combative from the first second of their allotted three minutes at the podium, rarely are any valid points expressed. Criticizing the mayor because he's a renter and not a homeowner has no relevance to city issues, other than to vent one's frustration with a person one doesn't like.

Yes, that comment is made on a regular basis. Often such comments are applauded by the speaker's few sympathizers. This is a violation of the Menifee City Council decorum policy. Mann will occasionally rap the gavel to quiet these people, but sometimes they are allowed to applaud and shout comments from their seats -- another violation of decorum policy.

Yet these are the same people who recently have claimed that Mann and other city officials are the ones violating decorum policy. Apparently getting no satisfaction from their prior rants, they have now called in reinforcements.

Fast forward to the Feb. 4 council meeting. I was not there -- one of the very few council meetings I have missed in the last two years. I regret now that I missed out on the circus. I can comment only on what I see and hear on the video of the meeting. If you're interested, I urge you to watch it here.

During the opening proceedings, Mann was informed by the city clerk that an agenda item was being held over until the next meeting. Speakers wishing to address that issue were informed they would be allowed to do so at the next meeting but could also speak during the open public comments section that night.

From the audience, a woman began yelling from her seat that "you're breaking the law." Mann asked her twice to be quiet before the meeting could resume. That outburst is a violation of the Menifee City Council decorum policy, which states:

No person shall address the City Council without first being recognized by the Presiding Officer. The person shall respond when his/her name is called from the speaker slip, shall go to the podium, or shall raise his/her hand to indicate that he/she wishes to go to the podium to speak. Impromptu personal points of order, comments, objections or questions shall not be recognized, and if they persist, after the Presiding Officer has warned of the offense, a member of the public engaging in such conduct shall, at the discretion of the Presiding Officer or a majority of the City Council, be subject to ejection from the meeting.

Mann properly warned the woman that she would be ejected if she persisted. Moments later, when she took her turn at the speaker's podium, she identified herself as a resident of Riverside. Nothing in her comments indicated she had any interest in the matters of the City of Menifee. Instead, she gave a plug to her website, which details her efforts to expose "corruption" in Southland cities, then told Mann that "nothing incenses me more than a mayor that is a bully, and Mr. Scott Mann, you'd better learn your decorum in your building here."

At that point, city attorney Melching (left) intervened, explaining to the woman that, according to the decorum policy, "persons addressing the City Council shall address the Council as a whole and shall not engage in a dialogue with individual Council members, City Staff, or with other members of the audience."

Whether the woman's comments directed to Mann constitute "engaging in dialogue" is up for interpretation. But rather than complying with the request and making general comments about her concerns to the council as a whole, she persisted, threatening a lawsuit, shouting over the objections of Mann and Melching, until Mann finally ordered her to be removed from the premises.

A couple other points of decorum policy are at issue here:

-- The purpose of addressing the City Council is to formally communicate to the Council on matters relating to City business or citizen concerns.

The woman --who is not a citizen of Menifee -- stated no concerns related to city business.

-- Each person addressing the City Council shall do so in an orderly manner and shall not engage in any conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the City Council meeting. Any person who so disrupts the meeting may, after warning by the Presiding officer, and at the discretion of the Presiding Officer or a majority of the City Council, be subject to ejection from that meeting.

Mann followed decorum policy in the action he took. Were he and Melching too quick on the trigger against this activist? Did they know her reputation and prepare for a quick hook when she spoke up? Perhaps. Either way, this situation could've been avoided if the speaker was not so busy shouting threats.

Now back to Wednesday's meeting and the public comments portion again. After three of the Menifee "regulars" criticized Mann for his actions of Feb. 4, the activist returned to the podium, claiming that she and others were being denied their freedom of speech. In addition, four other individuals spoke in support of the activist's comments. None listed a city of residence on their speaker form, suggesting none of them live in Menifee. They certainly were not familiar to those who regularly attend Menifee City Council meetings.

One speaker called the Feb. 4 meeting "an atrocity," saying she is an attorney and claiming that Melching usurped his authority as city attorney.

According to a 2014 article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, this woman was fired from her duties as deputy city attorney by a local city after alleging wrongdoing by city officials. The article states that a federal jury ruled against her in a lawsuit claiming violation of her civil rights.

Moreover, a post on the website published by the previously mentioned activist tagged this attorney, as well as another of the unfamiliar speakers at Wednesday's council meeting. Another post on that website tags one of the regular critics who is a Menifee resident.

How is it that these newcomers showed up out of nowhere to attack Menifee City Council members and city staff, making no statements relevant to city matters? Could they be "hired guns" invited by the frustrated regulars? No one is giving us reason to believe otherwise.

As far as my stance on this issue, I know what my critics will say. Many times they have accused Menifee 24/7 of not "being a real newspaper." They're half right. It isn't a newspaper; it's a news website. And it's a real news organization operated by a veteran of 35 years in the newspaper business. Apparently, these folks don't like a news organization they can't control.

A couple of these people accuse Menifee 24/7 of "being in the mayor's back pocket." Really? Who was the only journalist who reported on the accusations made by one of them that Mann (left) orchestrated a smear campaign against his opponent in the 2012 election? Who was the moderator of the Menifee 24/7 candidates forum who pressed Mann for an answer on that issue (an answer which never came, by the way).

Back then, one of these critics emailed me, praising me for being the only journalist telling "the real story." Now that Mann isn't the mayor they wanted him to be, suddenly I'm the bad guy for reporting on the commercial developments the council approves, rather than calling him a crook.

One of these critics constantly accuses the council of covering up the dangers of biosolids -- commonly referred to as sludge -- that were dumped on farm lands in the area over the years. When the city organized a public meeting on the subject and heard testimony from environmental experts that there is no health danger, these critics simply disputed the accuracy of the reports and questioned the authority of the experts.

That's the key to this whole thing -- questioning authority. And if these people are convinced their health is in danger, why are they still living here? They must not be that worried.

I'm sorry these folks didn't get their way in preserving the small-town feel of Menifee. I don't want all the open fields to go away, either. I love the rural aspect. But this is 2015, and unless you're living in the backwoods of Alaska, there's going to be residential and commercial development in any area that attracts a large number of inhabitants.

Look, Scott Mann may very well be guilty of playing a part in the 2012 smear campaign. But nothing was proven, he was elected mayor, and he is now tasked with presiding over a council that makes important decisions for the community.

If you don't like those decisions, state your objections in a respectful manner and be specific in the issues you're addressing. Don't resort to name calling and crude remarks about one's human anatomy.

Then, after your three minutes are up, step out of the way and let the city conduct its business.