Durango City Council tabled a discussion about whether to restrict public comments to “city business” this week after about 30 residents filled council chambers demanding councilors pass a symbolic resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
City Council was scheduled to consider a different kind of resolution – one that would effectively limit public discourse at its regularly scheduled meeting.
Mayor Melissa Youssef proposed the resolution a couple of weeks ago after members of the Durango Palestinian Solidarity Coalition began showing up requesting City Council adopt a resolution in support of a ceasefire. The city billed its resolution as a means to keep meetings on-topic, on-pace and to prevent “Zoom bombings.”
After learning of the city’s effort to limit public discourse, dozens of members with the Durango Palestinian Solidarity Coalition showed up Tuesday to once again press their case for a ceasefire resolution.
Coalition members sat patiently and quietly as councilors waded through their agenda. Although tensions rose when councilors voted to table the topic of limiting discussions. When their time came to speak, they appeared energized and at times standoffish.
“Have you ever seen this many people engage in public comment? Have you ever seen this many people show up to engage with you? Do you think these people won’t vote you out?” said Keaton Griffith, a coalition member, wearing a purple cap with googly eyes stitched into it.
As he returned to his seat, he was met with restrained applause from fellow coalition members, many waiving tiny, homemade Palestinian flags.
Fourteen residents were signed up to speak in opposition to the mayor’s resolution that, if passed, would prohibit public comments and council consideration of “international political controversy, ideological or religious beliefs, or individual conviction.”
Gina Jannone, coalition member, said prior to the meeting “individual conviction” is irrelevant. She said the coalition’s petition for a ceasefire had gathered at least 645 signatures and more signatures collected on Tuesday had yet to be counted.
She said she expected City Council to pass the resolution limiting public comments. But early into the meeting, Councilor Dave Woodruff proposed postponing the discussion until Tuesday’s City Council meeting, citing the absence of Councilor Jessika Buell, who is also the mayor pro tem.
“Mayor Pro Tem Buell is not here to discuss decisions that could impact her mayorship,” he said, prompting groans from meeting attendees.
“How convenient,” one resident and coalition member, Dahlia Davis, said before storming from the council chambers into the City Hall foyer. “We will be back. And there will be more of us.”
Buell was out of town for her son’s state hockey tournament and she didn’t find out his team was going to state until Saturday, Youssef later clarified.
In an interview, Davis said City Council tried to silence coalition members and were making up rules to limit public comments as they went.
When Youssef opened the meeting to public comments, she restricted coalition members to two minutes each, saying the council had heard from many of them before at previous meetings.
City Council typically gives every speaker three minutes to make public comments, whether during public hearings or during general public comments periods, although it’s not unprecedented to limit comments to less than three minutes for the sake of expediency.
The first speaker, Jay Short, was not a coalition member and indicated on the sign-up form he is not a resident of Durango. He was allowed to speak about wakeless hours at Lake Nighthorse for three minutes and 16 seconds.
The second speaker, Tom DeHudy, also indicated on the sign-up sheet he is not a city resident. He was given three minutes to vent his frustration with the city’s representation of its progress on La Posta Road (County Road 213) development plans.
“Deeply concerning,” “complicit” and “insulting” were just three of the phrases used by residents to describe their frustration with councilors’ reluctance to discuss either the coalition’s ceasefire resolution or Youssef's resolution limiting public comments.
Coalition member and Durango resident Zachary Lawrence, who described himself and his family as Ashkenazi Jews at a previous city meeting, said the message City Council is sending is clear: “Sit down and zip it.”
“The little bit of Hebrew that I retained in my childhood is, ‘Sheket yeled,’ and that means ‘Shut up, child.’ And that’s kind of how I feel right now,” he said. “Our participation in democracy shouldn’t be punished.”
He said having people’s voices heard is more important than ever and City Council’s attempt to curtail requests for resolutions like the coalition’s is “definitely working toward stifling free speech and expression.”
Lawrence cited data that appears to be from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which tracks federal tax dollars collected from American cities and sent to the Israeli military. He said if $287,531 Durango federal tax dollars spent on Israel in a year were instead invested into the community, 34 households could be housed in public housing; 100 children could receive free or low-cost health care; and 118 homes could produce solar electricity for a year.
Some residents noted past City Councils have not shied away from taking official stances on international conflicts.
Ed Rayzicky, a Durango and La Plata County resident since 1997, said he felt proud and like his voice was heard beyond the community when in 2007 City Council adopted a resolution calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
He said he attended a summer camp for teachers at James Madison University in 2009 to learn how to simplify the constitution for his students. There, he learned “first and foremost, civil discourse is a most important fundamental of American democracy and participation in government starts at a grassroots level, right here.”
“If Durango residents don’t have a forum for civil discourse, where will we have the chance to not only voice our opinion but also begin a life of participation in government?” he said. “Limiting public comments during a public forum would stifle our community’s duty to facilitate civil discourse.”
Davis said, “If you ever wondered what you’d be doing during the Civil Rights Movement, you’re doing it right now.”
“To say things happening around the world do not matter here is a deeply concerning statement to make,” she said, in reference to City Council’s stance that councilors were not elected to weigh in on the Israel-Hamas conflict and have no authority to sway the situation.
“If we, the little people of the world, allow something like this to happen by turning a blind eye, we are saying we accept it, we’re OK with it and it can happen anywhere,” she said. “Which means it can even happen here.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
