Disruptive behavior could get speakers banned at Lawton City Council meetings

Behavior that some City of Lawton officials see as disruptive may prompt procedural changes for City Council meetings.

Council members will look at amendments to their rules of procedure today, changing some of the criteria for audience participation at their meetings.

The changes would clarify that those who want to speak during designated audience participation times must submit a request to speak form or the council may deny a person the chance to speak; and that the mayor or city manager may call upon an audience member to speak during a public hearing. In addition, the changes would limit participation for those who have been removed from a meeting.

Coming under the meeting decorum category, the audience-related clause now specifies that if any audience member is removed due to disruptive or abusive behavior, “they forfeit the privilege of speaking during audience participation for a period of no less than 90 days.”

The provision already specifies that behavior between the members of the council and the audience during the meeting must occur in accordance with the council policy or Roberts Rules of Order. An audience member “making threats, engaging in personal attacks, making demeaning comments, yelling or otherwise disrupting the orderly conduct of the meeting shall be warned by the Mayor to cease and desist, or they will be removed from the meeting at the direction of the Mayor.” Those who fail to comply will be removed from the meeting, under the policy, something that has happened twice in past months after audience members speaking from the floor failed to stop when directed to by the mayor or mayor pro tem.

Some speakers have said they believe they have the right to address the city’s legislative body and don’t like the time restraints placed on them during public comment periods.

Council members also will consider revisiting an issue they decided May 28: moving meeting start times to 6 p.m.

At that meeting, council members agreed to return what is now a 2 p.m. start to 6 p.m., which had been the norm until council changed that policy in 2020. But, city attorneys said then that because the council already had set its meeting times and dates for 2024, that new time couldn’t be implemented until January.

Ward 8 Councilman/Mayor Pro Tem Randy Warren is asking the council to reopen discussions for a date “sooner than January 2025,” saying he would like to see the new start time implemented by late summer. That would mean the council would first have to vote by a two-thirds margin to reconsider the item before they could reopen discussion.

Warren suggested in May that the council try the later meeting start time for a specified period, to see if it would encourage more residents to attend meetings, while Mayor Stan Booker said a later start time may encourage more people to run for City Council. Existing policy does not allow the council to meet beyond midnight, meaning evening meetings would be limited to six hours.

In other business, the council will act on a Use Permitted on Review request from Volunteers of America to convert a one-time school at 4814 NW Floyd into an inpatient clinic and mental health treatment facility for women who are pregnant and/or have children.

Volunteers of America has offered to buy the facility in northwest Lawton from Baptist Foundation of America (which now owns the site), but purchase is contingent upon winning approval of the Use Permitted on Review. The City Planning Commission is recommending the request, which comes with an agreement to build more parking on the building’s northwest corner and, potentially, a second entrance onto Floyd.

Christina Erman, chief of integrated behavioral health for Volunteers of America, said the facility would provide dormitory-style living for women and their children, along with inpatient treatment. The site would offer 20 to 30 family rooms; the number of patients would depend on the sizes of families using the facility. The facility would be staffed around the clock and would hold accreditation from federal officials and the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.