Whistles at City Hall Blow an Ill Wind

Tonight’s the night City Councilman Larry Rudolph has promised to do away with whistle-blowers in Lawndale.

His target isn’t those who search out waste and fraud in City Hall. It’s Councilwoman Carol Norman, who has taken to using a whistle to signal when she wants to speak at council meetings.

Rudolph said Wednesday that he will propose an ordinance today that bans the use of any noisemaker inside the council chambers. Rudolph, who has likened Norman’s whistle-blowing to a circus act, said his colleague should be fined for disrupting the meetings.

“I’ve never seen anybody act like that before,” he said.

Norman has said she needs the whistle because hers is the single faulty button in the electronic system that signals the mayor when a council member wants to speak.

Rudolph said he is tired of the whistle-blowing, which adds to the chaos of the council’s usual free-for-all debates. “I’ve had people tell me that they would rather watch our meetings on TV than watch a movie because we are funnier,” he said.

Norman said Wednesday that that she is not offended by the proposal but that she also wants the council meetings “to run smoothly.”

Even if the measure passes, she said, she won’t be kept from speaking her mind.

“I could always wave an American flag--are they going to outlaw those?”