Trustee Proposes 5-Minute Limit on Public Comment

In a move he said would end repetitious criticism of board members, Ventura County Board of Education President Marty Bates on Monday proposed limiting public comment to five minutes for each speaker.

That is far stricter than its current policy of allowing up to five minutes for each topic a speaker wants to address.

But Bates said the new rule is needed to keep meetings from dragging on for hours when speakers use public comment periods to attack the board’s conservative majority.

“We are not stopping them from speaking,” Bates said before Monday’s meeting. “We are just saying we have to limit time. If they want to talk on 10 subjects, they’ve got half a minute each.”

The board is expected to vote on the changes at their Feb. 26 meeting. Bates agreed to delay a vote pending a legal review of the proposed revision.

Opponents of the change Monday accused the board of trying to silence critics. Bates, along with Trustees Wendy Larner and Angela N. Miller, have been under fire since March, when they voted to exclude Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care from teacher-training seminars.

“This is a flagrant abuse of the constitutional right to free speech,” said Rudy Petersdorf, an Ojai attorney and frequent board critic.

At the beginning of the meeting, Bates introduced Bob Brooks, a deputy with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Bates said he intends to request a deputy at each monthly meeting if he deems it necessary to enforce adherence to a time limit. Brooks, who was not in uniform, watched the proceedings for about 30 minutes, then left.

Petersdorf told Bates that if Brooks’ presence was meant to deter speakers from criticizing the board, it would not work. “I will continue to direct my criticism to the individual board members as warranted.”

But Bates said before the meeting that during his one-year tenure he does not plan to allow speakers to make the same arguments repeatedly or criticize board members personally.

Bates was elected president in December, taking over for Larner. During Larner’s tenure, Bates said, meetings often spiraled out of control as speakers used public comment time to voice their discontent with him, Larner and Miller.

And no matter the topic, the same criticisms are repeated, he said.

“At some point, all you need is a monkey out there with a tape recorder and let it run on and on,” Bates said.

The once-sedate meetings of the board have in the past year occasionally erupted into shouting fests as a core group of opponents lashed out at Bates, Larner and Miller for controversial votes.

Opponents frequently portray the majority as adherents to a Religious Right philosophy who are anti-public education and suspicious of any involvement by the federal government in local school decisions.

Late last year, Bates, Larner and Miller voted to turn down a $500,000 federal jobs-training grant for schools if it is offered.

Former board president Wendy Larner also sought to curb debate, imposing time limits last year for the first time in the county school board’s history.

But some speakers defied the limits or prolonged meetings by commenting on every topic, Bates said. That is why he asked the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department to send a deputy to Monday’s meeting.

“I think certain individuals have tried to take control of the meetings, and those individuals are not board members,” he said. “I want to put control back with the board so we can conduct business.”

Bates’ proposal is similar to limitations on public comment frequently imposed by elected boards in Ventura County and is modeled after the city of Ventura’s, he said.

And municipal governments, including the Thousand Oaks and Oxnard city councils, have occasionally posted law enforcement officers to deal with unruly speakers.

But the county board is the first school board in Ventura County to consider such enforcement, officials said.