Rules for Public Comment
Bravo to Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Judy Mikels for suggesting sensible ground rules to govern public speaking at Ventura County board meetings (“Board May Curb Public Comment,” Jan. 28).
Government bodies need to be open to public input, but that does not mean giving gadflies unlimited leeway to disrupt meetings. When Carroll Dean Williams spoke on 14 topics for over an hour, “arrested” all five supervisors and claimed he was a “political prisoner,” he demonstrated that the only prison he was trapped in was the one in his own mind.
In his letter, “Public Meeting Participation” (Feb. 2), Nick Quidwai attacks Mikels with the specious assertion that reasonable procedural rules somehow violate the Bill of Rights. Sorry, Mr. Quidwai, but government meetings are not supposed to be forums for making rambling, non-germane speeches. Nor are they soapboxes for people who primarily like to hear their own voices ad nauseam.
It’s unfortunate that the residents of Thousand Oaks have to put up with your buffoonery at their City Council meetings. We do not need you or your soul mates to inflict it on the rest of Ventura County.
If you want to spout poetry or talk endlessly, get your own soapbox, but don’t waste everyone else’s time and taxpayer dollars. Better yet, get a life.
DANIEL WIENER
Simi Valley
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