Hamden Weighs How To Make Council Meetings More Civil

Hamden Legislative Council members may be subject to new restrictions on social media use and how long they can speak at meetings.

Those ideas emerged as a new committee focused on increasing civility, efficiency and professionalism within the Hamden Legislative Council met for the first time last night to address pent up frustrations about the way meetings are run and the behavior of other members.

The ​“Rules of Procedure Committee,” is the result of an August 2020 meeting-turned-shouting match spurred by a disagreement between Representative Valerie Horsley and Representative Brad Macdowall over a social media post.

In August, Horsley posted a tweet that was flagged as racially insensitive, which she removed and apologized for, and Macdowall asked another Twitter user to send him a screenshot of the deleted tweet in hopes of using it as a way to demonstrate Macdowall’s character.

After a contentious argument broadcast out into the Hamden community, the members came together for a unanimous vote to establish a committee to review the council’s rules of conduct.

Social Media

At the inaugural session of the committee Thursday evening, Council President Mick McGarry and three other council members appointed to the board brainstormed ideas for expediting meetings and reining in council members on social media.

While Horsley was not one of the members appointed to the Rules Committee, she did make an appearance at the meeting to share her thoughts.

“There is a contrast between free speech and maintaining ethical and respectful behavior,” Horsley said.

Horsley suggested the committee explore what other legislative bodies in the state are doing to create policies for social media use.

“I think it could be helpful to have some specific behaviors that are respectful or disrespectful in the rules such that if those behaviors are not followed there could be an ethics committee follow up on helping maintain decorum,” Horsley said.

Representative Kathleen Schomaker, an appointed member of the rules subcommittee who took careful notes as the members brainstormed, said this could be done by interfacing with the town’s existing Board of Ethics rather than by creating a subcommittee of the legislative council.

Newington has a ​“Social Media Policy Subcommittee.” It meets on an as-needed basis to draft social media guideline language. The subcommittee currently has three members representing town council and a vacant seat representing the board of education.

Hamden Representative Austin Cesare, an appointed member of the rules subcommittee, said that he would like the social media policy to also encompass relations between the town council and other town employees and departments.

“If you want respect you give respect,” said Representative Adrian Webber, an appointed member of the subcommittee. ​“I think you are on a slippery slope when you start talking about free speech, first amendment and so forth to put parameters around it. You don’t want to infringe on anybody’s rights. Where is the line?”

Expediting Meetings

With budget season approaching, members shuddered at the thought of council meetings lasting well into the early hours of the morning. As part of the new rules committee, members said they hope to create constraints that would rein in the duration of meetings for the sanity of their constituents and themselves.

“We took the final vote on the town’s budget at something like 1:30 a.m. after being in deliberation since 7 p.m. the evening before,” Schomaker said. ​“I think that is an atrocious comment on our process and protocol in my opinion. It was at the expense of everyone’s peace of mind and at the expense of everyone’s ability to do this volunteer service with integrity and with a reasonable but not excessive amount of stress on us.”

At this point in the meeting, Representative Berita Rowe-Lewis joined the Zoom call.

“This is a hot potato,” Rowe-Lewis said. ​“This is something we want to address, but how do we address it?”

Rowe-Lewis noted that at the national level of government, there are often time limits for speaking at meetings, and members are ​“recognized” for certain amounts of time. She said this is about allowing all voices to be heard more so than just making meetings shorter.

“One or individuals are hijacking the meeting, but there are other people who would like to get their opinions in there,” Rowe-Lewis said.

Cesare said he agrees that there should be a time limit for speaking. Schomaker proposed that a designated ​“civics clerk” could be in charge of keeping the time and cutting off members when their time is up.

“Some of these people take an hour and a half,” Cesare said. ​“It’s really too much. They take advantage of it.”

The U.S. House of Representatives debates amendments under the ​“Five Minute Rule.”

The committee chair recognizes the amendment’s sponsor to speak for five minutes. Next a member who opposes the amendment can speak for five minutes.

Schomaker said that another roadblock to speedy meetings are council members who do not prepare for meetings and have to ask many questions as a result.

“They come and they off the cuff ask lots of questions,” Schomaker said. ​“That is not acceptable behavior.”

McGarry said he has had to thank department heads after the meeting for ​“gracefully handling” situations where someone asks questions about something that is ​“literally bullet one” of backup documentation.

“But, Mick it’s not just number one,” Cesare said. ​“It’s 20 minutes of number one. It’s ridiculous. Land your plane. You are circling and circling. We never had this back in 2017.”

Rowe-Lewis said that she is not opposed to longer meetings if the talk is productive and structural.

Communication Norms

McGarry said that in the past the council has faced situations when council members go into departments to get information that other council members are not privy to.

“They show up to meetings — ​‘I have this document,’” McGarry said. ​“It is good for one of us to know something, but it is good for all of us to know something.”

As a solution, McGarry suggested creating a policy that says if department heads are going to share information with one member, they have to share it with all members.

“We operate as a body,” McGarry said. ​“If we are all going to make decisions we all need the same information to make those decisions.”