Todd Paris, Salisbury Attorney and Candidate for Salisbury City Council
♦ For those persons attending Salisbury City Council Tuesday Night who were expecting Mayor Karen Alexander to issue an apology to Carolyn Logan and Michael Kirksey for violating their constitutional rights and gaveling them out of order as well as having them thrown out of the last council meeting there was a huge surprise. Despite being roundly criticized in even the local print media for her actions and even lampooned by a Mook cartoon, Tuesday night Mayor Alexander apologized for being “too lenient” on public speakers! I kid you not. She further apologized for allowing public speakers to behave in ways that did not comport with proper decorum. She adds that things that happened a decade ago are not appropriate and proclaimed that personal attacks are not tolerated. Of course there is no definition of personal attacks.
Of course the “ten years ago” ban on comments would certainly apply to her management of the vastly over budget Fibrant Hub that Carolyn Logan questioned and the personal attack issue would probably shield herself from criticism over her violation of constitutional rights at the last meeting. Sweet!
Folks who regularly attend and watch public comment will remember that in this election year, council has regularly fiddled with, made rules for and made public comment more difficult and fraught with danger for the public. Of course, this is Rowan Free Press’s fault as the home office has been publishing video public comment, often with pithy and accurate commentary after every meeting and such has subjected our dear incumbents, Alexander and Miller to way too much public criticism and scrutiny.
Of course, by the time the ACLU or someone gets around to suing the city in Federal Court the Mayor probably figures the election will be over and since they are covered by League of Municipality insurance – who cares? It’s not coming out of their pockets, right?
I explained the law again as I have since the spring of this year. Public comment is required once per month by state law. It is no boon or favor granted by the public masters. When you have statutorily mandated public forum for free speech you may not control content absent threats, profanity or disorderly conduct as defined by criminal law. The statute that allows them to control decorum in a public meeting does not allow them to control content in public comment. How do we know? The NC School of Government tells us so in Coates Cannons.
https://canons.sog.unc.edu/public-comment-period-policies-whats-legal/
I think that the fact that both victims are black does not matter to the Mayor or Brian Miller because black people don’t vote. These two keep being elected by two thousand or so misguided individuals the three large precincts where many just suspend their free will and vote as Salisbury’s handful of one-percent-ers tell them to. All the while, crime and violence work their way even to these nicer neighborhoods in a march as steady as the nightly gunfire heard all over the city. Don’t believe me? Attached is a Facebook message from a one-percenter Ed Norvell (Proctor Chemical heir) sent out before even the first candidate article was published in the print paper and well before the first debate. It later disappeared.
There are no “nice neighborhoods” anymore as the organized gangs have begun to realize that the more valuable goods are found where the prosperous folks reside. Working class folks of all races and those better off folks that actually think for themselves need to turn out and reject the failed policies and politicians of the past. Brian Miller and Karen Alexander had at least two terms to fix Salisbury and Fibrant is still massively failing to the tune of 3M per year and the Empire Hotel gulped up almost one million tax dollars just sitting there for the past decade.
But I digress, watch the upcoming video on RFP. I note that Carolyn Logan attended, however she did not sign up to speak. Wasn’t she told at the last council meeting to not come back? Has she been banned from public comment by Mayor Alexander? Would she have been arrested and lost her job over speaking and this arrest?
Crocodile tears and fake apologies abound with Mayor Alexander. Thinking people need to vote and think for themselves and if they do they will dump Karen Alexander and Brian Miller.
The Approved Rules For Public Commenting:
