(Lander, WY) – After removing and adding back the public comment period, the Fremont County Commissioners adopted on Jan. 2 the Decorum and Civility Guidelines, which applies to all of their meetings.
The only nay vote was Commissioner Ron Fabrizius. Commissioner Clarence Thomas was not present.
The new policy has speakers sign up on the Public Comment sign-in sheet, limit their comments to the topics they signed up for, and are limited to two minutes, among other things.
“The first one is going to limit people coming forward,” Fabrizius said about the sign-up.
He then shared he looked at state statutes, and both the Wyoming and U.S. Constitutions. All of those give the documentation necessary to run a meeting and show the right people have to express their opinions.
“I think we shut them down when we ask them to do sign-ins. … I’m not really in favor of this draft.”
“These are guidelines. We are not restricting anybody or holding them back,” Commission Chairman Larry Allen rebutted.
Vice-chair Mike Jones made the motion to approve the Decorum and Civility Guidelines. Commissioner Jennifer McCarty seconded. The motion passed.
The full set of guidelines can be viewed here.
In addition to those guidelines, they also approved the Agenda Request Procedure, which can be found here.
You can watch the full discussion in the video below.