Two new members took their seats on Charlottesville City Council Tuesday night, electing a new mayor – Nikuya Walker. She’s an African-American and the first independent elected to council since 1948. Some members of the audience hope those changes will restore civility, since shouting and insults have become the norm.
It was the last meeting of the year – just a few days before Christmas, when City Councilor Kristen Szakos began a routine public hearing at Charlottesville City Hall.
“The rules for the public hearing are the same as always. No cursing, no interruptions” she said. “ Everyone will have three minutes to speak. When the yellow lights comes on, you’ll have 20 seconds left.”
Police Chief Al Thomas had just resigned, and some residents wanted to talk about that. Others were upset about new parking meters at once-free spaces downtown, and then Jason Kessler stepped up to speak. He was the blogger who organized the white supremacist rally in August.
“Just to stand up and say white people have a right to exist – that we have a right to our heritage means that you’re going to get attacked and shouted down means that you’re going to be attacked by people like this," he said amidst a roar of disapproval from spectators. "I’m here because they need civil rights right now,” he shouted.
“Mr. Kessler, you’re getting dangerously close to hate speech,” Szakos warned.
“A woman in the crowd continued to heckle Kessler.
“Ma’am, I’m going to call you to order,” said Szakos. “Please stop interrupting so we can get this over with.”
Kessler left, but the unrest continued, with more than a dozen people shouting, booing and getting personal with their elected representatives.
“The African-American and the native American are still struggling -- still struggling, Ms. Szakos, and you are nasty to me and I don’t like it! Don’t let it happen again!” said Mary Carey.
When three minutes had elapsed, Szakos attempted to stop her from speaking.
“Miss Carey, your time is up,” she said.
“Your time’s up too,” Carey replied.
“Please escort Miss Carey from the room,” Szakos said to one of a half dozen police officers keeping watch.
“Yeah, right!” said Carey, “ and you’re going with me too, because if they escort me out, I’m coming back to get you!”
This kind of behavior has become the norm for city council, and members are struggling to find a solution. At the University of Virginia’s Institute for Environmental Negotiation, Frank Dukes says council is in “unchartered territory,” but Charlottesville is not alone.
“If you look at YouTube you can see many other communities having very similar type of responses, meetings being shut down, people being yelled at, sometimes violence in community meetings as well,” he says.
There are, he adds, no easy answers, but he offers three suggestions. First, create more opportunities for the public to speak with elected officials for more than three minutes – to engage council members in a real dialogue, and if citizens are angry, let them vent.
“Intensity can be good,” he explains. “It can reveal injustices, and if you do provide more opportunities than the three minutes, an opportunity for some back and forth, people appreciate that, and they appreciate that there has to be some sense of equity – we have to allow other people to have that too.”
Second, host those meetings in a space other than council chambers.
“You’ve got the councilors sitting up high, kind of separated from each other and separated from the community,” Dukes says. “That doesn’t give a sense that we’re going to talk with each other, and we’re going to listen to each other too.”
And, finally, he advises city leaders to be patient. When a public body has lost the trust of the people it serves, it will take respectful and responsive behavior, transparency, good follow-up and time to restore goodwill.
If the first meeting of the new year was any indication, it could be a long wait.
Retiring Mayor Mike Signer faced a noisy crowd: “We want to work with everybody. This kind of yelling – we’re trying to make a discussion here. I just wanted to say – the gentleman here has been called to order.”
“I’m not a gentleman (expletive)!,” said a man in the audience.
“Oh, sorry,” said Signer. “I apologize.”
Shocked by the profanity, another member of the audience shouted, “Shame on you! Did you really say that? Shame on you!”
On the other hand, many of the most vocal members of the audience were supporters of Nikuya Walker, and when she holds the gavel at council’s next meeting, some of the anger may subside.