Mayor Welch Reverses Ban On Citizen 'Time Yielding' at City Council Meetings

 Former Mayor John Bauters' Tight Control on Citizen Free Speech Lifted by Mayor Courtney Welch (a little)

Citizens Now Allowed to Yield Their Time to Other Citizen Speakers

Mayor Courtney Welch
Tuesday's action means more rights for citizens
addressing their government.  Accountability is
increased (slightly).

In a rare opening up of government accountability, Mayor Courtney Welch announced Tuesday she is reversing a former ban on citizen ‘time yielding’ at City Council meetings.  As is the case in most cities, Emeryville citizens will now be allowed to yield their (two minute) speaking time to another citizen, thereby doubling the speaking time of those granted the extra time, up to four minutes.  

While Mayor Welch did not indicate she would permit more than one citizen to yield their time per go as many other cities in the East Bay do, this expansion of citizen free speech in Emeryville is nonetheless unprecedented.  Over the last decade plus and picking up speed under the tenure of former Mayor John Bauters, citizens wishing to engage with their government by offering up public comment at Council meetings faced nothing but increasing constraint.

The time yield concept was tested Tuesday by members of the staff, who’s union; SEIU, was expressing their disfavor over a City Hall planned 6% roll back on their pay when a staff member called out from the gallery, “I yield my time to the speaker” who’s two minutes speaking time had run out.  It was an outburst that would have brought the gavel down during the time of Mayor John Bauters.  Instead of dropping the gavel, Ms Welch calmly acquiesced and then granted it again to another SEIU member later in the meeting.  And, because all citizens must be treated fairly and equally by the government, citizens are now granted the right to yield their time at Emeryville City Council meetings.

In Emeryville, mayors are given the power to grant or forbid the yielding of public comment time and also the number of minutes citizens are allowed to speak.  California law requires a minimum one minute per citizen for each agenda item but most cities grant three minutes.  Commonly, mayors will lower the speaking time if there are large numbers of speakers.

Former Mayor John Bauters
Not a fan of accountability, Mr Bauters moved to constrain
citizen's ability to speak at City Council meetings making it 
less free than any other time in more than 40 years.

The new increase in ability for citizens to speak to their government in Emeryville is rare indeed.  Twenty years ago, speaking time for public comments was five minutes and multiple citizens could yield their time to speakers at the podium for each agenda item.  This was chipped away at over the years.  The speaking time was first lowered to three minutes and then down to two minutes by Mayor Bauters.  The ability for citizens to yield time was also then taken away by Mayor Bauters.  So draconian were the anti-free speech policies at City Hall by the end of Mayor Bauters tenure, Emeryville had the ill fortune of having the harshest constraints on citizen engagement of all neighboring cities.  Mayor Welch’s increase in Emeryville citizen's free speech rights, incremental though it may be, reverses the nearly two decade long slide.