Pastor Curses City Council
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Wed, June 21, 2006
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- (5) comments so far
His comments were interrupted by Devereaux, and then Mayor Paul Leon admonished the pastor, as did Councilman Jason Anderson.
“It touched a nerve for me,” Anderson said in a later interview. “Not that criticism directed at (Devereaux) is anything to get worked up over, but this went beyond criticism.”
At a previous meeting, Sabbath had said he was upset that his organization did not receive funding from the city in response to a request he filed several years ago.
At the end of the meeting, Anderson asked City Attorney John Brown to look into possible changes to city policies that would make it easier for whoever presides at council meetings to stop speakers whose public comments stray from reasonable discourse about city business.
It’s possible for the city to limit public comment without treading on First Amendment rights, Brown said.
“In certain circumstances, it seems to me this goes beyond protected speech,” Brown said.
Free speech advocates said it will be difficult for the council to establish any regulations that go beyond what they already have in place.
Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said the law gives broad latitude to people to say just about anything, and restrictions crafted by cities and school boards rarely withstand court scrutiny.
“You can’t do that unless it goes over the line in terms of slander or hate speech,” Scheer said. “It has to be extreme.”
In California, council meetings are governed by a state law called the Brown Act, which requires legislative bodies to allow public comment at its meetings on subjects within its jurisdiction.
The Brown Act allows “reasonable regulations” regarding public comment, such as limitations on how long someone can speak.
It also specifically prohibits any attempts to stop criticism of the city council, school board or other agency.
Officials in other Inland Valley cities have made efforts in recent years to curb public comment.
Montclair ratified “rules of decorum” in 2003 that requires speakers to address the council “in an orderly manner” and avoid profane statements. Rancho Cucamonga only recently began limiting public comment to five minutes.
The spat in Ontario is only the latest sign of an apparently deteriorating level of civility during the public comment portion of the city’s council meetings.
In the past few months, one speaker erroneously accused another of being a heroin-addicted vagrant, another accused a councilman of trying to kill him and the mayor got into an argument with an animal-rights activist during a meeting.
The level of vitriol in public comments at council meetings tends to vary over the years, Anderson said.
“It sort of ebbs and flows,” he said. “It depends on the issues.”
For his part, Leon said Tuesday night that he’s no longer willing to let speakers go on uninterrupted if they are verbally attacking council members or city officials.
“I’m going to stop people in their tracks when I believe they’ve crossed the line,” the mayor said.
[From the DailyBulletin.com… read the whole article here]
The Ontario, CA City Council is looking for ways to limit public comment after council members said one speaker's remarks at this week's meeting went too far. When Pastor John Sabbath, of Liv in Christ Christian Center, got up to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting, he said he was placing a curse on City Manager Greg Devereaux, Devereaux's wife and his family...
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Peter Hamm on Wed, June 21, 2006
So let me get this straight. A “minister” stands up in a city council meeting and places a curse on someone. How loving! How kind! What a great example of self-control… Oh well…
Dan Robison on Thu, June 22, 2006
What kind of church is this Christian Center? I didn’t realize Christians were in the habit of placing curses on people AND their families. I’d think the congregation needs to take a hard look at just what kind of person thier Pastor is.
Andy McAdams on Thu, June 22, 2006
Just one more reason for people to say that the church isn’t worth messing with. Do people have any idea how this reflects on the gospel? I would tend to think that if anyone would, it would be a pastor. Sad isn’t it?
Chris Bell on Mon, June 26, 2006
Erwin McManus: “The greatest enemy to the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity”. Maybe McManus should have also said… “and pastors invoking curses on civil administrators”. Very little makes me mad, but this does. How far has “christianity” gotten from Jesus? I guess we’re still finding out.
Rev Apostle THEOPHILE GOKA on Wed, July 05, 2006
Shalom
I do like to friendship for growing up the work of God, here in Togo.
Thanks.
In Jesus’s Name receive my greetings.
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