The Bellefonte Borough Council voted to make changes to their public comment period, as a group of community members is pressuring them to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The decision led to tense debate at Monday night's meeting.
The resolution restricts public comment at Bellefonte Borough Council meetings to borough residents, and they must show ID before speaking; it moves public comment about anything not on the agenda to the end of the meeting; and it allows the council to rule out comments that “appear disruptive, vulgar, defamatory or redundant.”
The council approved the resolution restricting public comment by a 5-4 vote.
Ralph Stewart, the Bellefonte Borough Manager, explained how they formed the resolution.
“We borrowed from other resolutions. It's one that’s commonly used, and we just ask you to vote accordingly. But it's something that we've put together," Stewart said.
Council members did not explicitly say why they introduced the resolution. But, it comes after a meeting where community members spoke for 45 minutes, asking the council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Bellefonte resident Tony White came to continue that conversation on Monday. But when he began to talk about a “genocide,” he was interrupted by council President Kent Bernier.
Bernier told White his comments violated the new public comment rules, since the Gaza ceasefire resolution was not on the agenda. White pointed out that the council passed those rules without any public comment period.
"It's not a proper response when you’re representatives of the people, that when you see that they are very concerned about something more than usual, that you, instead of thinking, ‘Oh, this is something to consider, [you think] it's something that we have to shut them up about.’ That's very poor representation," White said.
"You're going to be escorted out of the meeting if you don't stop. OK? You're disrupting our meeting," Bernier replied, as community members in the room booed.
Nobody was escorted out of the meeting, but several other speakers voiced concerns that the council was limiting their speech.
Pennsylvania law does allow municipalities to limit the time given for public comment and restrict it to taxpayers and residents.
But Council member Joanne Tosti-Vasey objected to the vote for another reason.
"No, that is against the Sunshine Law. You have to allow them to speak before you vote on a motion that they're concerned about," Tosti-Vasey said.
The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act requires municipalities to allow the public to participate and comment before taking official action, which the council did not do.
Council member Shawna McKean did introduce a Gaza ceasefire resolution to be discussed at the next meeting on Sept. 3.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated the next borough council meeting is on Sept. 2, when it is actually on Sept. 3 to avoid conflict with the Labor Day holiday.
