The City Council discussed how it would handle Tuesday night’s special presentation from local Nation of Islam leader Kevin Muhammad.
The presentation was meant to be a rebuttal to Mayor Andy Berke’s State of the City address. Mr. Muhammad was to be given 20 minutes to present.
After receiving several calls from other constituents asking for time to speak, the City Council discussed how such instances might be considered in the future.
“If someone comes and asks us to speak, I think we all are in agreement that that should happen,” said Councilman Jerry Mitchell.
However, he said that he felt Tuesday night would not produce a good opportunity for community exchange and that there might be a better format to make such an exchange happen.
Councilman Chip Henderson voiced concern that the event might become a “free-for-all.”
Chairman Moses Freeman did not believe they should conduct the meeting any differently than any other meeting. Though community members are usually given no more than three minutes to speak at the end of the agenda, Chairman Freeman said that Mr. Muhammad was given the extra time because Councilman Ken Smith asked for it.
“I would have no right to deny you the right to have someone speak,” said Chairman Freeman to the council. “We are all equals.”
However, he also said that public hearings “on peoples’ attitudes toward the city” are events that the City Council is typically invited to.
“The mayor didn’t come here,” he said. “We were his guests.”
Some concern was also voiced about setting a precedent.
“We’ve never had anyone give us a speech before on opposing a mayor’s speech,” Chairman Freeman said. “This is the people’s place. These are the peoples seats, but we are the custodians of these seats.”
Chairman Freeman said he kept the situation from becoming a precedent by not allowing the Council to vote on whether or not Mr. Muhammad would be allowed to give his presentation.
Councilman Chris Anderson encouraged the Council “to not look at a new system but simply adhere to the rules that we have and not let politics get in the way of that.”
Concerning the possible outcomes of the presentation, Chairman Freeman said that though he did not anticipate any outbursts, he “would do everything in (his) power to be patient as possible as long as possible and the only other act (he) would make would be to adjourn the meeting.” He said he would not “engage the police or engulf the police in the conduct of the meeting.”
The Council also heard from Corey Wentz of the city’s IT Department.
Mr. Wentz discussed how a new mobile 311 app and city webpage would promote engagement, decrease calls and office visits, and promote efficiency.
He said the goal of the app was to “alleviate our 311 division” which fields all the calls for service requests. He said the app would allow citizens to put in requests and then follow those requests as they were filled. Citizens would also be able to to upload pictures and use GPS to specify the location of their requests.
Mr. Wentz said the app will help in “empowering our citizens and our government to really be able to communicate.”
Councilman Gilbert said that many of his constituents are older and might not be able to use the app or the webpage.
Mr. Wentz said, however, that the new app and webpage will still benefit such constituents, since the number of calls coming in overall will be reduced, resulting in a shorter waiting time.