The purpose of the meetings of the Mayor and City Council is to conduct the people's business in an efficient and orderly fashion for the benefit of all the people. That purpose is disrupted by conduct, including oral statements at meetings, that unduly prolongs the proceedings by being overly repetitious or exceeding the allotted time, diverts attention from the matter before the Mayor and City Council by raising or addressing irrelevant matters, or is directed at or to the audience, the Mayor, individual City Council members, or members of City staff individually rather than to the Mayor and City Council as governing body of the City or the City as a whole.
Accordingly, in the event that any meeting of the Mayor and City Council is willfully disrupted by a person or group of persons so as to actually impair the orderly conduct of the meeting, the members of the City Council may proceed pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.9, or any applicable penal statute or ordinance. For the purposes of this Section "willfully disrupt" includes, but is not limited to, continuing to do any of the following after being warned by the presiding officer to desist from such conduct:
1. Addressing the Mayor and City Council without first being recognized by the presiding officer.
2. Persisting in addressing a subject or subjects, other than that before the Mayor and City Council.
3. Repetitiously addressing the same subject.
4. Failing to relinquish the podium when directed to do so by the presiding officer.
5. From the audience, interrupting or attempting to interrupt, a speaker, the Mayor, a City Council member, or a staff member, or shouting or attempting to shout over a speaker, the Mayor, a City Council member or a staff member.
6. As a speaker, interrupting or attempting to interrupt the Mayor, a City Council member, or a staff member, or shouting over or attempting to shout over the Mayor, a City Council member, or a staff member.
7. As a speaker, continuing to speak after being advised that the allotted time has expired.
8. As a speaker, addressing the audience rather than the Mayor and City Council.
9. Making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks to a speaker, the Mayor, a City Council member, a staff member, or the general public, which actually impairs the orderly conduct of the meeting.
10. Uttering loud, threatening, personal or abusive language, or profanity, to a speaker, the Mayor, a City Council member, a staff member, or the general public which actually impairs the orderly conduct of the meeting.
It shall be unlawful to violate any provision of this Section. Nothing in this Section or any rules of the Council shall be construed to prohibit public criticism of the policies, procedures, programs, or services of the City or any of the acts or omissions of the Mayor and City Council. Nothing in this Section shall confer any privilege or protection for expression beyond that otherwise provided by law.
If any subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this Section 2.58.070 is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Section. The Mayor and City Council hereby declare that they would have enacted this Section and each subsection, sentence, clause, phrase and word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more subsections, sentences, clauses, phrases, or words had been declared invalid or unconstitutional.
(Ord. MC-1478, 4-04-18; Ord. MC-1438, 4-17-17)