In its second virtual meeting in a row Monday night, the Aurora City Council will vote on its next effort to manage public comment in the midst of ongoing interruptions from protesters. 

This time, elected officials will vote on a resolution brought forward by Councilmembers Francoise Bergan and Danielle Jurinsky that would adjust council meeting times to add a separate public comment listening session, according to council documents.

The proposed resolution comes after months of back-and-forth between councilmembers and protesters for Kilyn Lewis, who have attended every meeting since July to request action from the council.

Lewis was shot and killed by an Aurora police officer who was trying to arrest him on a warrant for attempted murder. He was unarmed. Both the district attorney and an internal Aurora Police Department investigation cleared the officer’s actions as justified.

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Councilmembers have made various efforts to quiet the protesters, who have found ways to dodge those efforts and work around them. 

If passed Monday, the new resolution would require the council to meet in regular session starting at 7:15 p.m. on the already scheduled Mondays, rather than at 6:30 p.m. 

Public comment listening sessions, limited to 40 minutes and not part of the council agenda, would be held from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. on the days of the meetings. 

Speakers would sign up with the City Clerk online before 1 p.m. or in-person before 6:15 p.m. the day of the meeting. Those who provide proof of Aurora residency would be prioritized, followed by those who are not Aurora residents on a first-come, first-served basis, according to council documents.

Each speaker would get two minutes of speaking time.

Councilmembers would be able to join the listening sessions either on the dias or virtually, but “will not interact with speakers,” the resolution states.

If either the public comment session or the regular council meeting are “disrupted to the extent that it jeopardizes the ability to conduct City business,” the council will go virtual and the Aurora Municipal Center will close to the public, the proposed resolution says.

If the building closes, all remaining public comment time will be suspended, according to the proposed resolution.

Jurinsky told The Denver Gazette last week that her proposed resolution is a way to “minimize theatrics.”

“I think that what our public comment has unfortunately turned into is theatrics and folks get up to the microphone and it’s their stage and they want to perform. So, we’re going to try to minimize that,” Jurinsky said. “We certainly want to hear from our constituents.”

Jeffrey Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, called the City Council’s position a “tough one,” but not a unique one.

“Aurora is not alone in having these types of issues,” Roberts said. “This has been going on for public bodies across the state and across the country. Nobody really has the perfect answer for it.”

Open meetings law does not address public comment at all, so each public body is in charge of deciding whether or not to have it and what the guidelines will be, he said. 

That said, “they have to be really careful about peoples’ First Amendment rights,” he said, explaining that there are federal court cases that say the rules a public body sets for public comment can’t be discriminatory or restrictive toward certain people and not others.

“Whatever they do still has to be respectful and in the spirit of protecting the peoples’ free speech rights,” he said. “Doing away with public comment altogether deprives the community of the ability to say what’s on their mind in front of their elected officials, so it’s probably not a good idea.”

The most recent council meeting was entirely via video conference due to “safety concerns,” Jurinsky told The Denver Gazette. Councilmembers also removed the option for public comment at that meeting entirely.

Instead, protesters attempted to make their voices heard via public hearing on agenda items, calling in to speak on various zoning questions and using the time to talk about Lewis and request action from the council.

Each time, the mayor cut them off when they strayed from the listed agenda item.

The meeting lasted over three hours as protesters called in, the mayor tried to silence them and councilmembers interrupted to try to end public comment for the remainder of the meeting. The council took multiple recesses.

Following the agenda items, councilmembers decided to make Monday’s meeting virtual as well while they figure out what their next steps are in addressing protester interruptions.

“We’re going to have to get up on the dias eventually,” Councilmember Angela Lawson said at the last meeting. “We can’t just stay behind the screen. At the end of the day we’ve got to try to figure this out.”

Councilmember Bergan added that the council does “have the option to do away with public invited altogether.”

“We offer it as a courtesy to our residents, but our residents who have an issue with real concerns can’t even be heard,” Bergan said. “I’m sorry to say, but it has come to that point.”

Councilmember Crystal Murillo said that while she doesn’t necessarily agree with the “tactics everyone is using,” she also doesn’t think the council has been helping when it comes to protesters.

“I don’t want to paint the wrong picture that there’s this scary mob of residents,” Murillo said. “Residents are angry and their forum for speaking on issues and feeling not heard keeps bubbling up, and we’ve done it to ourselves, too. I don’t necessarily support all the tactics everyone is using, but I also have seen this council contribute to that response by dwindling these opportunities for public comment.”

Councilmembers will address a variety of other issues Monday night, including a final vote on an ordinance that would get rid of the requirement to provide shelter options and a 72-hour notice before abating homeless encampments.

The ordinance prevailed on first reading at a January council meeting, with three no votes from Councilmembers Alison Coombs, Ruben Medina and Murillo. 

Other agenda items include an ordinance about residential fence heights along city streets and a resolution directing the council to encourage all full-time city staff to work in the office at least three days per week.

The council’s study session begins at 5:15 p.m. and the regular meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. Both meetings will be live streamed at auroraTV.org and Youtube.com/TheAuroraChannel. They will also stream live on cable channels 8 and 880 in Aurora.