January 26, 2010 01:15 AM UTC

At Least He's Not Your Mayor*

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• by: Colorado Pols

*Longmont residents, so sorry. The Daily Times-Call reports:

Mayor Bryan Baum wants to limit the amount of time the public is allowed to address the City Council at the beginning of council meetings…

“Honestly, I get tired by the end of it, and when we do the city’s business, we need to be sharp,” said Baum. “I think the business of the council and the city has to be paramount.”

This was one of several procedural changes Baum suggested to fellow council members at the conclusion of its two-day retreat late Saturday afternoon…

But some council members expressed concern about people wanting to address council being shut out.

“The price tag of a transparent society is we have to let everybody speak,” said councilman Sean McCoy. “There’s going to be an equity issue.”

Councilman Brian Hansen said that some people have families or other commitments that would preclude them from sitting through an entire meeting if they miss out on the first public invited to be heard. He also noted that 90-minute public-invited-to-heard segments are “pretty rare,” and said that even though it does make for long meetings, it was important to hear from all residents who want to speak.

“We all signed up for that,” Hansen said.

“I just wanted to bring it up because I do think we need some changes,” replied Baum. “I just think it’s ridiculous to be there an hour and a half and listen to the same thing over and over again.”

Yeah–those annoying citizens and their piffling comments. Who can be bothered?

Another change suggested by Mayor Bryan Baum regarding public comments during council meetings would allow himself and city council members to interrupt “respond immediately to” citizens at the microphone, as opposed to the usual elementary school good manners approach of letting people finish their sentences.

Mayor Baum, if you recall, took power during last year’s GOP-backed triumph in Longmont’s local elections. Ironically, the main charge leveled against the former city government by Baum and the well-funded Republican message groups who descended on Longmont last fall was that the city was “not listening to the voters.” So much for that, eh?

If Baum’s little gesture of respect for the citizens reminds you of, for example, Republican Jefferson County commissioners installing a ‘mute’ button on the public-comment microphone in their chambers, it’s probably not a coincidence. Once you ride that angry populist wave into office, the best thing to do, apparently, is shut the rabble up.