BOCC meetings to begin at 9 a.m.

Although public comments are a thing of the past — at least at the moment — at the Bonner County commissioners meetings, Commissioner Asia Williams has begun her own form of public comment — community chat.

Since the official public comment section is still allocated for 9 a.m., Williams has been arriving at the administration building at 8 a.m. to have informal discussion times with Bonner County residents. However, since Commissioner Steve Bradshaw said he is not interested in bringing public comments back anytime soon, Williams motioned to move her informal chats to that time so residents do not have to show up as early and spend a majority of their day at the administration building if they stick around for the meeting.

“If you don't want to hear the people talk, that’s fine,” she said, addressing the other two commissioners.

Williams said she wanted to give the public time for open dialogue even if the other two commissioners did not wish to be present.

However, before voting could take place on Williams’s motion, Commissioner Luke Omodt moved to amend the motion, instead suggesting that the business meetings should begin at 9 a.m. rather than 10 a.m. Before an hour was allocated for public comment, the business meetings started at 9 a.m. with only a few minutes allocated for public comments at the beginning.

The motion to amend was met with disapproval from Williams as well as some of the audience members.

“Why would you want to do that to the community as you then say [you want] ‘mutual respect?’” she asked her fellow commissioners. “You don’t respect people but you are using your position to disrespect them and to silence them for your convenience.”

Williams said approving the amended motion rather than her original motion of holding community chats at 9 a.m. would be “disgusting.”

“It shows that you have no interest in actually following the rule that allows the public meaningful comment and input in the Bonner County business,” she said.

The comment prompted Bradshaw to ask her to state the rule for a roll call vote, as he had called for one a few minutes prior to her comment.

“The rule is only as good as those who follow them,” she responded. “The two of you coordinate an effort to silence myself and the community consistently. So the only thing that I can do is say what I want to say … when you call for a vote. Because as you found out last time when you said, ‘Mute her,’ that doesn’t work.”

Bradshaw quickly defended himself, claiming he had never called for Williams to be muted while she was speaking. This statement was met with laughter from the audience, with some shouting out that the commission chairman actually had called for Williams to be muted in a previous meeting and the incident was recorded online. Regardless of this, Bradshaw continued on.

“You can’t be muted,” he said. “We’ve established that fact. We’re just trying to get you to respect the rules of the board. But you don’t want to go along with it. You want to make them up for yourself as you go along and they apply to you and not the rest of us.”

The commissioner again called for a roll call vote over Williams’s response and the amendment passed, with Omodt and Bradshaw voting yes and Williams not giving a clear response.

The Bonner County regular business meetings will once again begin at 9 a.m., with public comments still at the discretion of the chairman.