Stop silencing public input

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

•••

Public forums can get heated. We've all seen examples of emotional, sometimes angry constituents showing up at local government meetings to object to an action or proposal.

Heated or not, their input is part of the public record and should be broadcast or recorded so those watching a meeting live or replaying it later have access.

That's why the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information (MNCOGI) has wisely raised concerns about government entities that have excluded public comments from meeting broadcasts. The open-government nonprofit rightly believes that citizen feedback often serves to inform public policy.

The issue is in the news because in recent months both the Hennepin County Board and the Roseville Area School Board voted to eliminate the public comment periods from meeting broadcasts.

During a news conference last week, MNCOGI representatives and citizens urged the Legislature to require government entities to share public input.

"Information held by government agencies … is oxygen in democracy's bloodstream," MNCOGI's Kevin Featherly said.

Hennepin County resident Mary Pattock, who MNCOGI invited to speak at a State Capitol news conference, said government entities have a responsibility to broadcast comments.

"I understand that to public officials that we citizens may sometimes seem like a nuisance, because, yes, we can be verbose, foolish, angry, even misleading or wrong. But public officials can be all those things, too," Pattock said. "We call on the Legislature to stop this before it spreads."

Although Hennepin County broadcasts board and committee meetings, no rules or regulations require it. In July, Board Chair Marion Greene said excluding public comments was necessary to stop the spread of hate speech and misinformation.

In an interview with an editorial writer last week, Greene said transparency is important to the board and that members welcome receiving public comments in a variety of ways, including email, social media, text messages and phone calls.

Greene defended the move to limit sharing public comments, citing the example of a caller who accused the county of tampering with voting machines and refusing to share real election results — a claim she said was not true.

"We needed to thread the needle, strike a balance between accepting public comments and protecting the public from misinformation, disinformation and hate speech," Greene added.

Officials with Roseville schools did not respond to a phone message from an editorial writer.

Matt Ehling, MNCOGI's legislative issues committee chair, told an editorial writer that citizens might say things in meetings that others don't want to hear, but that's part of free speech. He said boards can take steps if commenters are out of control and have the tools to limit abusive language or behavior. For the most part, he said, citizen comments are valuable to the discussion of issues and are important for the general public to see and hear.

We agree. If misinformation is shared, public officials have the ability to counter it with the truth. Suppressing public input is dangerously undemocratic. Hennepin County, Roseville schools and other public entities should revisit policies that dampen debate.