Robert’s Rules Restored

In a series of quick, decisive actions, Branford Representative Town Meeting members from both sides of the aisle moved to get their house in order last week.

The actions of a majority of RTM members came after the newly installed RTM moderator, Chris Sullivan, acted to have the RTM adopt and actually live by Robert’s Rules of Order. A transformation is clearly underway. 

Over a 90-minute period, they successfully curtailed citizen gadfly Wayne Cooke’s repeated outbursts, forcing him to leave the meeting before the cops arrived. They removed a sign he was holding up, refused to read his letters and rejected efforts to review for a second time one of his many petitions.

In December, Sullivan invited E. Marie Wilson, a professional parliamentarian, to advise the RTM. The legislative body is now working its way through the rules and learning how to apply them. A new member, Adam J. Hansen, a 29-year-old fireman who knows Robert’s Rules well, has emerged as a leader in the fight to restore decorum to the meetings.

Within ten minutes of the opening of the Feb. 8th meeting, Cooke was declared out of order after continuously interrupting the meeting. He had refused to remove a static sign stating the words of the First Amendment.

The last straw for Cooke was when Sullivan refused to read a batch of letters he sent to the RTM. Sullivan said all the letters dealt with RTM procedures over which Cooke, a resident, has no say. When he was declared out of order a third time, Sullivan called a recess and left the room to telephone police. When that happened, Cooke scooped up his sign and left the meeting. 

In the past even though the RTM adopted Robert’s Rules, the 30-member legislature did not use or enforce them, RTM members told the Eagle. In January, Sullivan implemented a three-minute time limit for members and non-members to address the RTM, but that rule is now under discussion by the full board. He also banned the use of static signs, which Cooke has in the past propped up on an easel before a cable television camera.

Meanwhile, the town’s Board of Selectmen has yet to adopt Robert’s Rules of any other meetings guide, though First Selectman Unk DaRos says he is seriously considering it. Cooke continually interrupts BOS meetings as well and confronts DaRos verbally at every meeting he attends. Click here to our story on restoring civility to the BOS.
 

Signs

Before the RTM came into the room for its 8 p.m. meeting, Cooke had placed his First Amendment sign on an easel at the back of the room. The first amendment to the Bill of Rights prohibits abridging the freedom of speech. However, speech is often limited. Town, county and state meetings across the nation typically adopt rules regarding when and how residents or members of the audience may speak at meetings and hearings and what supporting evidence they may bring with them. 

Soon after the meeting began, Sullivan asked Rep. Marc Riccio, who lives in Branford but moved his business to East Haven, to remove a small sign he had placed before him. It read: ​“I Love Branford.” Riccio, who also serves as the vice-chair of the Republican Town Committee, (RTC) did so, but not before stating for the record that he had been asked to remove his ​“I Love Branford” sign.

Next Sullivan turned to Cooke. ​“I am assuming that the First Amendment sign is also your sign, Mr. Cooke. I would appreciate it if you would remove it.”

“You have no authority to ban the sign,” Cooke declared. 

Sullivan informed him that ​“this meeting falls under a public hearing and that the chair sets the rules for the meeting.” As moderator, he said, he also sets ​“the decorum of the meeting to insure that we allow that the effective business of the town takes place.”

“I disagree. You can’t do it. It is not in Robert’s Rules,” Cooke said of Sullivan’s effort. 

Sullivan didn’t accept Cooke’s interpretation. ​“If we did not allow public comment I would agree, but since we do I think that since this is a public hearing, you have to agree. You are now out of order.” Sullivan said Cooke could use his sign if and when Cooke spoke during public comments. But he couldn’t keep it on the easel.

“I have a right to do it,” Cooke declared.

“You are out of order twice,” Sullivan said, adding, ​“Mr. Cooke you can use the sign when you make a point. “

Cooke said: ​“This is not in the town code. I am going to object to that.”

Sullivan repeated that he was out of order. 

“You will not trample on citizens’ rights in this town. You have to show me and this community where in the town code gives you the authority to banish signs from this room. I’d like to just leave my sign up. I have a right to do it,” Cooke insisted.

Anthony Giardiello, the Democratic majority leader of the RTM and a parliamentarian himself, told Sullivan, by way of a point of order, that Sullivan was ​“using your authority absolutely correct.”

Sullivan warned Cooke that if he did not remove the sign, ​“you will be out of order for the third time, and if you are it will require me to remove yourself from this meeting.” 

“I shall not remove that sign,” Cooke declared.” At that point Sullivan recognized Democratic RTM member Doug Hanlon, who stood to say he would remove it. Then Hanlon got up, went around the table and back to the sign. He swung it up and carried it to a side wall. (See photo above.)

There matters stood, with Cooke still seated, until Sullivan reached the point in the meeting where correspondence is read.

“I have a packet of letters from Mr. Cooke, which I have received and other RTM members have received. Mr. Cooke is not a member of the body and all of these letters pertain to RTM proceedings. I will not be reading them,” Sullivan said.

Cooke stood up and began shouting at Sullivan.

At this point, Hansen (pictured), a new Democratic RTM member from the 4th district, stood. He asked to be recognized. He was. Then he said: ​“Mr. Cooke has not been recognized. He does not have the floor,” a sentence rarely heard over the past four years. Hansen, a professional firefighter and paramedic, has studied Robert’s Rules of Order, and had his copy of the rules with him. 

Now Cooke was on his feet, shouting at the Republican side of the aisle. Glaring at the Republicans seated in front of him, he said: ​“I can’t believe this side of the aisle is just sitting there and letting him do this. “ The Republicans said nothing. Mostly their heads were down.

Cooke kept shouting. Now Sullivan said: ​“This is a third time that you have been out of order. ​“All those in favor of recessing,” he said,” say, ‘;Aye.’” The Democrats said ​“Aye.” The Republicans were silent. Recessing a meeting is the first step toward clearing the room to remove a person from a public hearing.

Sullivan said, ​“I have to make a phone call” as he left to call the police. Before the police could arrive, Cooke picked up his sign and left for the night. Cooke had been told in November that if he gets into trouble over the next 13 months the criminal charges in a previous case involving putting Bird Gel on political signs would be reinstated.

Letters

The conflict over reading Cooke’s letters, which in the past have dominated the letters section, brought the first open conflict between Sullivan,(left)  the Democratic moderator, and Republican clerk, Dennis Flanagan. The tie vote was broken by the RTM parliamentarian Mary Davis, an attorney and the chair of the R&O.

Riccio, who was the Republican point man during this session, stood to say that in not reading the letters Sullivan was violating the town code. He read the communications section. “We are in violation of the code. Why are these not being read?” he asked. Sullivan replied that “the letters are inappropriate.”

Flanagan, the longest serving member on the RTM, also said the letters should be read, that the average person in the audience or watching it on BCTV should know what they say, not just RTM members. 

In the end Davis said the letters should not be read.  The tie was broken. They were not read.

In the audience to witness the transformation of the RTM was Alice Lambert, who in March, 2010, while on the RTM, flipped the bird, so to speak, at Cooke, after he pointed his finger in her direction, she said. 

Before that event, there was virtually no effort by RTM moderator Scott Thayer to rein Cooke in at each meeting.  Lambert told the New Haven Register after the incident. “He comes and aggravates the hell out of all of us — time after time after time — and he expects to be treated” with respect?  Lambert was later censured for her act.

Last night when there was a brief recess in the meeting, Lambert, no longer on the RTM,  walked up to Sullivan, white box in hand. Inside was a gavel that she presented to him.  She returned to her seat smiling.

Time Limits

At the last RTM meeting, Sullivan imposed a three-minute limit for members and non-members to speak. But the R&O is now whittling away at the number.

Davis, the R&O chair, announced that they would try out a two-minute rule for members and non-members, adding that the speaker had two minutes to speak twice on each topic.  The RTM rules had members speaking for a total of 10 minutes. Davis said the two-minute idea would be a “trial run.”  But it didn’t work. 

Republican member Richard Greenalch, Jr., (pictured, standing), who was unable to attend the four-hour long R& O committee meeting Tuesday, where these issues were discussed, raised a number of relevant issues.

“What if a chairman wants to speak to a report? Is that three minutes? And what if it is a minority report? I agree with the principle. Quite frankly over the years, it has been very difficult to go forward. If I get two minutes and I need more time, I will request more time. If I request a roll call vote to get more time, we will spend more time.  I agree there should be limitations. Right now it is 10 minutes. Maybe that is too long.  He asked that the time issue be sent back to committee and in the end the RTM agreed with him. 

Cooke’s Petitions

In 2009, at the urging of Cooke and his supporters, the R&O committee adopted citizen’s petitions, another path by which residents may bring matters before the RTM.  The RTM approved the petitions without realizing the impact or the implications, several RTM members told the Eagle. The only resident to consistently use the petition route is Cooke, and he has submitted so many that they dominate the RTM agenda.  All that is needed is 50 signatures; often the same 50 people sign for him.

The petition route creates a serous issue because there is no method by which a petition can be rejected at the outset even if it doesn’t belong before the RTM.  When a petition arrives, the moderator is mandated to send it to the appropriate RTM committee. The committee can spend months or years on a topic over which the RTM has no authority, said David Baker, the new chair of the Administrative Services Committee. Usually state law trumps local law in many areas. The result is that the RTM committees have become besieged by Cooke’s petitions.

At one point Riccio again presented the same Cooke petition that the RTM heard for more than a year before the administrative services committee last year.  It centered on the “accuracy, objectivity and comprehensiveness” of the Planning and Zoning Commission, whose actions and review are strictly determined by state law.

Riccio didn’t buy the state law part. He cited the town code, 236-4. Rule 4.1, which asks the RTM to maintain a constant review of the rules, even those pertaining to the P & Z. and other town commissions.  This section likely means the R&O committee must be aware of state law changes regarding state oversight commissions that pertain to the town, not that the town has oversight over these commissions. 

Baker stood to explain to Riccio the distinction between local and state law.  The planning and zoning laws come under state statute, he said. “If you make the mistake of putting them (P&Z) in your town,” he said, “then it’s hands off. “  He noted the P&Z, unlike the RTM, can “subpoena, can put people under oath, “and so forth. …” You can’t really look into something unless you can compel the truth.  It is not in our purview.” 

Baker went on to say that “it is disingenuous for us to accept these petitions and send them to committee.” It gives the impression, he said, for Cooke and others to think “that we can actually deal with the item.”  It also ties up the committee on matters it legally is barred from deciding. Cooke’s petitions have dominated the RTM agenda for the last two years. 

Baker said Thayer, the prior moderator, who is no longer on the RTM, “did not do a good job” in deciding where to send petitions. “If something belonged before the board of ethics, and we have a board of ethics, then that is where it should go.”

At one point in explaining his position, Riccio needed more than the two-minute allocated time. He asked Ray Ingraham, RTM member and the chair of the RTC, for his time. Ingraham agreed to yield.

At this point, Hansen stood to ask permission to speak. He informed the moderator that according to Robert’s Rules, “you can’t transfer time to someone else. You can’t yield your time.”  He read the relevant section aloud. Sullivan allowed him and Baker to speak beyond the time limit.

In the end, Riccio asked that the petition be referred to R& O even though it had spent a year before the administrative services committee with no clear ending.

When the vote by hand came, Riccio lost.  The vote showed he did not win the full support of his fellow Republicans. Two Republican attorneys who work a lot on state law, Greenalch and Robin Sandler, former town counsel, voted to reject Riccio’s motion to keep the petition alive.  Frank Twohill, Republican minority leader and an attorney, voted with Riccio.  But the overall vote, with Democrats holding the majority, tossed the petition out.

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