AURORA | They’re back. Public listening sessions at the beginning of city council meetings will return after being shut off as the result of a public dispute among lawmakers and activists, but there will be less time than before.
Councilmember Françoise Bergan sponsored the move at Monday night’s city council meeting to bring back the “public invited to be heard” session at the beginning of city council meetings, which will now run from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Bergan made a motion to change the rule after sponsoring a measure last month to remove all public comments from agenda items during the meeting.
“My motion is basically to allow the listening sessions again to happen from our next meeting forward,” Bergan said.
At first, Councilmember Alison Coombs said she would second the motion until she realized the session was cut shorter, then she said she could not support seconding Bergan’s motion. Previously, the sessions lasted about an hour.
The new-30 minute listening session at the beginning of the city council meeting will continue indefinitely, allowing each speaker two minutes to speak.
The change on Monday follows months of protests during city council meetings linked to the death of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man who was killed by an Aurora SWAT officer during his arrest in May 2024. Lewis was accused of a shooting earlier that month in Denver For months, a handful of protesters have appeared at a portion of city council members set aside for public comment on issues not on that night’s agenda.
City council meetings still will remain virtual — not in public inside city council chambers — until the Kilyn Lewis family’s wrongful death court case is final — filed earlier this year — and speakers will be cut off the second their two minutes are up.
City Clerk Kadee Rodriguez said callers would be using the call in line and would not be able to be screened for residency, so it will be first come first serve. The virtual setup also doesn’t allow for people to sign up in advance.
It is unclear if the meeting will be recorded, but during recent virtual meetings, the sessions not for public listening were not broadcast nor recorded.
“I know everyone’s frustrated with all the rule changes that keep happening, and it’s almost too difficult of a thing to keep track of,” Bergan said. “The reason that we are bringing back the listening session was, from my understanding, that most of the members that are participating in the listening session will not be trying to hijack the regular agenda items when they’ll really have no legitimate cause to be speaking on that item.”
Previously, Lewis activists have made contrived public comments on other agenda items, dragging out the full meetings and creating a distraction from the issues being discussed.
“If everyone is going to continue to play games,” Bergan said. “I don’t know where this ever ends up, but I proposed it in good faith.”
The motion passed with the majority of city council approving it.
The Lewis activists have been heard, ad nauseum. Their legacy is that they have interferred with the ability of other citizens to petition Council, to be heard on other matters. Congratulations to them, they have proven to be a pestilence, a pox on the free speech of others.
This and rescinding the pay increase request just in time for the off-year elections.