AURORA | Aurora lawmakers are drafting new decorum rules for council meetings that could allow the city to remove disruptive audience members and sanction council members for violating standards of piety.
The city council’s rules committee is in the process of reviewing regulations for decorum and virtual participation in an effort to calm tensions at meetings and promote civil dialogue.
On Monday, the committee continued discussion of what new decorum rules for council members and public commenters should look like and heard suggestions from the public.
The committee started with decorum and virtual participation because of the recent history of combativeness among council members and between public commenters and council members.
Heated meetings peaked in 2024 and 2025 after police shot and killed Kilyn Lewis while he was being arrested in Aurora. At one meeting, council members fled the council chambers because of protesters, and Councilmember Stephanie Hancock called the protesters “terrorists.”
Former Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky was also known for confrontational and sometimes profane rhetoric, even cursing out fellow council members over text.
Since the 2025 council election, where voters did not re-elect Jurinsky and chose four new council members, meetings have had somewhat less conflict, but have not been free of profanity and insults.
The proposed decorum changes include a process to remove audience members who disrupt public speakers and consequences for council members who break decorum, such as using personal insults or arguing with commenters.
City Attorney Pete Schulte said the city can’t restrict the content of public comment, other than to prohibit threats or incitement of violence, but the council can have an audience member who is interrupting removed from the meeting after issuing a warning and ban them from chambers for the next meeting.
Mayor Pro-Tem Allison Coombs said the intent is to allow all commenters equal time to speak and not be intimidated or interrupted.
“We certainly don’t want any booing, any shouting or threats at people up at the podium,” Coombs said.
The city has more control over the speech of council members and decorum rules already restrict members from using personal insults or going off topic. However, enforcement of decorum rules for council members has not always been consistent.
A change proposed by the committee would allow for sanctions against a council member who violates decorum, including losing committee roles or their travel budget.
Suggestions from speakers at the meeting centered on the need for council to be respectful of commenters even when they disagree with them.
“I’ve seen in council meetings the body language, the antagonizing, the eye rolling and the under-the-breath, just as well from the (audience), but when you’re in leadership, you lead by example,” Veronica Seabron said. “You also lead by understanding the heart of the speaker and allowing at least some room for human empathy.”
The conversation at the meeting was tense at times, but largely respectful with the exception of one commenter who insulted some council members’ appearances and an audience member who insulted a commenter.
The speakers at Monday’s meeting were mainly friends or family members of Black men who have been killed by law enforcement officers, including Jalin Seabron and Kilyn Lewis. They told the committee that aggressive or profane comments often stem from a feeling of not being heard and having no other recourse.
“When our tears are in front of people who do not care and our requests are ignored, the pain turns into demands, demands to be heard and acknowledged, demands to be treated like human beings whose lives and losses matter,” Seabron, who is Jalin Seabron’s mother, said.
One way the committee proposed to help the public feel heard is to add a 10 minute recess after the comment period, which council members could use to follow up with speakers.
The committee will draft revised rules on decorum and engage the community again for feedback ahead of its May 21 meeting. The committee also plans to revise the decorum statement read before the public comment period.
Residents can submit comments online at EngageAurora.org/Decorum through the end of the month.
Once the committee has finalized its recommendations for decorum rules, they will be heard at a city council study session and then a city council meeting.
Meanwhile an additional $45 million per year in sales tax receipts is just left sitting on the table.
I believe that the council should do what it is doing. First, as they did, the public has an unfettered opportunity to express themselves in regard to various city policies and proposed policies and actions. For too long now, leaders of the federal, state, and local governments have themselves, traded in profane, threatening, and unacceptable behavior. Doing so demeans, rather that accentuates one’s message. As my mother said over and over use your words wisely and articulately. I wish I could say I always did, but I sometimes failed. As I grow older, the words I choose are selected more carefully. Perhaps it is a function of having less time. So, I applaud the efforts of the council to return decorum to discourse at public meetings. The most powerful words I have heard are those from the likes of JFK, MLK, Mahatma Ghandi, and Nelson Mandela. These men represented their messages with utmost respect and use of language, and, as a result, moved generations. It is paramount to remember their subtle lessons of delivery without profanity or threats, as it is the key to meaningful and lasting communication! Both the public and their servants on the council deserve to speak without fear or derision. Surely, we all understand that at this time it is most important to defend the weakest to the strongest members of our society to use the freedoms guaranteed in the first amendment without impediment!
Remarks and comment should be limited to Aurora residents and business owners. Too many outside agitators try to commandeer council meetings for an outside agenda.