New Decorum Rules At Dallas Co. Commissioners Instilled Without Incident
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - New rules were unveiled at the Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting Tuesday, prompted by county judge Clay Jenkins' attempts to avoid a repeat of last week's shouting match between residents and Commissioner John Wiley Price.
"Let me be clear. We will have order in this court. Attempts to generate and foster confusion, disorientation, or disruption will not be tolerated," Jenkins said upon opening the meeting.
The first few speakers had no problems with the rules. Though Lucia Rottenberg of Irving complained about the way it seemed Price and Jenkins had engineered the forced resignation of County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet.
"I'm really, really disappointed in the way he was treated." Adryana Boyne of Highland Village agreed. "The citizens demand to know the truth…Truth is not a racial issue. It is not a Democrat or Republican issue."
Jenkins hoped the new rules would avoid the kind of one-upsmanship seen between members of the public and Price last week. Extra deputies and weapons screening devices were brought in to help provide enhanced security.
It didn't stop the critics, though, like Pastor Stephen Broden of Dallas.
"As it stands now," he said, "the county has a lack of confidence and experienced what they believe are words that don't match."
While Price was the target of criticism last week, he had supporters on hand Tuesday, including Vincent Hall of Desoto.
"After 26 years Mr. Price is famous at this court for asking two questions: where are the black folks, and where is the diversity?" He said.
Hall and eight others were stopped when Jenkins felt they were straying into the kind of person criticism the decorum policy is designed to avoid.
Five of those eight were asked to sit before their time was up for continued violations. Overall, though, Jenkins was satisfied.
"I'm pleased that there was a sense of decorum and civility, I'm pleased that overall everyone got an opportunity to speak their mind and they did so in a civil way," he said
Jenkins mentioned a protest that took place outside the county administration building just before court was gaveled into session.
"People are free to yell and stamp their feet and do things that would violate our decorum policy out there, but when they come in here they're going to have to follow the decorum policy as it sits in law," Jenkins said. "I inherited this policy, I didn't come up with it."
But Price and some speakers wondered if the rules inhibited free speech.
"He is the presiding officer. He said—we all voted for him, so apparently we all agreed with him." Price said, adding that he can work within the confines. "So everybody wanted rules, we've now got rules … I could care less about the rules, but if there are rules, I'm fine with them."
Deputies reported asking one person to leave the court for continued side comments, but otherwise said there were no further incidents, either inside our outside the courtroom.
