A ruling by the Englewood, Colorado, city council Monday night, allowed only residents of the city of Englewood to speak during the public feedback portion of their bi-weekly city council meeting.
The ruling to enforce an existing provision in the Englewood City Council meeting rules, came after months of public feedback sessions dominated by outside interests including advocate for the homeless Regan Benson and YouTuber Christopher “Denver Metro Audits” Cordova (DMA), whose often disruptive actions were seen by many as stifling the speech of others in the community.
In her one of her most recent appearance at a city council meeting, Benson live streamed herself sitting next to the speaker’s podium while texting insults about each speaker to her followers in her live chat, barely containing her disdain and accusing some of “lying” about their positions.
Cordova was slightly more restrained in his speaking sessions, as he spoke for over five consecutive meetings in support of allowing the public viewing of pornography in the Englewood public library. While claiming that he did not condone pornography, he supported the ability to view it in public as it would be otherwise unconstitutional to ban it from public view.
Both Cordova and Benson were involved in incidents in which they screamed at members of the city council outside of their speaking time, and Cordova pledged to hold a recall for various members of the Englewood City Council as those members disagreed with his views on pornography.
Benson was recently banned from the Englewood public library, which is located in the same building as the city council chambers, and later criminally charged with harassment of an Allied Security Guard for an incident in the library in early March. It is unclear if the altercation played a part in the city council’s decision to crack down on outside speakers.
The decision to ban outside speakers did not go without comment as long time resident Gary Kozacek, and long-time friend of Benson, took the city council to task for the ban. While putting aside talk of a recall of city council member Steve Ward, Kozacek then pledged to challenge and take Ward’s seat in the next public elections for city council unless Ward stopped his opposition to a pay raise for municipal court Judge Joe Jefferson.
It is unclear of the City Council’s decision to enforce the rules preventing citizens who live outside of Englewood from speaking is permanent at this time.
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