Incumbent Irene Cepeda speaks with a woman during a candidate forum for CCSD School Board District D candidates at the East Las Vegas Library Thursday, May 5, 2022. The forum was organized by the Clark County Conservative Coalition and Vote Nevada.
Thursday, July 7, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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The Clark County School District school board advanced a plan Wednesday to reform its policy on public comments at board meetings, raising the possibility of limiting opportunities for feedback and bringing consequences for disorderly speakers while emphasizing decorum.
Board President Irene Cepeda said she brought forth the proposed changes after two years of deteriorating conduct at the speaker’s podium at the district's often lengthy meetings. The tension was driven first by schools’ pandemic response and now is more broadly about other social and cultural topics.
Cepeda said speakers can be “blatantly uncivil and disrespectful” and are routinely ejected from meetings.
“It’s a bit of an overhaul,” she said of the potential revisions. “That is true.”
The policy has not been updated since 2017.
A possible new version of the policy starts out with “The Board of School Trustees encourages and values public input. To create a safe and welcoming environment at Board meetings, conducive for Board business and public comment, everyone is expected to be respectful and civil.
“The Board requires that individuals conduct themselves professionally and that their behavior and comments remain civil and courteous.”
Regular meetings typically begin at 5 p.m. on certain Thursdays and can last between two and five hours. Sometimes, they go past midnight. But that’s with the comment periods as they are now: at least 20 minutes of general comments to lead off the meeting; a session to address the consent agenda, which is a list of formalities and administrative items that are typically passed in a single vote with little or no Board discussion; comments before specific agenda items; and another general session to close out the meeting.
Speakers typically get two minutes, except on consent agenda items, where they can take up to 10 minutes if covering multiple topics.
The proposed policy cuts consent agenda comments down to a flat three minutes no matter how many topics are covered. It requires comments before informational items to occur during the general comment period. And it removes the lead-off comment period, condensing all general comments to the meeting’s end.
The new policy also means students or people with small children will not get to go first in the speaker order. Board attorney Nicole Malich said allowing that would give preference based on viewpoint, a possible violation of state open-meeting laws.
She said the district examined speaker rules in other local governments and found CCSD’s to be the most relaxed, which is why meetings go so long.
“Our hope with some of these changes is that our meetings will be more productive and efficient, and hopefully,+ we will get through our meetings at a quicker pace,” Malich said.
Generally, the guidelines would include a ban on heckling, shouting, other “disruptive conduct” like stomping of feet, whistling and applause; racial slurs, personal insults, threats “or other inappropriate language.”
Speakers deemed disorderly may be kicked out and banned from Board meetings for 30 days to six months.
Board Member Lola Brooks said the proposed policy provides consistency, clarity and equal treatment for meeting attendees, and is meant to be positive.
“The idea of this policy is not to restrict comments or stifle free speech,” she said. “It's to make sure everybody has clear expectations of attendees and ourselves.”
Brooks also said the changes would be made out of consideration for people watching in person or over the livestream, as she said she’s fielded complaints from people who can’t even sit through a meeting from home anymore because of how long and raucous they can get.
Board member Linda Cavazos said she supports some goals, like shorter meetings. She also said she’s open to starting meetings earlier. But she is skeptical of changes like moving all public comment to the end of meetings and dropping the time limit on consent-agenda items.
Cavazos was the only Board member to vote against advancing the policy revisions to a second vote, which has not yet been scheduled.
“It sounds like we are more concerned about ourselves here and the expediency of the trustees and not as concerned about meeting the voices of the constituents,” she said.
