Public citizen

[Guest Wally Nelson]

At a city council meeting does the public have to follow Roberts rules. At a recent council meeting a council member called point of order to a resident as the resident was giving his public comments ?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

In RONR, nonmembers have no rights at the meeting.

[Richard Brown]

Mr. Huynh's answer is correct, but I believe we should elaborate upon it a bit in order to fully answer guest Wally Nelson's question.

It is true that non members have no rights at a meeting... except those rights that that the assembly or superior law grant them.

In this case, since this is a city council, I'm pretty confident  that the council allows comments from members of the public and probably has a period for public comments on the agenda.  Most, perhaps all, city councils have rules or customs in  place for comments by the public.   Those rules probably have little, if anything, to do with the rules in RONR.  They probably impose a the time limit on speeches and perhaps restrictions on the topic.   If someone is speaking on a particular proposed ordinance, it is reasonable that the remarks be pertinent to the ordinance.  The assembly has the right to insist on decorum and might not allow personal attacks on council members, etc.  The assembly (the public body) has the right to set some parameters, but probably does  not have the right to pick and choose who is allowed to speak.  The devil is in the details.  In what way was the speaker's comments allegedly out of order?

But, in addition to whatever rules and customs the city council has, there is almost a certainty that there is a state open meetings law (or sunshine law) which dictates that members of the public be allowed to attend and speak at meetings of public bodies and probably sets forth some  parameters for speaking.  Whatever rules are in the Council's special rules of order and the state law will trump the provisions in RONR. 

[Josh Martin]

11 hours ago, Guest Wally Nelson said:

At a city council meeting does the public have to follow Roberts rules.

Yes, or at least those which are applicable. Since it seems residents have some rights to speak, residents must at least remember to speak only she recognized and to follow The rules of decorum. The rule that debate must be germane (relevant) to the pending motion may also apply. The members of the public are also required to follow the rules of the council.

11 hours ago, Guest Wally Nelson said:

At a recent council meeting a council member called point of order to a resident as the resident was giving his public comments ?

Seems appropriate to me, provided the Point of Order related to the resident's comments. Whether the point should have been ruled well taken is not clear without more facts.

[Steve E]

On May 18, 2016 at 8:49 AM, Josh Martin said:

On May 18, 2016 at 8:50 PM, Guest Wally Nelson said:

At a recent council meeting a council member called point of order to a resident as the resident was giving his public comments ?

Seems appropriate to me, provided the Point of Order related to the resident's comments. Whether the point should have been ruled well taken is not clear without more facts.

Mr. Nelson, do you know why the point of order was made by the Councilor?