More than two years after Akron City Council enacted strict regulations on its sometimes-contentious public comment period — where people are given time to publicly address council members in person or over Zoom — a federal judge ruled in favor of the city against the lawsuit filed by a man who was prevented from speaking at a City Council meeting.
Judge John Adams ruled that City Council didn’t violate the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions or the state’s public meeting laws when it declared no more than 10 members of the public can speak at its weekly meetings and that people cannot take the podium more than once every 30 days.
Richard Montgomery II, who filed the lawsuit last year after he was denied the opportunity to speak at consecutive meetings, previously told Signal Akron the limits “suppress the voices of everyday residents” and deprive them “of the ability to respond in real time to decisions that directly affect their families and neighborhoods.”
The rule was enacted after a stretch of eight weeks of lengthy council meetings beginning in October of 2023, where an average of 23 people signed up to speak, mostly about what they said was genocide in Gaza by the Israeli government.
The meetings between the immediate aftermath of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks and the enactment of the rules in January of 2024 lasted an average of more than two hours. Since then, meetings have averaged fewer than five speakers and lasted less than 40 minutes.
Adams, in a ruling that comes six months after the city argued the lawsuit should be dismissed, explained that while Montgomery’s planned comments were likely protected by the First Amendment, the restrictions were legal because:
- Council chambers are allowed to have more restrictions on speech than, for example, a public park.
- The caps are content-neutral, meaning they don’t discriminate based on viewpoint.
- The rules are “narrowly tailored” to protect a governmental interest of “proper debate and decorum.” It would be different, the judge wrote, if the rules prevented people from “speaking more than 10 seconds at a time or more than once per calendar year.”
- People have other methods to contact council members, who have publicly listed email addresses and phone numbers.
- Ohio’s open meetings laws don’t require that government agencies permit members of the public to speak at meetings.
At-Large Council Member Jeff Fusco, who was waiting for the outcome of this lawsuit, may propose additional restrictions after withdrawing legislation in December. Fusco proposed regulations limiting speakers who don’t live, work or own property in Akron and cutting off people who speak on issues that City Council doesn’t have the ability to address.
