{"id":374,"date":"2012-07-30T11:30:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T15:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daveemanuel.wordpress.com\/?p=374"},"modified":"2014-10-24T14:12:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T18:12:35","slug":"civil-rights-trumped-by-out-of-order-wrongs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=374","title":{"rendered":"Civil Rights Trumped By Out of Order Wrongs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cuttothechase.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/out-order11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"369\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?attachment_id=369\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/out-order11.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"324,262\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Out-Order\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/out-order11-300x242.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/out-order11.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-369\" title=\"Out-Order\" src=\"https:\/\/cuttothechase.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/out-order11.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"324\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/out-order11.jpg 324w, https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/out-order11-300x242.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re out of order. You\u2019re out of order\u201d. In over two years of attending City Council meetings, I never heard those words. But since November, 2011, when Kelly Kautz became mayor, I\u2019ve heard the phrase over and over and over, and over&#8211; much like listening to a broken record.<\/p>\n<p>It is indeed unfortunate that in her role as mayor, Kautz relies on that stridently uttered phrase to silence people who she THINKS might say something she doesn\u2019t want to hear. Since I have been a Councilman, she has repeatedly called me out of order. She has repeatedly called Mayor Pro Tem Tom Witts out of order. She has repeatedly called Councilman Bobby Howard out of order. And now, she has called Marilyn Swinney, (a citizen of our city and dedicated volunteer) out of order.<\/p>\n<p>Kautz\u2019s action to silence Ms. Swinney stands in stark contrast to her lack of action when Mary Morrison (a neighbor and apparent friend of Kautz ally Mike Sabbagh) launched into a full-fledged personal attack against Tom Witts. Even after Morrison launched into her baseless tirade against Mr. Witts, (which ended with a veiled threat) Kautz chose to ignore its inappropriate and offensive nature.<\/p>\n<p>Without question the mayor, as the chair of Council meetings, has both the right and the responsibility to call citizens \u201cOut of order\u201d if they violate the rules of decorum that are enumerated in section 2-53 (3) of the city\u2019s code of ordinances. However\u2014and here\u2019s where\u00a0 Kautz seems confused\u2014 someone actually has to say something inappropriate or offensive before the rules of decorum are applicable. Conversely, once the rules of decorum are violated, (that is, once someone says something inappropriate or offensive) it is not only the chair\u2019s responsibility, but duty to interrupt the speaker and inform him or her that of the violation of rules of decorum. If the speaker persists, the chair is authorized to call for the offending individual to be removed.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, when the mayor appears to use political considerations as the basis for her actions, the biggest losers are the citizens of Snellville. Our city has what\u2019s commonly referred to as a divided Council\u2014two factions that strongly disagree on most issues. Negative publicity is an unavoidable consequence of the public disagreement of those factions. In stark contrast, the mayor\u2019s unilateral throttling of a citizen\u2019s comment is as avoidable as it is inexcusable.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Swinney believes that her civil rights have been violated and has stated that she will be seeking legal recourse. It is indeed unfortunate that any citizen should feel compelled to take such action. But it is an especially sad commentary that a person like Ms. Swinney, who has given so much of herself to the community, feels so violated, humiliated, and embarrassed that she\u2019s moved to seek a legal remedy to protect her own civil rights, and those of other citizens who may wish to make a public comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>\u201cYou\u2019re out of order. You\u2019re out of order\u201d. In over two years of attending City Council meetings, I never heard those words. But since November, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=374\" title=\"Civil Rights Trumped By Out of Order Wrongs\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-council-confidential"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Civil Rights Trumped By Out of Order Wrongs - Cut to The Chase<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=374\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Civil Rights Trumped By Out of Order Wrongs - Cut to The Chase\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cYou\u2019re out of order. You\u2019re out of order\u201d. In over two years of attending City Council meetings, I never heard those words. 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