Editorial: Open government allows critics a voice

Hilton Head Island Mayor David Bennett is wrong to preclude anyone from speaking to Town Council during the public comment portions of meetings.

Guidelines are common in local governments to see that public input is done civilly. Guidelines limit the time for each speaker and discourage personal attacks. They prohibit discussion of items beyond the control of the elected body.

Bennett -- and other mayors, the County Council chairman and the school board chairman, as well as the top administrators -- must have the stamina and thick skin to sit through a 3-minute speech by anyone abiding by the standards of civility. Denial of free speech should not be done pre-emptively. And criticizing a town manager should not result in being hauled off by the police.

The school board recently dusted off its old guidelines, which were not being followed. It did so at the same time it did not want to hear criticism of its superintendent and nepotism rules. That was wrong. The school board sent a clear message. The message was that it would rather make the public feel like the man who stood in front of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square than listen to an open discussion of its superintendent's nepotism.

All it did was further erode the school district's credibility.

Now, Bennett has dusted off an old guideline that was not being followed to preclude a critic's input because he allegedly does not live within town limits. That is wrong.

We are not supporting the critic whom Bennett has targeted, or his criticism, or the methods he uses to make his points.

We are supporting open government.

Public officials must be able to handle criticism in 3-minute doses in public meetings. They can turn their chairs around to face the wall, they can read the newspaper, they can cover their ears. But the public has a right to speak in these open forums, which already are highly regulated.

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 7:59 PM with the headline "Editorial: Open government allows critics a voice."