SCOTT CITY ISSUES ORDINANCE AGAINST MEETING DISRUPTIONS

SCOTT CITY -- There was a problem last month when Orley Jackson was escorted from a Scott City Council meeting for allegedly disturbing the peace: He wasn't technically violating a city ordinance.

Although Jackson agreed to stay out of the rest of the meeting on Sept. 11, he wasn't charged with a crime by the Scott City Police Department.

Since then there have been frequent outbursts from the public during the council meetings, prompting the council to have police officers intervene. So council members took steps to correct that Monday night when they passed an ordinance that explicitly makes willfully disrupting a public meeting a violation of city ordinance.

Scott City Police Chief Danny Clubb said the ordinance will help him as he tries to keep the peace without having to throw people in jail.

"It will help if it has to," Clubb said. "I'll give them a warning first. I mean, we sure don't need to overreact. But how much I have to use it will depend on the people involved. It's up to them to decide whether I need to use this ordinance."

Clubb said the only option he had prior to the passing of the ordinance was holding someone until a state warrant could be issued charging them with a class B misdemeanor of disturbing a public function. He said that can take up to 20 days.

That statute specifies "a person commits the crime of obstructing government operations" if he impairs "by the use or threat of violence, force or other physical interference or obstacle."

A problem with Scott City's new ordinance is that it does not specifically define the actions that will constitute a violation of the ordinance. Instead it defines disorderly conduct as anyone who "disturbs or disrupts any lawful assembly or meeting of persons."

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III, a lawyer, said the Cape Girardeau City Council has had to deal with angry citizens before.

"It happens," he said. "But trying to quell, squash or stymie public address could be a violation of First Amendment rights."

He said the police chief is responsible for keeping the peace at public meetings. Occasionally citizens will address the council and get over exuberant, Spradling said, and he tries to address the situation before it gets out of hand. Occasionally those people have to be removed. If the citizen refuses to leave without being placed under arrest he would have the man charged with disturbing the peace, he said.

Betty Jackson, Orley Jackson's wife, called the ordinance a violation of civil rights.

"I thought these meetings were so the public could come in and ask questions," she said. "If they don't like the questions we're asking then that's their problem."

Jackson said she is concerned about the broad definition of a public disturbance within the ordinance.

"They're drawing a fine line between asking questions and disturbing the peace," she said. "When they arrested Orley he was just saying some things they didn't want to hear. He wasn't cursing or carrying on."

The ordinance also specifies "a person commits the offense of disorderly conduct if, with the purpose of causing public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, he engages in violent, threatening or tumultuous behavior; or willfully fails or refuses to comply with any lawful order or direction of a police officer."