The Killeen City Council meetings have perhaps reached a new escalation in terms of craziness.
The last two meetings have seen two residents kicked out of the meeting, both for interrupting. In Tuesday’s meeting, Jonathan Okray — a former Killeen councilman who was armed with an assault rifle strapped to his back — was ordered removed by the mayor after Okray shouted shortly after the meeting started.
At the previous meeting, on Nov. 28, Okray came up to the podium with a shotgun strapped on his back to complain about a citizen’s petition removing guns from the Killeen Council Chambers — something that has been allowed since 2016.
Longtime Killeen resident and former mayoral and council candidate Patsy Bracey had requested the controversial issue be put on the agenda so she could discuss it before the council, however, before she got up to speak, Bracey said she was labeled a “violent communist.” Still, Bracey did speak at that Nov. 28 meeting, and made reference to high tensions at council meetings this year and “anger that could invoke the misuse of our arms in the chamber.”
Guns are not the only things being noticed by residents and city staff at recent meetings. Many watching the council meeting on live TV Tuesday were met with an obscene gesture delivered by a man in a Christmas elf hat.
Resident Camron Cochran, complete with a stack of magazines and newspapers, flipped off the council last meeting with a middle finger while his face was partially covered by the reading material, a move which he said was intentional. This, eventually, forced the cameras to change angles to avoid showing audiences at home the obscene gesture. At the Nov. 28 meeting, Cochran was ordered removed by the mayor for disrupting the meeting by shouting at the council.
While the last two meetings have had an unusual amount of visible guns, disruptions and removals, the “attacks” on the council and city manager have escalated to unacceptable levels in recent months, according to Killeen Mayor Debbie Nash-King, who recently spearheaded a move to reign the citizens’ comments in before they got too out of control.
That move, approved by the council Nov. 28, did away with “citizens petitions” — a way for residents to voice a concern or topic not otherwise being discussed by the council during a meeting. Instead, residents now have two “citizens comments” portions on the meetings: One near the beginning of the meeting that limits comments to items published on that meeting’s agenda; and one at the end of the meeting that can be on any topic related to the city.
City officials hope the compromise will allow more city business to be conducted without things getting bogged down with repetitive and often misinformed complaints from a small group perennial council critics.
Because, as Segarra told the Herald, the City Council had spent hours on agenda items brought up through citizens’ petitions which were never even supposed to be discussed by the council.
Tuesday was the first time that the City Council had implemented its changes in how the citizens’ comments functioned.
City Manager Kent Cagle has been the subject of citizens’ petitions which led to some of the most raucous reactions at the City Council. He believes the revamping of citizens’ comments was a step in the right direction, but it won’t stop the negativity.
“I think it worked OK; it’s still a bit of a work in progress,” Cagle said.
The citizen comments are now limited to four minutes with items on the agenda being discussed in the beginning of the meeting; and three minutes for non-agenda items at the end of the meeting.
“And it was a little different … because of the executive session, but I think it was an improvement,” Cagle said, referring to Tuesday’s meeting, which included an executive session — a break in the meeting where the council went behind closed doors to discuss the evaluation of his job as city manager.
But these changes are primarily so they don’t serve as a distraction to the City Council conducting city business. Cagle doesn’t expect they will curb the negativity at the council meetings.
“I don’t think its going to change that,” Cagle said.
Councilman Joseph Solomon, who wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting but said he watched a lot of it on video, said it was “sad” that people were escorted out of the meeting.
“To me, the only word I have is that it’s sad,” Solomon said. “It’s a sad thing that we have to deal with it, and the citizens shouldn’t have to turn on and watch City Council and come to City Council meetings and endure — they come to listen to the business of the city.”
Added Solomon: “For people to come down and put on such a show of distraction is just sad.”
However, for the five or six regular critics of the council, they say the City Council regularly ignores them.
Resident and constant council critic Michael Fornino was quick to point out that Mayor Pro Tem Nina Cobb was eating while he was making a citizens’ comment at the end of a long meeting Tuesday.
Whether residents agree or don’t agree with Fornino’s abrasive and insulting manner, the optics of eating on the dais while residents are presumably trying to express their concerns may not be good.
When asked by the Herald whether or not the City Council meetings might see some positive change in its discourse, this is what Nash-King said.
“The council voted to move the non-agenda comments to the end of the meeting, allowing the council to conduct city business at the beginning of the meeting without disruptions. Also, residents who are in attendance for only agenda items can leave the meeting after city business has been discussed,” Nash-King wrote in an email, explaining the new policy.
“I think it’s a win-win for the council, the residents and attendants and also the five to six residents who always speak on non-agenda items,” Nash-King said in a follow-up phone call, explaining that this allows the City Council to conduct its city business in a timely manner so that people who came to the meeting specifically for that can leave early.
“And the individuals who speak on a regular basis on non-agenda items who attack the council can continue their hostile behavior,” she said.
There has been a noticeable increase in the amount of police presence at City Council meetings in the past two years.
Last month, Killeen Housing Authority Commissioner Bruce Whiteside was threatened outside of a council meeting after he accused — without naming — a former council member of harassing him. This event led to a brief verbal altercation, but it could’ve been much worse.
The council also supposedly has a “sergeant at arms” who works at the council meetings, but it is unclear who that is and what he or she does.
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