Went to Federal Way City Council meeting to say that Councilmember Moore was obviously not “trying to get minors to DM him” and Councilmember Hamilton was spreading false info. Got booed by some Karens and called out of order by the Mayor.

My public comment is at this timestamp:
https://youtu.be/HdjmiXaP4Uc?t=3150

Backstory: On February 10th, the Federal Way City Council voted to remove their council President, Martin Moore, supposedly because of Facebook posts that he had made supporting student anti-I.C.E. walkouts. Their stated reasons were that (1) he wasn’t supposed to use the Council President account to advance partisan politics; and (2) they claimed that when he wrote “If you would like to join, PM me”, that was aimed at students (in context, it seemed like the message was aimed at adults in the community, but we’ll get to that).

On February 13th, one of the City Council members, Melissa Hamilton, called in to the right-wing Ari Hoffman Show making the accusation that the ousted president Moore had been encouraging minors to DM him. So tonight, I clipped that portion of the show and brought it to the Council meeting, and played that 30-second segment at the microphone.

After playing that clip from the show, I read the post that Moore had actually made:

“Our young people are clearly feeling fear and uncertainty, and that is heartbreaking. I am proud of them for using their voices, and I stand with them. If you’d like to join them, please PM me.”

I said that this statement by Moore was obviously aimed at adults in the community — especially the phrasing “If **YOU’D** like to join **THEM**” implies the “them” [the students] is not who he’s talking to. (Most student walkouts are accompanied by some adults from the community.) And so it was wildly inflammatory and wrong for Hamilton to be accusing Moore of trying to get kids to PM him.

Meanwhile, apparently a right-wing group called “Stand Up Federal Way” had packed the meeting tonight and they were the ones who kept booing while I was talking.

Several times the Mayor said I was out of order for mentioning the two Council members by name. The Federal Way City Council rules at

https://www.federalwaywa.gov/sites/default/files/Documents/Department/CK/Council%20Rules%20of%20Procedure%20(03152022%20hyperlinked).pdf.pdf)

say: “All remarks will be addressed to the Council as a whole, and not to individuals such as City staff members, Council Members or the Mayor.” OK — but that just says you cannot talk directly *to* a councilmember from the podium, but it doesn’t say you cannot discuss the actions of a specific person. (I would argue that to interpret it that way would be unconstitutional. Telling people they can’t talk directly *to* a councilmember is a “time, place, and manner” restriction, which is generally legal in the U.S.; telling people they can’t talk *about* a councilmember is a content-based restriction, which has to meet a much higher bar under the First Amendment.)

At the end of the video the Mayor even says, “If you have a comment about a particular councilmember, just say ‘A councilmember’. We’re smart enough to figure it out.” That’s… weird. I’ve been to City Council meetings in multiple cities and never heard any of them trying to adopt that as a rule. It would make it confusing for people to follow the meetings who don’t know the backstory of every issue if you can’t use names, and for what purpose? Because the council members’ feelings are hurt if you mention them by name? You should of course enforce rules of order and good manners. But you should be allowed to present truthful information about what a specific councilmember said, and use their actual names.