The Washburn County Board is reviewing its policy on public comment and decorum at open meetings, as discussed at the board’s Tuesday, June 17 meeting.
The discussion was covered in detail in the June 26, 2025 issue of The Spooner Advocate. According to the story:
In 2024, the board revised its policy on public comments and decorum at open meetings, including a chair statement to be read before meetings, a sheet requiring people to sign up to speak before the meeting starts (stating their full name and city or town of residence), a time limit of three minutes to speak unless a board supervisor sponsors them for more time and that everyone conduct themselves in a manner that doesn’t resort to shouting or personal attacks.
On June 17, an amendment to the chair statement came before the board with suggestions for changes.Before discussion, during public comment, two people spoke regarding the policy. John Ripley of the Town of Bashaw said the board put a policy into place that violates First Amendment rights.
Brian Melton of the Town of Evergreen said he resigned from his supervisory position on the board because of the policy. “I have grown to have no confidence in Washburn County leadership,” he said.
Melton said parts of the policy need to be changed. “You need to stop violating people’s rights,” he said. “You guys all know what the problem is, so fix it.”
During discussion, the matter of the time limit came up, and Chair Tim Kessler said the board could not limit time to more than one sponsorship of three minutes. If the speaker uses up the second three minutes, a different supervisor can sponsor them to speak.
First Vice Chair Dave Wilson said Wisconsin Counties Association guidance says they should change “shall” to “should” in three different areas of the amendment. He said by changing those words, the WCA said discretion can be put back in the chair’s hands.
Commenting on the time limit, Supervisor Stephen Smith said a lot of times, people say the same things over and over again during public comment. “It gets boring,” he said. “Three minutes gets to be an awful long time.”
The board unanimously approved the suggested changes and sent it back to the Executive Committee for more discussion with the county’s Corporation Counsel.
