I.F. City Council temporarily suspends public comment at council meetings following ranting phone call
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IDAHO FALLS — The Idaho Falls City Council temporarily suspended verbal public comment after a man gave disparaging remarks in a ranting phone call.
During Monday’s city council work session, the council voted not to allow general public comments on the city council agenda through Feb. 22. The vote came after City Councilman John Radford expressed concern about a comment given over the phone during a Jan. 13 city council meeting originally streamed live on EastIdahoNews.com.
“We’re going to be in discussions over the next few weeks about how to deal with public comment in a way that’s amenable to everyone,” Radford said during the meeting. “I think in the meantime it would make sense to suspend that public comment until we find a solution.”
The Jan. 13 comments were directed towards Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson who was present when the remarks were made. Johnson addressed the council on Jan. 13 following the disgruntled man’s remarks. The chief refuted the remarks, said the man has made threats against him and his family for a number of years, and this was the first time he had been given a public platform to do it.
EastIdahoNews.com removed the man’s public comment from our live stream of the event, as the outlandish and out-of-state claims appear to be false accusations about the chief. EastIdahoNews.com has had multiple interactions with the disgruntled caller since Johnson became chief in 2017.
“The mayor and council very much value public input,” Idaho Falls city spokesman Bud Cranor said. “I just think they just want to take some time to make sure we can have that public input in a respectful and productive manner.”
The suspension of public comment only covers two city council meetings before the city council will vote on amended procedures for people to give verbal input at the meetings. The council expects to review the changes over the next couple of meetings before a vote at the regularly scheduled Feb. 24 city council meeting.
The city council is still accepting emails from residents.
City Councilman Jim Freeman is the only city council member to vote no to suspending public comment at the city council meetings.