The County of Essex may soon have a formal policy governing how the public should behave in municipal facilities after a tumultuous meeting last month where protesters shouted obscenities and threatened county councillors.
There has been a code of conduct for council members and county staff since 1993. Three new policies outline what is expected of the public when they visit county facilities and what will happen if policies are violated.
Councillors had expected to hear public input on the county's new official plan on April 5. They did not expect to hear from 200 people angry about the 15-Minute City Initiative.
(Screenshot from recording of April 5, 2023 Essex County Council Meeting)
The urban planning concept preaches the virtues of having amenities within a 15-minute walk of a resident's home. Bizarrely, conspiracy theorists believe residents will no longer be allowed to travel beyond their neighbourhoods.
As the environment heated up, councillors agreed to adjourn the meeting Meetings have been held virtually since.
"It was very frightening to be in that building with people yelling and screaming and saying, 'We're going to get them,'" said Warden Hilda MacDonald. "If you look at some of the posts on social media of what they're going to do to people, we need to have this."
MacDonald said administrative staff has attempted to balance the rights of the public to participate in their democracy while keeping council members, staff, and other visitors at the Essex Civic Centre safe.
"Yelling and screaming does not promote or facilitate the democratic process. In fact, it holds it up," said MacDonald.
MacDonald admitted she would never have expected the need for formal policies to protect council members and staff from their constituents three years ago. She said since then, she has received death threats.
"When we put our names forward to run for election, we did not put our lives on the line. That has never been part of the election spectrum," she said. "No one signs for that. We sign up to make our communities a better place."
The policies up for debate Wednesday night are the Visitor Policy, the Public Conduct Policy and the Trespass to Property Policy.
Under the Visitor Policy, those who go to a county facility, like the Essex Civic Centre, would sign in, receive a visitor badge, and be expected to follow the public code of conduct.
The Public Code of Conduct defines unacceptable behaviours, including making repeated and unreasonable requests, shouting obscenities, disrupting public meetings, and making threats. It also prohibits a long list of weapons like firearms, stun guns, ice picks, knives, chains, crowbars, pepper spray, and explosives.
If the first two policies are violated, the county could ban a visitor from county properties under the Trespass to Property policy.
"They're really common courtesy," MacDonald said.
The public can comment on the new policies if they file to be a delegate at the county meeting.
