Campbell Co. commissioners restore public comment

GILLETTE — After a months-long absence, public comment is back on the agenda at the Campbell County Commission meetings.
Tuesday, the commissioners voted unanimously to bring it back.
“It’s crucial for us to listen to public comment,” said Commission Chairman Del Shelstad.
On Oct. 19, the commission suspended public comment after having heard hours of comments from residents about the library, in particular with the teen and children’s sections containing books that deal with sex and LGBTQ+ issues. That vote went 3-2, with Shelstad and Commissioner Colleen Faber voting in favor of public comment.
Commissioner Bob Maul, who was chairman when public comment was removed, said he made that decision because of the anger and rudeness that was going on.
“There’s a fine line between getting your point across and being rude in getting your point across,” Shelstad said. “I don’t know what that is, I just ask you to respect it.”
Commissioner Rusty Bell said that as the chairman, Shelstad can run the meeting as he sees fit, and that he would support the chairman’s decision.
The commission also adopted an amended public comment protocol. It had been in place for a few years but wasn’t being used last summer.
The protocol has seven elements, including one that says, “Anger, rudeness, ridicule, obscene or profane language, impatience, lack of respect for others and personal attacks are not acceptable.”
There won’t be a time limit on public comments, which will be taken at the end of commission meetings.
“It allows us to get our business done, get those people back to their desks, back to whatever their job is, instead of listening to, in some cases, hours of public comment,” Shelstad said.
He reiterated the importance of being respectful instead of rude.
“Please just be respectful. This should not be an issue going forward,” Shelstad said. "Everybody should be able to respect the rights and wishes of others, and if we do that, we’ll have public comment forever as far as I’m concerned.”
Six people spoke Tuesday, mostly about the library issue, and some of them gave a brief overview of what’s transpired over the last eight months.
In June 2020, “we were alerted they were having a pride month. This is a small, conservative town, I don’t think that’s fitting here,” Susan Sisti said.
Since then, they’ve filed a number of book challenges with the library board, most of which have been unsuccessful.
Priscilla Hixson said the teen section has a lot more “dark” books than the adult section, and that it’s not very inspiring.
“I’d like to see our children inspired to lift themselves up, to have great goals,” she said.
Kevin Bennett said it’s never been the group’s intention to come across as rude.
He once again asked that the “questionable materials” in the children and teen sections be moved to the adult section, and that the people who put those books there in the first place be dealt with.
“We can’t stop until our children are protected,” he said.
He added that while the group has been accused of wanting censorship, library director Terri Lesley “exulted in (the commissioners) stopping our ability to comment.”
Sisti asked that the library stop using the American Library Association, which is “far left radical, their speakers are from foreign countries and are so much into perversion, it would shock normal people.”
Bennett said the reason they went to the commissioners first, instead of the library board, was that “we knew those in leadership at the library weren’t playing square with us. They had an agenda.”
“The agenda was using the policy as a bulwark against change they did not like,” he said. “Then the library changed the rules when we used the rules, playing their game. It’s a little bit unfair.”
“We don’t want to be here,” Susan Sisti said. “I don’t hate the library, we love them, but we just cannot tolerate the sexual indoctrination of our most precious young people.”
 
This story was published on Feb. 16.