This is America and you are free to speak, but is there a time limit on that freedom?
Kauai is apparently looking into the question of when government can get you to shut up.
At issue on Kauai is a long-standing County Council rule and how it is being enforced. For now it has Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura standing in
protest — literally.
An Oct. 4 Garden Island newspaper report explains that Council Chairman Mel Rapozo is strictly enforcing a 35-year-old rule that says Council members have five minutes to speak on each item on the Council agenda. Also, they cannot speak more than twice on the same subject.
At two different meetings last month, Yukimura was forbidden from speaking more than five minutes, so she got out of her chair and simply stood in silent protest.
“We have time limits, and JoAnn constantly tries to challenge the time limits,” Rapozo said in an interview.
“She said she had important things to say. I told her I am not going to recognize her for a third time. So she stood up and now she is doing it all the time,” Rapozo explained.
Yukimura did not respond to requests to comment.
Rapozo said Yukimura’s motivation is political and tied to her poor showing in the primary election, where she came in eighth in a 16-person race. In the general election, the top seven will get Council seats.
“She is trying to paint herself as a victim, but everybody plays by the same rules,” Rapozo said.
According to the Kauai newspaper report, Yukimura said she thinks Rapozo is using the speaking time limit “to stop speech he disagrees with.”
Rapozo disagreed, saying he didn’t even remember the issue that Yukimura wanted to discuss.
The problem, he said, was that Council members were using their speaking time to get free publicity because the meetings are broadcast on community television.
“We are not letting Council members grandstand because it is broadcast on TV,” said Rapozo.
Rapozo, who is finishing his first term as Council chairman, said he will stand for reelection and cites as one of his accomplishments restoring “decorum to the Council meetings.”
“In the past, the Council chairs have been very flexible to that rule,” Rapozo said, adding that because of his policy, Council staff overtime budgets have been reduced by two-thirds.
Three years ago, Rapozo also supported a Council rule that sought to stop Council members from questioning people who testified during Council meetings.
In 2015, Yukimura tried to get a Council witness to repeat her six-minute testimony and Rapozo refused. The ensuing rule battle featured a verbal duel between Rapozo and Yukimura, who insisted she wanted to write down what the witness was saying.
Then the chairman threatened to have Yukimura removed from the Council meeting, members of the audience were shouting at the Council and, according to the Garden Island report, Council members were shouting at each other.
That battle ended with Rapozo calling it “one of the most embarrassing days of my life.”
Of course, if both return to the Council, the description might have to be revised.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
