WILMINGTON — The Wilmington City Council’s public comment policy was the topic of discussion at Thursday’s meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, council member Matt Purkey told the council he had he thought about sending the public comment policy out for review from an individual firm unrelated to the city.

“There’s plenty of firms who handle municipal stuff that aren’t in-house. I wanted to make sure (City Law Director Brett Rudduck) was okay with it. I wanted to throw it out there to the committee before we made any changes,” said Purkey.

Council member Nick Eveland said he liked the idea and added further comments in regard to recent discussions.

“I don’t think it’s right that we limit the public comment period to items on our agenda. I think that totally defeats the purpose of the public comment section,” said Eveland, adding he liked other ideas discussed.

At the previous council meeting, the members had discussed the possibility of limiting public comments to being only about agenda items to go along with current guidelines. They also discussed the possibility of holding town halls.

These discussions have been taking place due to recent events at meetings where individuals made accusatory remarks about city officials and personnel. Some officials saw these as disruptive to conducting city business. At the April 20 meeting, two individuals were arrested for allegedly disrupting a public meeting after making comments in regard to outgoing Mayor John Stanforth.

During the public comment section, some audience members criticized the council in regard to the arrests.

Chris Hicks addressed the council saying, “First Amendment rights are under attack nationally, but on April 20 I think they were under attack here.”

Hicks went on to say that the council and the police weaponized the government against the two who were arrested.

“Mr. Mayor, why didn’t you speak up then as an American and say ‘I disagree what they say?’ Do not arrest them, let them speak,” Hicks asked Stanforth.

He criticized the officials and personnel for the arrest and for “sitting on their hands.” He felt the charges should be dropped and an apology was in order.

Greg Pitzer gave similar remarks criticizing the arrest and also questioned why officials “sat on their hands” while it was happening.

Eveland mentioned that some of the comments made at meetings involved current litigation involving the city. He indicated that council wouldn’t be able to make comments about these topics.

Both Hicks and Pitzer told Rudduck that he should’ve stepped in and done something to stop it.

Rudduck advised that in regard to the arrest, he couldn’t be involved with the case due to personnel conflicts with the individuals. He advised they brought in outside legal counsel to address the situation.

No further changes were made to the public comment section during the meeting.

Also during council:

• The council approved a resolution authorizing Safety/Service Director Brian Shidaker to seek bids for the second phase of the Davids Drive reconstruction project. Shidaker told the council they plan on “moving quickly” with bids opening on June 16 and the construction starting this summer.

Reach John Hamilton at 937-382-2574