photo credit: Courtesy of KQED
Neo-Nazis have taken to hanging banners from overpasses, calling in to public meetings.

Next Tuesday, elected officials in Sebastopol are again scheduled to consider restricting public comment during council meetings to those physically present.

That's after a series of speakers at multiple recent meetings, joining via Zoom, voiced anti-Semitic conspiracies during public comment periods. 

Sebastopol Mayor Diana Rich said the city is being forced into a tough choice.

"Public engagement is super important to me. Reducing that opportunity at all is very troubling," Rich said.

In recent meetings, people have called in, denigrating Jewish people as both powerful billionaire puppet-masters and as ruthless revolutionary communists bent on destroying the nation, among other hate speech.

"It's amazing the nastiness that can come out of a human being's mouth, in three or four seconds," Rich told KRCB News.

Commenters appear to have studied up on state law regulating speech at public meetings, and using provisions requiring an initial warning to their advantage.

"Although I was vigilant and Mary Gourley, our assistant city manager was vigilant about immediately muting those people who stepped over the line, they were able to get out some very disturbing, offensive and honestly, most importantly in terms of what we legally can do, disruptive comments," Rich said.

Before the council are three options. Stop accepting public comment from people not in the hearing room, leave things as they are or develop some other solution.

Although Sebastopol is fairly compact, about two square miles according to Rich, ending remote public comment will have repercussions.

"There will be people, unfortunately, who will feel that they have less access, but I have had many people, not one, not two, say to me 'Diana, after attending that March 19th meeting, I'm not attending your meetings via zoom or in person, I can't suffer through what happened there, even though I understand that we're handling it in the best legal way we can," Rich said

Rich told KRCB News she favors a six month hiatus, but is receptive to whatever solution appears at Tuesday's meeting.