Public comments previously absent from San Luis, Arizona council meetings

SAN LUIS, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - For the last couple of San Luis, Arizona City Council meetings, the call to the public section was not a part of the agenda.

Some residents voiced how upset they were over this decision and reached out to News 11.

We spoke with the mayor who shares why this portion of the meeting was temporarily removed from the agenda.

About 10 residents walked into Wednesday night's council meeting with signs to tell the city council to put the call for comments back in the agenda.

A protestor said the city was violating their rights.

"It is a big deal. We are talking about our freedom of speech in any other city council. They have the call to the public, what is the difference between this city council and the others. We need our call to the public it’s our right and it's our freedom of speech," said Brian de la Hoya, a San Luis, Arizona resident.

The call to the public was reinstated later that night.

San Luis City Mayor Nieves Riedel says she made the decision to call off public comments, because in a past council meeting, one council member got into an argument with a resident during public comments and the discussion escalated.

"I needed a cool off time for some of this people in my council and the people from the outside," said Mayor Riedel.

Mayor Riedel said it was not going to be a permanent decision, but she was not going to tolerate any disrespectful conduct neither from any of the city staff nor the public.

"I will not allow a council member to attack a member of public neither will I allow a member of the public attack one of us personally," explained Mayor Riedel.

Mayor Riedel says she's working to have the call to public comments at the beginning of the council meeting from now on.