Exclusive: New Milford Mayor Pete Bass responds to controversy over comments
Calls for civility from a July town council meeting were recently posted on social media, drawing criticism of first amendment violations.
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New Milford Mayor Peter Bass is speaking with News 12 about the controversy surrounding comments he made at the July 13 town council meeting.
Calling for civility, Bass told people in attendance, "There is to be absolutely no heckling, absolutely no applauding, absolutely no eyes rolling. I will ask you to leave," before adding, "Eye rolling and grimacing can be non-verbal forms of heckling and also have no place in communities that value mutual respect, so I'm putting everyone on notice... we will not tolerate it."
At the next meeting on July 27, multiple speakers pushed back on the comments.
"All of our residents should be concerned about this authoritarian directive," said one of the many speakers who raised First Amendment freedom of speech concerns, with another calling the mayor's comments "an autocratic attempt to prevent speech that he finds to be uncomfortable."
While Mayor Bass addressed the comments then, they were given new life nearly two months later, when the clip was shared on Reddit, immediately getting hundreds of comments with similar concerns.
"As we're going into a new election cycle, there's some people that want to make political fodder out of anything," Bass told News 12. "This was just something that I had stated to make sure that everyone had an opportunity to feel in a safe manner to address the Town Council."
While a source with the council says there have been issues with civility in meetings, members are concerned that these comments may have gone too far.
"We just wanted to make sure that anybody that wants to come talk to the council isn't prohibited by the thought of maybe someone else either heckling them, berating them, in some way making them hesitant to talk to the council."
Bass says even small gestures — like eye rolling — can be intimidating to some people who may want to speak.
"Whether you agree with what's on an agenda, or you disagree, you should freely be able to come up and talk," he continued. "If you know that your gestures or your comments are really going to affect someone that may want to come up and talk to the Town Council, then you're kind of infringing on that person's thoughts and wanting to talk."
Still, some people commenting said they would now be coming to the next Town Council meeting, with the plan of rolling their eyes the whole time.
"If people do come, that's their absolute right. If they want to roll their eyes or whatever at me, that's fine," Bass said.
He tells News 12 if that does happen, he will not have anybody kicked out.
"Looking at it optimistically, I think this brought a lot of attention to decorum, which is needed," he said.
