Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson confirmed this week he will ask the Board of Trustees to suspend the public’s ability to comment at its meetings, starting at its next meeting. One trustee came out against it.

“I will not vote to eliminate public comment at village board meetings,” Christine Cruz-Keefe stated to begin Monday’s trustees workshop. If village citizens’ “preferred method is to come to the board meetings and address in person, they should have that option.”

Cruz-Keefe then addressed the shenanigans that occurred after last week’s trustees meeting. Audience members got into verbal and physical confrontations, though no criminal charges have been filed.

“The actions of some in attendance at the last meeting were unacceptable,” she said. “If my students behaved that way, they would face consequences for their actions. I occasionally need to remind my 12- and 13-year-old students to keep their hands, feet, and objects to themselves, and to refrain from using foul language. Those rules should go without saying in a room full of adults.”

She noted Fredonia High School students attended the last meeting to get credit for a class. “I was signing their forms and a scuffle broke out behind them, they became frightened. They were afraid to leave the room. I looked at the students and apologized for what they had to witness, saying, ‘I’m so sorry. Adults should not behave this way.'”

Cruz-Keefe asked, “Do you think they left the meeting with a positive impression of local government? Do you think they have faith in the adults in charge of things?”

She asked those who attend the meetings to “Be respectful. Even with people whose opinions differ with them. We need to have decorum at these meetings in order to work through our problems in a civil manner, and hopefully reach some solutions.”

Ferguson responded to Cruz-Keefe later in the workshop. The mayor said he “agreed” with her — but evidently just her callout of bad behavior.

“I thank you for bringing it up, but it’s also my job to make sure that people are safe,” the mayor said. “When I see students trembling, when I see people getting angry and pushing and poking each other and getting out of control, and seeing our board upset, it’s difficult for me to maintain composure.”

Ferguson advocated a temporary suspension of public commenting sessions at Fredonia government meetings “until cooler heads prevail.” He stated, “We are always available, by email or phone. … I am always willing to listen to anybody who comes to my office.”

The mayor turned to personal comments about the effect of Fredonia’s era of bad feelings.

He declared that he installed three cameras at his house because at “3 o’ clock in the morning a month ago, someone was banging on my window the night after the meeting, on my back patio door. I partially got them on camera. Scared my wife.”

Ferguson concluded, “We need to take temporary, if not permanent action, to protect the people who come into this room, and to protect the people who are sitting in this dais.”

At one point in the workshop, Trustee Jon Espersen said that he supported the suspension of the comments. Although Ferguson has told the OBSERVER he is advocating for trustees to do it, Espersen said it was his own idea.

“When we have residents being threatened at a meeting, and trustees coming to the point of tears, and students in the room that are afraid to leave the room, I think that rises to the level of public safety,” Espersen said. “Who’s going to want to come to a meeting not feeling safe? Who’s going to want to be in attendance, if they think they may get threatened if they say something a group doesn’t agree with? And that scares me.”

“I don’t know what was said to precipitate all of that. I just saw the pushing and shoving,” Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony said of last week’s post-meeting action. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t like it. That should never happen.”

Lazarony has expressed skepticism about suspending the comments, but did not say anything along those lines Monday.

“If that was me, if that was my wife, there would be a restraining order,” Espersen said about an incident last week where one woman allegedly shoved another female, then was confronted by the shoving victim’s husband. “There would be legal action going forward. If they choose not to do that, that’s their choice.”

No vote was held at the workshop on suspending the public comments. It is likely to be on the agenda for next Tuesday’s meeting. The meeting is moved from Monday due to Memorial Day,