Testing the limits of decorum and free speech

Alameda City Council faced yet another profanity-laced diatribe. However, this time the police were called in

☕️MORNING BUZZ

—Just minutes into Tuesday night’s Alameda City Council meeting, Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashraft delivered her well-worn spiel about personal conduct inside the chambers.

“It is not theater. It is not a sporting event,” Ashcraft said. “There’s no applause. No cheers, jeers. We don’t do ‘The Wave.”

However, this time the directions included the reading of the California Penal Code prohibiting the willful interruption of public meetings.

Later, Tod Hickman, a co-owner of Building 43 Winery at Alameda Point, shouted at Ashcraft from the gallery after she directed two people holding signs to stand on the perimeter of the seating area. Ashcraft then issued Hickman a warning.

When called upon to speak, Hickman launched a profanity-laced, name-calling speech that excoriated Ashcraft, the city attorney, and to a lesser extent other city officials.

“Mayor Ashcraft is full of shit with her free speech analysis,” Hickman said from the council lectern.

During a second comment, Hickman referenced a photo of Ashcraft posing with Andy Duong, one of the individuals in Oakland indicted last month for alleged public corruption. Hickman has displayed the photo several times in the past while addressing the council.

He alleged Ashcraft’s part in the FBI’s investigation. There is no evidence the FBI’s probe is focused on Ashcraft or Alameda City Hall.

—When Hickman continued to shout down the mayor at the conclusion of his allotted speaking time, Ashcraft called on police to remove him from the chambers.

Alameda Police Chief Nishant Joshi later said Hickman was given a warning, but was allowed to remain inside chambers with the understanding that he not interrupt the meeting again.

Hickman’s vitriolic public comments have gone on for about a year. The impetus appears to be long-running lease negotiations between Building 43 and the city. On Tuesday night, Hickman suggested the city is proposing to double the lease for Building 43.

—Hickman has been pushing the boundaries of public decorum for sometime. Two weeks ago, he offered a similarly furious rant inside the council chambers, raising questions about the limits of free speech.

Former Alameda Councilmember Trish Herrera Spencer, a long-time rival to Ashcraft, believes she is targeting Hickman.

Spencer said the reading of the Penal Code by Ashcraft on Tuesday “is intended to deny and inappropriately deny the free exercise of our rights as members of the public to speak at public meetings.” Spencer said under the First Amendment, Ashcraft “does not have the authority to intentionally chill that speech.”

—More inside:

• The cost of the county’s park in-lieu fees fiasco continues to rise

• Because Hayward USD is strapped for cash, it can’t sell Measure I bonds on its own.

• Fremont moved forward with local issues policy; councilmember again slashes at progressives.

• Kent Myers, San Leandro councilmember in the 90s, dies

• Oakland special election campaign finance data for Wednesday.

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