Frank Castiglia Jr.: Suppression

To the Editor:

Suppression! “the act of preventing something from being seen or expressed”

“First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

The Fulton City Common Council is performing an act of Suppression of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

How you might ask?

During its regular Common council meetings, they limit the amount of time any individual has to express their concerns.
They hold a time clock limiting each person to a time limit. The alarm goes off when they have reached their time limit. They also limit the time period for Public comment to just 30 minutes.

This is a suppression of each citizen of the United States of Americas’ right to the freedom of speech.

During a meeting in March a request was made to expand the time limit to up to five minutes during a regular meeting and up to 10 minutes during a public hearing.

That request was turned down. One of the Common Councilors made a statement “When the County gives 5 minutes, we will give 5 minutes and you can tell Frank I said so” The fact that the County legislature allows any person that wants to speak on resolutions of the day 5 minutes at the beginning of the meeting and again given 5 minutes at the end of the meeting on any subject. This information was given during the May 4th meeting.

During the May 4th Common Council meeting a request was made to have the time limit again be removed and voted on by the Council during that meeting.

During that meeting the attendees were asked to raise their hands if they would like to see the time limit removed and a limit of 5 minute replace the 3 minutes.

A majority of the attendees raised their hands in support of a yes vote on the motion that night.
During that meeting the Mayor stated that they couldn’t vote on it that night but she would put it on the agenda for the next meeting.

I would ask any and all that would like to see a removal of a time limit for public comment attend the next Common council meeting and see how your Common Councilor votes.

Come and stand tall to demand your 1st Amendment rights not be suppressed.
Call your Common Councilor and let him know that you want your 1st Amendment rights protected.

Frank Castiglia Jr.

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