Shawna Reichert showed up to Tuesday’s Guernsey Town Council meeting as she has for the past year, prepared to record the meeting from the same place she always sits in the audience.
After she found her seat, someone tapped her on the shoulder, pointed and said, “Look over there.”
Across the room on a table with two empty chairs was a sign, black letters in all capitals on white paper: “RESERVED FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY DURING TOWN HALL MEETINGS."
The sign appeared two weeks after a proposed resolution to relegate people taking video and photos of town council meetings to a specific spot in the room failed to get a motion from the council.
That left residents wondering why there was a designated area for anyone with a camera at the town council meeting when a controversial resolution to do that failed to get any support two weeks prior.
“There were no announcements made about it or anything,” Reichert said, adding that doing it anyway “seemed petty to me.”
Councilwoman Penny Wells admits she placed the sign on the table.
No one else on the council, including the mayor, appeared to know anything about the new designated area until they saw it for themselves at Tuesday’s meeting.
Wells told Cowboy State Daily in a text message that “the sign was placed there to give anyone wishing to video or record at the meeting better access to the meeting.”
Reichert said it appears to her that Wells took it upon herself to implement a policy without communication or approval from the rest of the council.
“Public meeting procedures should come from lawful action of the governing body, not from individual preferences of elected officials, especially when the failed resolution itself raised constitutional concerns,” Reichert said in a social media statement.
The Dead Resolution
At its April 21 regular meeting, the Guernsey Town Council addressed a controversial resolution that would have banned people from recording and photographing meetings from the audience, instead establishing designated areas where people could take pictures and record.
Wells told Cowboy State Daily the resolution was an attempt to minimize disruptions during council meetings.
Reichert, a self-described “independent citizen journalist” who records the meetings and livestreams them on Facebook, said she believed the resolution was retaliatory and infringed on First Amendment rights.
The resolution died when it failed to receive a motion.
Guernsey Mayor Ed Delgado told Cowboy State Daily following that meeting that there were no further plans to proceed with the resolution.
“Nothing more is going to happen,” he said.
Council’s Response
Reichert told Cowboy State Daily the mayor seemed just as surprised as everyone else to see the sign on the table at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“It was obvious the mayor had no idea about it,” she said, “because when he walked in, he asked where it came from.”
That’s when Wells told him she had put it there, Reichert said, adding that, “the mayor just laughed about it.”
Delgado did not return Cowboy State Daily’s calls or email prior to publication.
Councilman Jeremiah Fields said he was not aware of the sign until he showed up to Tuesday’s meeting.
He said he believed Wells was “trying to poke the bear.”
“She’ll say she designated the spot so (those recording) can better hear everyone,” he said. “I think that’s just a copout. I think it’s retaliatory.”
Some council members have said that Reichert doesn’t just record, but that she narrates and talks for her video audience while recording and livestreaming, which can be a distraction during meetings.
Wells’ daughter, Melissa Howe, defended Reichert at the April 21 meeting, saying, “I frequently interrupt during the meetings, out of turn. I have a little frustration with the council. I do sometimes fill in and record the meetings."
Howe was escorted out of that meeting by Police Chief Jay Harrison after accusing councilman Joe Michaels for flip-flopping on the resolution and clapping when the resolution died.
Fields said he spoke with fellow council members and the mayor Tuesday about Wells’ decision to post the sign.
“I said, ‘Why is this here if the resolution died?’” Fields said.
He said Wells told him she had requested the sign, and nothing more was said about it.
Reichert said no one on the council said anything about the sign being there.
Wells did not respond to Cowboy State Daily’s questions via text message or email about whether the rest of the council was aware she intended to display the sign, whether the council supported her action, how the placement of the sign is connected to the dead resolution or how she believes the sign would benefit the council’s efforts.
Designated Area Remains Empty
The sign stayed put throughout the meeting, according to Reichert.
Reichert said she didn’t sit at the table designated for photography and videography and that she was never forced or asked to go there to record. She remained in the general audience area, where she commonly sits.
No one else sat at the table either, she said. Fields confirmed that the table remained empty.
Reichert said Wells’ action should concern Guernsey residents, regardless of political opinion.
“Individual councilmembers do not govern alone,” she said on her Guernsey Watch Facebook page. “They do not create policy independently or exercise authority outside actions approved by the full council during a properly noticed public meeting.”
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
