Park City parent Alisha Gorder said she went to Tuesday’s board meeting to share her concerns about compensation packages for district leaders.
She said she registered to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting, following the district’s required procedure.
But she said the board skipped her during the time set aside for public comment.
“I was the first person to sign up today, and my request to speak in public comment was actually taken off the table,” she said.
Gorder had written on her public comment registration document that she wanted to discuss a recent Park Record article questioning the compensation of a few school district administrators.
Board President Andrew Caplan said Gorder was not recognized to speak because he believed the comments she wanted to make were about personnel.
According to the district's policy, the public comment period is “not the place to address a personnel matter or a complaint.”
But Gorder said she wanted to comment on other district matters as well.
“When I saw we passed public comment in the agenda, I went up and asked if I was going to actually get a chance to speak,” Gorder said.
Gorder agreed not to comment on personnel and was given three minutes, per district policy, for public comment toward the end of the meeting.
She said she was worried the district was wasting taxpayer dollars. Gorder also said it was inappropriate for Caplan to have made “disparaging” remarks during the meeting about Michelle Deininger, former KPCW news director, who wrote The Park Record article.
Caplan interrupted Gorder to say the article was inaccurate.
“I have no comment, but the district will be responding in kind to the Park Record for the inaccuracies that were in that article,” Caplan said.
“It's unclear to me that they're inaccurate because they were …” Gorder said.
“They are, and you know what, this is what I’ll say: we live in a small community. Welcome. You've been here three years, that's wonderful. We’ve been serving this community, you know, Mr. Tanner has been serving in this community for over five years,” Caplan started to say.
“I'm 52 years old. I've lived in and served in other communities,” Gorder said.
“OK, that’s wonderful,” Caplan said.
“I respect you, but I disagree,” Gorder said. “May I speak? I thought this was public comment.”
“No, your time is over, thank you very much,” Caplan said.
“No, this is not how it works,” Gorder said.
During their exchange, the timer went off, indicating Gorder’s three minutes for public comment had ended. However, Gorder continued, saying she was not given her full time because Caplan had cut her off.
“You are out of line, please leave,” Caplan said. “You have three minutes, your three minutes is up.”
“No I’m not, this is my right and you keep interrupting me,” Gorder said.
Gorder and Caplan continued to talk over each other until Gorder was escorted out of the meeting by a district employee.
Outside the meeting, Gorder told KPCW she was upset she wasn’t allowed the full three minutes to comment.
“Typically during public comment, every speaker is given three uninterrupted minutes to speak, and there isn't any back and forth, because they want the meeting to flow very smoothly, which is what we all want.”
According to district policy, speakers are limited to three minutes to make their statements. District policy also states “public comment shall not be a time for board members to answer questions posed to them from a speaker or comment on a speaker’s concerns.”
However, board members are allowed to “interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant's statement when the statement is too lengthy, personally directed, abusive, obscene or irrelevant.”
Caplan, board Vice President Wendy Crossland and board member Anne Peters did not run for reelection in November. Voters chose Susan Goldberg, Eileen Gallagher and Kathleen Britton to replace them in January.
Mike Tanner, the district’s COO, declined KPCW’s request for comment at the meeting Tuesday.
