From 1994: Plea for Fairness Cut Short

This article is from 15 years ago today, published in the Hartford Courant on August 2, 1994. It was written by Bill Daley. 

Sid Libby's name is brought up at City Hall frequently today, especially when talk turns to gadflies or open meetings.  Libby was a retired shoe store owner, who was arrested over 25 times on disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing charges, for disrupting meetings at City Hall. He was particularly focused on the city's budget, and on exposing a vast conspiracy. In 1998, the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union supported Libby's fight against being banned from City Hall.  The attempts to quiet him largely backfired, as virtually every board and commission ended up having to defend itself at one time or another against Libby's complaints about open meetings and open records.  He won many of these, which were filed with the Freedom of Information Commission of the State.  

Libby ran for the State Legislature as a petitioning candidate in 1998, losing to Joe Serra.  He died in 2000.

The common council's five-minute speaking rule drew rebukes Monday, as minority contractors asked council members to think of their message, not its length, and a gadfly was dragged out of the council chamber in his chair for refusing to relinquish the microphone.

Council members passed the rule nearly two months ago; it has sparked a federal lawsuit by the first man arrested for disobeying it.

The ramifications of the rule became clear Monday night when three city men, describing themselves as the Middletown Brotherhood, complained minority contractors are still not getting their share of area projects.

A similar complaint was made before the council a year ago. The only result, said Hampton Watson Jr. of H.W. General Construction, was a minority contractor getting a small share of the state courthouse project.

"We send people to jobs, there's no response, no help," he said. "I raise the issue of favoritism, racism, whatever. We need someone in the city we can go to."

Watson's presentation, however, was interrupted by Corporation Counsel Domenique Thorton's now-ritual warning that he had only one minute left.

Thorton asked whether Watson could continue speaking for the entire group and therefore use the other men's time.

Minority Leader Joseph E. Milardo Jr. objected, saying such an interpretation could be open to abuse. Someone could represent 10 people and speak for 50 minutes, he said.

"We have to apply the rules in a fair manner," Milardo said.

Watson listened while Thorton, Milardo and Deputy Mayor Nancy Conaway-Raczka addressed the procedural issue. Then he spoke.

He said he had wondered whether the man fatally shot early Saturday morning on East Main Street, 30-year-old Jerold Bonner, might have been the same man asking him for a job two weeks ago.

"I think we're missing something as a whole," Watson said about the five-minute rule. "If I had work available for that young man who had nothing to do but get in trouble, he probably would be alive today."

The council seemed more concerned about two or three minutes than a man's life, Watson said. "We asked for help and now another life is gone. We need help," he said.

Majority Leader John Robinson began asking questions. Gerald Daley, a council member, started to ask about federal, state and local government policies for hiring minority contractors.

Milardo interrupted again.

"We can't do this, we're under a lawsuit," he said. "We're breaking the rules."

Conaway-Raczka, leading the meeting in place of the absent Mayor Thomas J. Serra, agreed with Milardo, although Daley got to make his remark.

"I can't believe it," said Earl White of E. White Construction Co. "You sit here and worry about some rule when we tell you a young man died a couple of nights ago. . . . All I'm hearing is rules."

White walked out of the chamber.

Sydney Libby got dragged out.

Libby, whose charges and accusations prompted the council to enact the five-minute rule in the first place, was removed by Patrolman William Clayton after Conaway-Raczka ruled him out of order.

Libby had launched into what seemed to be a criticism of Wheelabrator Environmental Systems Inc., the company building the Lisbon trash-to-energy plant. He read a newspaper clipping about Wheelabrator's parent company, and moved on to whether a meeting notice had been properly posted.

Libby refused to give up the speaker's seat when his time expired.

Libby, who was not arrested, returned later to the chamber. But when he spoke again, he was seated in a new speaker's chair, this one with wheels. He finished on time.