AURORA | City council is poised to change its decorum and public comment rules, including establishing a protocol for speakers who surpass the time limit, after months of conversations on how to facilitate heated meetings.

On July 13, the city council will review the proposed decorum changes during its study session. The proposed changes come from the City Council Rules Committee, which has been discussing the public comment process since March. 

The changes were prompted by the council meetings’ recent history of regular combativeness among council members and between public commenters and council members. 

Heated meetings peaked in 2024 and 2025 after police shot and killed Kilyn Lewis while he was being arrested in Aurora, culminating with a meeting where council members fled the council chambers because of raucous protesters. Council meetings were temporarily held virtually to avoid conflict, though they have returned to in-person. 

Due to First Amendment protections, the council is limited in how it can regulate public comment and can’t prohibit certain kinds of speech, like profanity or name calling, according to City Attorney Pete Schulte.

Instead, the decorum changes encourage council members to act as role models for respectful dialogue. In an effort to set the tone, the city attorney would read a decorum statement ahead of the public comment period. 

A major change would be implementing consequences for speakers who go over the city’s three minute comment limit. 

Under the proposed rules, if a speaker goes over their allotted time, the mayor will ask the speaker to wrap up and allow them a 10 second grace period. If the speaker continues past the grace period, the mayor will issue a final warning and if the speaker ignores the final warning then the mayor can ban the speaker from public comment at the next meeting. The ban would only last for one meeting.

The proposed protocol has been opposed by some members of the public, who previously questioned whether it’s right for the council to cut speakers off, especially those who may be grieving or emotional.

In addition to the decorum rules for public commenters, new language would set an expectation that council members and the mayor “conduct themselves professionally in their official capacities as elected representatives of the citizens of the city.” Council members would also be encouraged to attend meetings in person. 

New penalties are proposed for council members who don’t follow decorum. The rules currently only allow the council to enact a censure resolution against a member who violates the rules.

Proposed sanctions would allow council to enact a public admonishment, which would be posting the censure resolution publicly, as well as a public reprimand, which could require the council member to receive training or education on top of having the censure resolution posted. 

Other possible sanctions include the loss of the member’s travel and training budget, removal from committee chair positions and exclusion from executive sessions.

Procedural changes are suggested for meetings as well. They include:

• Dedicating a 30 minute initial public comment period for youth 18 and younger, in addition to the one hour initial public comment period for all ages
• Reducing the second public comment period at the end of the meeting to 30 minutes and limiting participation to people who haven’t spoken yet
• Moving council reports up to the beginning of the meeting before public comment and limiting them to three minutes
• Removing the restriction on only one person being allowed at the podium during public comments
• Requesting speakers to give their legal name, whether they’re a resident and what ward they live in
• Requiring meeting agendas to be posted five days in advance of the meeting
• Allowing more flexibility for scheduling study sessions 

Lastly, changes would prohibit the city from spending money to support or oppose ballot initiatives and adjust rules for council travel budgets.

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