Council Eventually Reprimands Speaker for Potentially Slanderous Public Comments

In a rare move, Troy City Council voted unanimously Monday evening to strike one woman's public comment from all future airings of the , calling her comment potentially slanderous to individual residents whom the woman mentioned by name.

Wanda Munro* mentioned several individuals involved in the recall effort by name, calling them "losers" and "radicals" during her three-minute public comment. Meanwhile, Council did nothing to stop the woman from speaking before she had reached the three-minute time limit.

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Councilman Dane Slater was the first to request action be taken regarding Munro's comments during council's response to public comment nearly half an hour later.

"You shouldn't attack individual citizens," Slater said as Munro sat expressionless in the audience. "I should have said something earlier, and I didn't."

Slater promised to speak up in the future and asked Troy City Attorney Lori Grigg Bluhm what can be done when someone slanders individuals during public comment Monday evening.

Bluhm said Council had a few options for handling a potentially libelous public comment, including turning off the microphone, asking the individual to leave, or striking the comment from any future broadcasts of the meeting after it is over.

Several other council members, including Councilmen Wade Fleming, Dave Henderson, Jim Campbell and Doug Tietz, also spoke up against the comments and recognized Council's mistake in allowing such comments to be made without consequence.

"We need to realize that each of us bears a responsibility to speak up," Tietz said.

"Shame on us," Fleming said.

Mayor Janice Daniels, however, said she did not find the speaker's remarks to be "real rude."

"I didn't hear anything that rose to the level of removing the remarks from the rebroadcast," Daniels said.

Munro declined to speak with Patch after the meeting, though Linda Kajma, whom Munro mentioned by name and called a "loser" during her comments, said the insult just made her angry.

"I know I'm not a loser for doing the right thing," said Kajma, who also commented publicly during Monday's meeting. "People who do the right thing are not losers."

Recall Janice Daniels co-founder John Kulesz, whom Munro called "radical," agreed with Kajma.

"I'm offended," Kulesz said. "The people I've worked with and met through the recall, I consider friends. They're decent, honorable people. I don't care what they say about me, but to attack my friends is unacceptable."

To view the live chat replay of Monday's Troy City Council meeting, click here.

*We initially incorrectly spelled Ms. Munro's last name as "Monroe."