Staff writer
A resident whose comments two weeks ago during a county commission meeting drew a warning from county counsel Brad Jantz told commissioners Monday that her intention was to raise the issue of the county’s poor road conditions.
“I guess my intent was not about employee performance,” Linda Peters said.
Jantz said that the public has a right to make comments, but the behavior of one employee is not appropriate for public comment during open meeting.
Sometimes it starts out comment on county business, then degrades into personal comments, he said.
“That’s when it needs to be addressed in executive session,” he said.
Commissioner Dianne Novak said she thinks criticism from the public is more effective than criticism from her.
Peters said had a concern that she needed to address and she was sorry if she took it the wrong direction.
Jantz said people have a right to free speech, “but then you have something called slander.”
Jantz said he’d gotten a copy of Peters’ comments to the commission and that they had “walked the line.”