This was a statement made during the public comment section of the Milford City Council meeting on December 8, 2025.
I just have a general comment to both the citizens and the council. So, I’ve been to several city meetings, most of which have been over the past few months. I believe we have a true privilege to be present at these meetings and to be able to voice our opinions on the matters that are being considered at hand, and as each person does so, we also have an obligation to conduct ourselves appropriately and give the speaker our respectful attention. At the last Council meeting on November 24, I was actually embarrassed to be a Milfordian due to the way that some of our fellow townspeople conducted themselves as many of us sat quietly and listened.
All I could hear was the glaringly immature behavior from a certain group of individuals sitting near the rear of the room. Some were giving their play-by-play commentary of who is who, who they like, who they don’t like, pumping up the next person who was going to go speak to the cause, cheering and jeering, just as the city solicitor had expressly said not to do. People making untruthful statements here at this podium, somebody complaining he got 40 extra seconds. I should get 40 extra seconds. Things like that.
On more than one occasion, someone’s cell phone notification went off audibly. At one point, someone who was teeing up their little video to play during their time at the podium played that out loud while the meeting was going on. At one point, a gentleman even answered his cell phone to tell the caller more than once, “sorry, I’m gonna have to call you back later.” It felt more like sitting in the back of a middle school math class with the immature behavior on display than a professional business meeting.
Lastly, and probably most concerning to me was the woman on Zoom who interrupted the Councilwoman as she was leading the room in a moment of prayer to interject her criticism of the work that the council was trying to do. I was dumbfounded at the shameful and flippant behavior I witnessed and the blatant lack of respect and professionalism. And it was quite ironic, considering that some of these folks were present to complain that some of our appointed or elected officials can’t properly conduct a business meeting when they can’t even properly behave during one.
These are life changing and community shaping decisions being made at these meetings. And I encourage everyone to give these meetings the respect that they deserve. And unlike some, I’m not going to bring forth a criticism or concern without also bringing forth a solution. You know, if we have a potentially controversial or a large crowd for all type of topics, we need to maybe ask the chief to bring forth a uniformed officer to sit in the public area of the chambers, just as a reminder for people to conduct themselves appropriately.
I also encourage our officials that are conducting these meetings to properly enforce the respect of the meeting rules by silencing and or removing those who can’t behave like grown adults. Lastly, I would also suggest a large countdown timer. You can put one right up on the screen, and as soon as somebody starts speaking at the podium, soon as they open their mouth, start the timer so there’s no more accusations of he got X number of seconds more than me and those types of things. I just really believe that we as a town and as citizens, can do better.
Jennifer Feindt, Milford
