"But the old man would not stop"

This in from reporter Dan Abendschein:

Glendora mayor tries to silence gadfly and fails

During a contentious meeting over a proposed assisted-living senior development, Mayor Ken Herman took a bold and scary move (for those who like to get out of council meetings before midnight): he dropped the time limits on public comment, with the idea that each side would allow a single spokesperson to do most of the talking. It didn't work out that way, with many citizens getting up to heap abuse on the city for their perceived easy handling of the developers.

One speaker, an 84-year-old man was particularly thorny: he first called out Councilman Dick Tessitor and asked him how he would like the project in his neighborhood, then staggered over to a supporter of the project in the audience who had challenged its detractors to look a senior in the eye and tell him they were willing to reject a senior development. At that point, Herman repeatedly told the man to sit down and stop talking, since the clock wasn't going to force the worked-up speaker to stop talking.

But the old man would not stop. As Herman called the name of the next commenter to come to the podium, the speaker refused to stop talking. And eventually, since Herman was not about to get someone to drag an old man away from the podium, the mayor had to sit and listen to the octogenarian rant on. Eventually he winded down by telling the whole council it ought to resign.

You can watch it all here on the Glendora city web site, starting around 1:44:30