Recently, the Adrian City Commission started enforcing a policy that anyone who wants to speak during the public comment period of meetings must state their home address. While we don’t believe there’s any ill intent behind this rule, it unfortunately has a chilling effect on citizens’ willingness to exercise their rights and engage with their government in a public forum.

There are plenty of reasons a person might not want to state their home address out loud in a room full of people — particularly when their comments will also be posted on YouTube. 

Human services workers, police officers, prison guards — all of these people have a right to interact with their government in their capacity as private citizens, and all of them have good reasons to not want to broadcast their home addresses in public. And with hate crimes on the rise nationwide, members of minority groups may have similar reluctance. 

Already, one resident has started to speak at a meeting and then chosen not to because of this rule being enforced. There are sure to be others.

Kudos to Commissioner Bob Behnke for giving voice to these concerns at the commission’s Feb. 5 meeting. We hope other commissioners will join him and reconsider this policy.