Some call foul after comments turned off for Cheyenne City Council livestreams

Cheyenne’s mayor has turned off comments on City Council meetings livestreamed on the city’s Facebook page. Some say that’s an overreaction to criticism, while the mayor says many comments were reckless, threatening and out of hand.

For the first time since the Cheyenne City Council started livestreaming its council meetings on Facebook several years ago, the ability for people to comment on the platform’s livestreams has been disabled. Council member Jeff White said the decision was made after the March 9 regularly scheduled meeting, where the council postponed for eight months the annexation of a section of county land that includes WY Fresh Farm. The comments section had devolved into threats, personal attacks and misinformation, city officials have said.

“Lately, we’ve had some very lengthy meetings where there were a lot of opinions expressed,” said Councilman Pete Laybourn. Turning off the comments isn’t sitting well with many residents. “I am troubled to see this trend because there are people who feel disenfranchised by the recent decisions by the City Council,” said Rep. Daniel Singh, R-Cheyenne.

Mayor Patrick Collins told Cowboy State Daily the comments were by and large “more of a background commentary on the meeting itself” and not constructive. Singh said if the city is using Facebook as a means to communicate with the public, the public should be able to communicate back on the same platform. “It’s not a one-way street. It’s a two-way street,” Singh said.

Collins said he made the decision to turn off public comments. The council had been tracking the comments, and they were not productive. “The comments weren’t going out to the governing body,” he said. “It was mostly people commenting on the meeting itself, to each other.” The tone started to turn nasty. The mayor referenced one comment where the commenter suggested he and the council members start wearing bullet-proof vests. “Those aren’t constructive comments we’re looking for in a public meeting,” he said.

Turning off public comments does not prevent residents from talking to the council, Collins said. “If someone wants to talk to the governing body, they can raise their hand” on the live Zoom call, where people who join the meeting remotely can still ask questions and address the council directly. “We take every one of those calls,” the mayor said, adding people also are welcome to attend meetings in person.

The Cheyenne City Council livestreams its council meetings on both Facebook and YouTube. Being on multiple platforms ensures that information gets shared as widely as possible, said Laybourn. “I feel like we have continually reached out and tried to spread the information,” he said.

Singh has been a vocal critic of the mayor’s decision. “As a public servant, you specifically open yourself up to scrutiny,” he said, “especially on the internet.” Singh agreed that comments on social media are not always productive, but that’s not the point. “I don’t expect the Facebook comments to always be friendly,” he said. “But that’s not a reason to shut them down.”

Collins said he believes there has been a lot of feedback on his decision, but he has not received any directly. Neither has Laybourn. “I got zero feedback, which I think is very significant,” Laybourn said. “This is the City Council. We are accountable to the people who elect us.” Laybourn called the mayor’s decision an “unnecessary controversy” that was “incredibly overblown.” “I see this as a real unfortunate non-problem,” Laybourn said. “What is the problem? What are we hiding? What are we disrespecting? I don’t see it.”