Police: Woman Arrested for Disrupting Council Meeting

Kate Smith charged with disrupting public meeting, resisting a peace officer

By Tom Bolton, Noozhawk Executive Editor | @tombol | Published on 10.02.2012 4:42 p.m.

A well-known City Hall gadfly was arrested Tuesday afternoon after allegedly disrupting a City Council meeting, according to the Santa Barbara Police Department.

Kate Smith, who is a regular at many local government meetings, was taken into custody on suspicion of disrupting a public meeting and resisting a peace officer, said Sgt. Andy Feller.

The incident occurred at about 2:30 p.m. at City Hall, where Smith was refusing to leave the podium, Feller said.

The microphone was shut off, and the meeting halted while officers tried to get Smith to leave, Feller said.

She was then taken into custody, and the meeting resumed.

— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.

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» sbres on 10.02.12 @ 08:50 PM

At least she seems to be leaving the school board alone…

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» Sy Prey on 10.03.12 @ 08:18 AM

There is a history of restraining orders for this person with various other agencies.

The real issue is the public comment portion of city council meetings - easily an entire hour devoted to “free speech”, which is all to often sound and fury signifying nothing.

Freedom of speech is a societal safety valve, yet without significance or merit it is also a drag civic process. I have no answers for this, but I appreciate the travails our elected officials endure when they choose to serve ..... the public.

The better course for John and jane Q Public is to offer reasoned discourse about topics of community merit actually within the jurisdiction of the city council.

Each citizen must protect the democratic process with their own measured involvement and not abandon this process to those who personally corrupt the public comment period for their own personal and unrelated agendas.

Kudos to the city council for enduring this often lengthy public comment time honoring “free speech”.

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» Please on 10.03.12 @ 09:17 AM

Will this affect here welfare payments? Gotta get my free guvmint cheese.

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