With a goal of more civil open comment sessions, the Boulder City Council this week agreed to consider extending a policy that allows the city manager to temporarily suspend a disruptive community member’s recreation center access to include their exclusion from the municipal building housing the council chambers.

The proposal is in response to protests and disruptions at recent in-person meetings and was made after the council received legal advice during a Thursday executive session. The closed door meeting was the first for the council since voters in November approved a ballot measure authorizing council to hold executive sessions, as allowed by state law.

“The level of disruption at the meetings has gotten to levels at which many members of the public who are attending them do not feel safe or welcomed,” Mayor Aaron Brockett said. “It would be good to have an additional tool to deal with that.”

The council recently agreed to temporarily move to virtual meetings as ferocious community debate and protest over the war in Gaza has continued to roil the council chambers. There is a provision in city code that allows council members to exclude or limit members of the public from attending meetings in person when “a public health or safety concern exists.”

Last month, council members voted 7-2 to move the Jan. 16 and Feb. 6 meetings online. A Jan. 23 study session was already scheduled to be a virtual meeting, as is the upcoming study session on Thursday. Open comment has continued to be held virtually.

Although protesters have been a near-constant presence during open comment at council meetings for more than a year, tensions and anger over the war flared up at the Dec. 19 council meeting, forcing the council into a nearly 15-minute recess. After that meeting, some council and community members expressed feeling unsafe.

During Thursday’s meeting, City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde said temporarily suspending municipal building access for those who violate open comment rules or are disruptive is one option. Other options include clearing the building and going virtual or instructing police officers to remove and arrest disruptive audience members.

The council holds an open comment period at every regular meeting where up to 20 people can speak on any topic they like. Each person gets two minutes to speak.

Council member Mark Wallach supported temporary suspensions and proposed changes to open comment rules that included limiting community members to speaking at every two or three sessions and limiting topics to current and recent agenda items, but his suggestions didn’t receive support from the majority of the council.

Council member Tara Winer’s suggestion to give precedence in open comment to people who live and work in Boulder also didn’t receive support.

“I’m just looking for ways we can creatively bring back the local vibe to our open comment,” she said, noting more than half the commenters at Thursday’s meeting spoke about the war in Gaza.

The council on Thursday also agreed to direct city staff members to enforce an existing rule that doesn’t allow audience members to present videos or slides during open comment.

Councilmember Tina Marquis noted people will still have the option to email videos and slides directly to the council.

“We’re not looking at ways to shut down communication coming to City Council,” she said.