Town Council Votes to Consider ‘Decorum Ordinance’

The rule would give Mayor Dodd the right to sanction commenters; the second vote to be held on November 25 on Zoom.

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The Dover Town Council will vote for a second time on Tuesday, November 25, to approve a 'decorum ordinance' against council meeting attendees. Mayor Dodd would have discretion to sanction critics.

While Dover’s first Town Council meeting after the November elections remained a largely orderly affair over Zoom, elected officials in town, including Mayor James P. Dodd, are looking to crack down even further on disorderly conduct—and they are willing to fine and jail people for it. This week, officials voted 8-1 to approve Ordinance 44-2025, also known as the “Decorum Ordinance,” on first reading, which could set the stage for a return to in-person council meetings or add more punitive measures to address disparaging public comments made over Zoom meetings since meetings were moved online earlier this year.

The introduction of the ordinance was met with significant opposition from several Morris County residents, particularly in light of the current restrictions on public meetings.

Residents have not been allowed to enter council chambers during public council meetings since a May 27 incident involving the Mayor, the town’s police department, and a member of the audience dressed in a burqa. Edward “Lefty” Grimes, a persistent critic of Mayor Dodd, refused a request to remove his burqa. Mayor Dodd said the refusal posed a threat to him and the council members, and he asked a police officer at the meeting to remove Grimes; the officer refused his request. Meetings led a vote to close meetings to in-person participation because the incident presented an elevated safety risk.

The legislation would grant the mayor, rather than the council members, the authority to appoint a presiding officer for each meeting. It also stipulates that Robert’s Rules of Order, an established manual for parliamentary procedures, will be implemented at all meetings to maintain decorum. The ordinance says that members of the public cannot engage in “disorderly or boisterous conduct, including the utterance of loud, physically threatening or abusive language, or other acts that disturb, disrupt or otherwise impede an orderly conduct of any meeting and the ability of the public to hear and participate.”

Ordinance 44-2025 passed on first reading with an 8-1 margin. Only Council Member Sandra Wittner objected to the ordinance.

Wittner told DOVERNOW.com that, before the meeting, she sent an email to Business Administrator Edward Ramirez and Mayor Dodd to voice her concerns about the ordinance. Wittner asked them to clarify several subsections in the draft of the ordinance that was passed; these include what is considered a prop under the current version of the ordinance, what the complete list of penalties will be, and whether or not the ordinance will comply with the town’s administrative code, which states that the Council votes on presiding officers rather than the Mayor.

“While I agree that decorum is very important for good governance, I strongly believe that the responsibility of setting the tone and being a good example falls on the Mayor and Council,” she said. “It is my belief that we are where we are today because members of this governing body struggle with self-control and the need to have the last word. Bad actors look to get a rise out of us, and are pushed to continue by the governing body’s reactivity.

“I don’t believe that this ordinance will ultimately affect the change we want it to,” she added. “Instead, as a whole, we should commit to being deliberate in how we interact with the public, especially those we do not agree with or who ‘unfairly criticize’ us.”

The ordinance will receive a second reading and possibly a vote at the next council meeting on Tuesday, November 25. Members of the public can watch it and comment via Zoom.