Citizen: Ditch the ‘distracting’ signs during city council’s public agenda

One local citizen told Columbus City Council it’s time to ditch the distracting signs on continuous display during the public agenda portion of the meetings. Kim Decker said, “every single resident of Columbus deserves an equal, undistracted opportunity to present their cause to city council.”

Decker appeared on Tuesday’s public agenda August 11, 2026, to discuss public comment decorum and sign regulations. The concerned citizen specifically referenced council’s July 28, 2026, meeting. During the public agenda of that meeting “No data center” signs were prominently displayed throughout the comments of other members of the public regardless of the topic being discussed.

“Although these displays are seemingly peaceful, they compromise fairness. Distractions like ringing cell phones and side bar conversations take away from the uninterrupted opportunity and thank you to the nice enforcers in the nice brown uniforms that ensure we don’t have that continuous interruption,” said Decker. She told councilors she was just “looking for fairness and continuity to everyone in attendance so that we can all have the same opportunity to voice our concerns.”

“I am asking city council to consider establishing clear guidelines and if there are already guidelines in place I do expect the same nice gentlemen in the brown uniforms to enforce that.”

Mayor Skip Henderson told Decker there have “been some discussions around council about some modification of the guidelines for appearing before council.” Henderson said, “the public agenda is supposed to be reserved for questions and actions that they are asking the council to help with, it’s not so much of a give and take.” The mayor said they have heard the concerns and are “working on it”.