The Aurora City Council’s latest effort to quiet protesters who have been attending every meeting for the past eight months appears to have worked in the council’s favor.

Monday night’s meeting was back to in-person with newly adopted rules for public comment following several virtual meetings during which the council weighed options for managing ongoing protests.

The new rules require a separate session from the council meeting for public comment. Protesters showed up to request action from the councilmembers in the case of Kilyn Lewis, but unlike in previous meetings, Monday night’s regular meeting did not see any interruptions.

While the public comment period was not livestreamed by the city, protesters ran their own livestream. 

Councilmember Francoise Bergan said the rule change made it such that everyone’s voices were heard, but helped with interruptions. 

“I think it went well,” she said, saying she hopes that continues but they aren’t opposed to ending public comment altogether if the rule change doesn’t help. 

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said the rule change helped for Monday’s meeting, but “it’s too early to tell” if it solved the overall challenge of protests interrupting meetings.

“I hope we get more participation from regular people, but I think it’s too early to tell,” he said. “You also have to remember that there are so many different ways to contact your elected officials … so I’ll be interested to know what happens.”

The resolution moving public comment into a special session not livestreamed passed at a meeting earlier this month, with three councilmembers voting against it.

It came after months of back-and-forth between councilmembers and protesters for Lewis, who have attended every meeting since July to request action from the council. Lewis was killed in a police shooting on May 23.

The new resolution requires the council to meet in regular session starting at 6:45 p.m. on already scheduled Mondays, rather than at 6:30 p.m.

Public comment listening sessions, limited to 40 minutes and not part of the council agenda, will be held from 6 to 6:40 p.m. on the days of the meetings.