Pissant Press · The Record
Who the gavel falls on at the Lapeer City Commission. Every point of order, out-of-order ruling, and censure from November 2025 through June 2026, taken from the city's own minutes.
Times ruled out of order: the two-member minority vs. the three-member majority
The Lapeer City Commission divides three against two, and the gavel points the same direction as the votes. Nearly every ruling that a commissioner is out of order has fallen on the two-member minority, Atwood and Brady. The three-member majority has been ruled out of order exactly once since November. This is the record of how order is kept in the chamber, and on whom.
The scoreboard
Every time the chair rules a commissioner "out of order," it is a public reprimand. Across 15 regular meetings and a June workshop, those reprimands, and the "dilatory" labels and points of order that surround them, cluster almost entirely on Atwood and Brady.
By commissioner, as recorded in the minutes. Hover a bar for the count.
Points of order raised, out-of-order rulings received, and "dilatory" labels applied.
Time in session
Conflict has a cost measured in hours. The commission has sat for 48 hours and 10 minutes of regular meetings since November. The nights with the most divided votes are also the longest: December 1 ran 5 hours and 11 minutes and ended near midnight with a commissioner censured.
Each bar is one regular meeting. Taller means longer. Hover for the detail.
The record bends
In January the majority ordered the City Clerk to strip "narrative, summaries, commentary and discussion" out of the minutes, keeping them to actions only. In April they approved a set of minutes "striking commentary." Then, on June 1, the minutes reversed course and wrote a resident-facing quarrel into the permanent record, verbatim, complete with a link to the video, at the moment it captured the chair prevailing.
"You didn't get your way on planning. You have control here, so now you can get your way."
"You're out of order again. That's three times." / "Well, let's make it four."
Commissioner Atwood and Mayor Hing, June 1, 2026 minutes, transcribed verbatim with a cited video timestamp (1:31:21). Watch the exchange →
The standard for what goes in the minutes tightened when it removed the minority's objections and loosened when it recorded the chair winning an argument. Both choices were made by the same majority, under the same rulebook.
We checked the record
This page is built entirely from the city's official minutes. In reading all sixteen sets, we found errors and holes in that record itself.
At least four recorded results read "MOTION FAILED 3-2" on votes that were actually 2 in favor and 3 against. The labels are inverted in the official record.
The motion numbers skip from 91 to 93, and the city's link for the April 13 special meeting points at a different document. Those minutes do not appear to be posted.
The city's own May 18 video shows the Mayor gaveling resident Ken Kopnick out of order and telling him he could leave. The written minutes for that meeting record only that Kopnick "spoke about the mayor."
Points of order are disposed of as "unheard," "not sustained," "denied," "not well taken," and "not well received," and many are logged with no ruling at all.
Why it matters
The power to rule someone "out of order" is the power to decide who gets to speak. On this commission it has been used almost exclusively against the two members in the minority, and it has reached past the dais to residents in the room.
At the May 18 meeting, the city's own video shows the Mayor gaveling resident Ken Kopnick out of order and telling him he could leave. The written minutes for that night record only that Kopnick "spoke about the mayor." Watch the exchange →
Two weeks later, on June 1, the chair gaveled another resident, Kelly Nolan, out of order several times. Moments later a motion to censure the chair "for misapplication of the rule" failed 2 to 3, along the same line as everything else.
Pissant Press exists because residents were cut off during public comment, the protected speech at the heart of an open meeting. This is the same pattern, one gavel-fall at a time, written down by the city itself. See the companion voting record for how the 3-2 split decides the outcomes.
The record
Each point of order, out-of-order ruling, dilatory label, censure, appeal, conflict recess, and verbatim exchange in the minutes for the period. Filter by type. Names are colored by bloc, majority in ink, minority in orange, the Mayor with a dotted underline.
| Meeting | Item | Incident | What happened | Ruling |
|---|
Keep digging
The gavel is one half of the story. The votes are the other.