Every Tuesday night, dozens of Sacramentans file into City Hall for their two-minute turn to question, plead with or complain to the mayor and City Council.

Lately, that's also meant throwing things and swearing at their elected representatives. Some residents have resorted to bringing props, from a toilet painted gold to photographs of purported drug houses. City Hall veterans say it seems to be getting stranger all the time.

"You never know what's going to hit you," said City Clerk Shirley Concolino.

Perhaps the most colorful meeting of what has been a lively few months played out Tuesday. An enraged man named Leo Benavidez, asserting that his identity had been stolen, threw his wallet at Mayor Kevin Johnson during the public comment period.

Benavidez had gone over his allotted two minutes of speaking time. When Johnson pounded his gavel, the man responded, "If you want my identity, then take my (expletive) wallet." He then reached into his back pocket and flung his wallet at the council dais.

Johnson, who is said to despise sitting through long-winded council sessions, did not flinch. Benavidez was escorted out of the council chamber by three police officers. On the way out, one of the officers told him he was welcome to return next week.

Benavidez is among a cast of colorful regulars who show up for City Council meetings each week to speak their minds. While most are greeted with indifferent stares and polite nods from the council, others have clearly begun to annoy the city's elected officials.

An activist by the name of Mac Worthy got to speaking so often at meetings last year – both during the open public comment period and on agenda items – that the council rewrote its procedures and now limits the number of times people can speak to four per meeting.

Occupy Sacramento protesters also have had an impact. One approached Councilman Kevin McCarty with an envelope during a meeting late last year, and ever since a rope has separated the speakers' lectern from the council.

Also over the past few months, at least three uniformed police officers have stood guard during meetings, in addition to three City Hall security officers. Not too long ago, cops showed up at council meetings only when layoffs were being debated.

Perhaps the most prolific visitor to City Council meetings is an 87-year-old retired accountant named Bill Grant. He has attended dozens, maybe hundreds, of meetings over the past 11 years, chiding the council mostly for one shortcoming: He thinks bingo games at the Ethel Hart Senior Center in midtown are underfunded.

In fact, there are bingo games at the Hart center, "two or three a month," Grant says. He wants one a week.

His complaints occasionally extend beyond that issue. Grant also wants the council to form a seniors commission to fight for seniors issues. He often calls council members "crooks" and describes himself as the city's "citizen auditor."

"I want to congratulate the citizens of Sacramento for coming here," he told the crowd this week.

Grant's remarks are often met with applause from the audience – and silence from the council. But that hasn't stopped him from strolling into City Hall each week, pushing a walker carrying a large cardboard box that contains his typed remarks.

"You never know what you're going to get," said Councilwoman Angelique Ashby. "It's not like we're going to get a heads up from someone saying, 'Hey, we're going to bring a toilet this week.' "

A toilet is exactly what showed up on Tuesday. Members of a watchdog group called Eye on Sacramento rolled a gold-painted commode to the lectern. The idea: to drive home the group's message that the council should proceed with caution as it considers hiking water and sewer rates.

Later, a speaker suggested a "bomb" was coming to City Hall as she criticized the city's enforcement of its anti-camping ordinance on homeless encampments. Several other speakers asked the city to allow a Del Paso Boulevard bookstore to reopen after a flood damaged the building.

Eventually, it was Grant's turn. And it was more of the same.

"For 20 years this bingo thing has been lingering," he told the council. "You know I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back."

Later, he was asked if he ever considers not coming back, given the cold response he is so often granted from the city's elected officials.

"That doesn't stop me," he said. "What I've got to say is important."

SACRAMENTO

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Call The Bee's Ryan Lillis, (916) 321-1085. Read his City Beat blog at sacbee.com/citybeat.

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