Council unanimously approves resolution banning proclamations, flag raisings

At its Wednesday, April 16 meeting, the Susanville City Council unanimously approved Resolution No. 25-6423 “placing a moratorium on city sponsored proclamation(s) or flag raising(s).”

According to the staff report, submitted by City Manager Dan Newton, the city’s proposed policies are: “1. The city of Susanville City Council will no longer sponsor, prepare, or issue proclamations or present or read proclamations during City Council meetings, and 2. The city will not raise any flags except the American and California flags on City property.”

Mayor Mendy Schuster moved consideration of the resolution to the top of the agenda.

After Schuster introduced the item, Newton provided some background. He said at the last meeting the council directed staff to come back with a resolution addressing the issue and the city attorney had written the resolution.

Councilmember Parrish says the ban furthers free speech
Councilmember Patrick Parrish, who last year proposed the council’s previous temporary ban on proclamations, gave his reasons for supporting their permanent ban.

Parrish said the council’s previous practice of approving some proclamations while denying others violates the idea of free speech. And even further, government should not be involved in social issues.

According to Parrish, his concern is that this practice of approving some proclamations and denying others could expose the city to litigation.

He said he brought the issue up last year because the city “had other things to worry about. This was not about LGBTQ, banning LGBTQ … It’s not about them, it’s about speech. Before we were reading some proclamations and not others. It wasn’t fair. Some people got their proclamation read and some people didn’t.”

Parrish said faced with this inequality, he discovered the city did not have a policy regarding proclamations, and one was needed to resolve this problem.

“When I asked the city if we have any guidelines, or anything written down about whose proclamation we’re going to read and whose we don’t,” Parrish said, “they said, ‘We don’t.’ So, I was thinking, this is probably going to open up the city, and taxpayers, their money, to litigation which I said, ‘You know what? Probably not a smart idea.’”

Parrish said he ran for office on the idea that the city should not be taking a stand through proclamations on cultural issues such as Black Lives Matter, Black History Month, Israel/Palestine, Pro Life, Pro Choice, whatever was on Twitter or Facebook hot topics.

“The city government should not be getting involved with that,” Parrish said.

Parrish described the city’s solution to this problem.

“What we should do is have citizens give their own proclamations at the podium,” Parrish said, “anything you want as long as it’s not promoting violence. Instead of the city dictating who can speak and who cannot, I say take it out of the government’s hands and everyone can have their own proclamations because if we keep going down the (indecipherable) … it just keeps progressing and gets out of hand.”

Parrish praised Susanville’s diversity
“Susanville — We’re diverse in our opinions, and I really do appreciate that. I do like the small-town community network that we have, and I don’t want anything to break that up, as far as who can speak, who cannot speak, what flag is on the flagpole,” Parrish said. “It’s crazy to me.”

And Parrish denied the rumor that this resolution is aimed at the LGBTQ community.

“There’s a rumor going on that this is about LGBTQ,” Parrish said. “It’s not. Do what you want. Whatever. Say what you want at the podium.”

According to Parrish, a proclamation from the city council doesn’t mean anything anyway.

Parrish said people speaking from the podium can be powerful, but a proclamation read by the city has no impact, just “false symbolism.”

Parrish’s vision is that the city can focus on city growth, natural responsibility and public safety, “and have the people do whatever they want at the podium … Take who can speak and who cannot speak out of the government’s hands … Have the people speak for themselves, not government … The voice of power is never in the government, it’s in the people. Let the people speak for themselves. Let the people speak what they want, not us limiting who can speak and who cannot. And that’s why I brought it up.”

No other councilmembers offered a comment before the unanimously approving the resolution.