written by Barbara Smith,
Concerned Hamilton Citizen and Activist Blogger for transparency in government.. at Hamilton Wenham Liberals for Democracy
https://www.facebook.com/HWdemocrats/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUFv827HZ1g&t=6shttps://youtu.be/gUFv827HZ1g
Please watch the above Youtube video or read the following for an update on the Hamilton Flag policy update.
The video discussion begins at 1:49:19
The following attempt at transcribing the discussion is provided by Barbara Smith. I am not a professional transcriber and it was difficult to hear voices on the video when speakers wear masks (although, of course, the masks are critical for safety)…..
The members of the select board refer to the upcoming Supreme Court Case https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/shurtleff-v-boston/
The purpose of this post is to share with the people in Hamilton the latest status on the flag raising policy. The 5 Select Board members discussed the reasons for delaying making decisions until after the future related Supreme Court Decision. I am really proud of the 5 members of the Select Board for taking their time to examine policy from all perspectives. I personally do not have a opinion on which flags should be allowed to be flown on town property. However, I am happy with any result after the Select Board carefully studies and analyzes options. This is how Democracy works!!!
Select Board Member Bill Olson: The flag policy update….In my opinion and based on our town counsel, unfortunately we went full circle on this thing, about a month ago, the opinion was changed because the Supreme Court has put this on their January agenda. There is no point in us having discussion until this is resolved. I don’t know if you want to make a motion but I want to have a moratorium on any flag raising applications other than the American flag until further direction from the Supreme Court.
Two selectpersons voices: That’s fine with me and it’s a short time period….
Bill Olson: I’m not bringing any applications to us since we will not take the time to review it.
Selectman Jamie Knudson: I’m not totally in favor of that, but whatever, I’m just one guy here. So, you know, I think the Shurtleff case was brought to our attention when Tom was on…he said we may hold off, I don’t think that it was a recommendation to hold off…. my point on the city of Boston… we have 2 things that are really differentiating us: the city of Boston had no policy. number one. And number two, they had opened up that flag pole for a zillion different things. We have absolutely not done that…. and our policy, as drafted is stating that we are limiting it to state and federal holidays and proclamations. So, I agree that when the decision comes down next summer- it will have some further clarification but i think we are far away from the edge…. our state and federal government- they make proclamations…. its government speech, its not subject to a free speech forum law … the government flies all sorts of flags, or they light up the White House with a rainbow to communicate something, it’s not as if all government speech is going to have to stop because of the Shurtleff case), so anyway, I just think that the policy that we were working on is far away from it not being government speech… from it opening up to be government forum. We are not doing what the city of Boston is doing…
Bill Olson: We spent a lot of time on it and I think that we are getting close.. Unfortunately, I’m not saying not to do it, but i think that it is important that we are in lockstep with town counsel. We don’t have any appplications anyway, so…we can wait until January is a huge(not clear ?) I would like to revisit this, in my opinion and I’m only one opinion, too.. as well as you are one. But I’d like to wait until (inaudible) and then again, its not going to give us the answer to everything when this case settles, but it will give us further direction…. like you said, it is different parameters, but it can give us precedent that we can use in our favor.
Jamie Knudson: just to clarify, oral arguments are in January. the decision is not going to be…
Select Board member Rosemary Kennedy: We don’t really know, sometimes they surprise us and they come back quickly. so…
Bill Olson: We can always revisit and add it back to the agenda. We need clarity, the status now, is take a pause….
Select person Darcy Dale: I am where you are, I think that the supreme court will be making decisions.
Select person Shawn Farrell : since it’s on our agenda tonight, it’s just an update, we can put it on an upcoming agenda if enough of us….. we are getting very close to the end of it. The general consensus is to wait on it, we can discuss it at a further meeting.
Rosemary Kennedy: and I think that the Supreme Court will also have some interesting dictum to guide us in our policy.
Bill Olson: We are getting very close, something about overreach in application, votes, petitions and stuff, definitions, what’s “proclamation”? We have to talk about “what is state proclamation?” I agree, I think that we worked really hard, our commission has done a good job of coming back so it’s all been worthwhile…. we will come back to it.
Rosemary Kennedy: I agree.
Nancy Stehfest: I really appreciate and understand the cautious path you are taking on this, my worry is what will happen if we do not have a decision handed down in June? We had 2 very successful flag raising ceremonies last June. It was very well attended. Do you want to wait and cross that bridge until the first of the year, or is this something we won’t be able to do as a town this year?
Bill Olson: We have 6 months between now and then, so let’s be positive.
Shawn Farrell: Can we give ourselves a tentative deadline?
Bill Olson: I think it’s appropriate to talk about it again in March. We can see what happens in January and February in the Supreme Court, and that gives us enough time to talk in March to set a policy, or even an interim one… Maybe just state or federal holidays
Rosemary Kennedy: and the reality is is, there is a proclamation that speaks to issues all year round, so we are not sort of trying to cause people not to be able to raise the flag, we understand that there are some hardships but also its important to take our time and get this right and guidance from the supreme court would be very helpful.
Hamilton citizen Tosh Blake: this is all very interesting…. just to clarify- are you are tabling it? Are you kind of waiting until a Supreme Court decision is finalized? Is there a strict moratorium until there is a decision; or is it open to being spot lifted for certain things and not other things?
Bill Olson: There is a moratorium until we meet again in March and then see what happens. It depends on what happens in the Supreme Court. That’s my recommendation.
I visited many websites, but yours is probably the most interesting I found, and your article "Hamilton Flag Policy Update" is very interesting ! Keep going 🙂
Thanks…. Will do!