Discussion:
After much debate and consideration, the Select Board advances this article to Town Meeting for the purposes of its discussion and vote, but without recommendation on the Meeting’s course of action in support of or opposition to the substance of the resolution itself. The Select Board takes this unorthodox position in light of two distinct, but related concerns: town governance; and the substantive questions regarding how the Town best advances its racial equity goals.
With respect to town governance, on one hand, the Board often opposes resolutions of Town Meeting aimed at symbolically appealing or controverting a specific decision or action within the authority of another Town board or official. Here, the decision to display flags and banners on or at Town Hall is solely within the jurisdiction of the Select Board and the Town Manager. Town Meeting may express its perspective and collective opinion on many subjects including this matter, but the decision – including if and when the banner would be placed on Town Hall again – is not ultimately within Town Meeting’s duties or powers. Accordingly, the Board holds some concern about both the potential for overuse of Town Meeting resolutions in other contexts to simply express disagreement with Town commissions or officials charged with making specific decisions; as well as public misapprehension of the way the Town’s government works and the relative responsibilities of its officers.
On the other hand, Town Meeting presents an opportunity for this Board to hear from a wider net of elected representative voices on one of the many hard questions about race and equity that have been the subject of challenging, but valued discourse between residents, the Select Board, Town staff, and Town officials. As discussed in greater detail below, the Board chose to display the Black Lives Matter banner for roughly four (4) months, but following its decision to erect new signage affirming the Town’s commitment to equity in a different manner, the discussion and public comments before the Board on the banner have been marked by tension and widening entrenchment, even as our community has been deepening its commitments to racial equity and taking substantive steps in furtherance of those commitments. On balance, the majority of the Board believes that its own further discussion of this specific banner would be aided by Town Meeting’s viewpoint, despite these governance concerns.
With respect to the substance of the resolution, this Board notes that it entered a proclamation in support of “Black Lives Matter” on June 8, 2020, including a vote to display a Black Lives Matter banner throughout June (including in commemoration of Juneteenth) and to maintain the banner through July 13, 2020, which was declared “Black Lives Matter” day by the same vote. The banner was initially to be lowered on July 14, 2020 according to the terms of the Proclamation, but based upon subsequent feedback from residents and the Manager, the Board voted on July 20, 2020 to maintain display of the banner until an appropriate measure of transition could be developed. On September 14, 2020, the Board voted to maintain the banner on Town Hall until September 30, 2020, when it would be replaced by a statement from the Town’s Bylaws affirming the Town’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion outside Town Hall. The end result was the display of an eight (8) foot by (4) four foot sign directly outside Town Hall’s main entrance and steps (presently affixed to fencing due to construction activities) paraphrasing a section of the Town’s Human Rights Commission Bylaw, that sets forth the policy of the Town with respect to standing against discrimination in its many forms.
The resolution before Town Meeting posits that the foregoing is deficient, and therefore, that the Town of Arlington fails to signal sufficient support to the concerns of people of color without a continuous display of the Black Lives Matter banner on Town Hall until such time as an authority other than the Select Board determines it appropriate. The Board does not agree, in part due to the aforementioned issues of governance, and in part because it does not believe the choices before it are binary ones between indefinite display of one message about racism and discrimination on Town Hall and other messages or locations for the specific banner at issue. Nonetheless, the Board values and recognizes the earnest effort by the proponents and the many persons who signed their petition to place such a proposal before Town Meeting, has heard many of its supporters messages, and is interested to now hear Town Meeting’s collective perspective.
The Board intends to work with the petitioners to identify potential areas of agreement in light of an overall belief that the petitioners and Board members share many common goals. The Board will update its position to Town Meeting as appropriate, but at this juncture intends to focus its efforts on cultivating further options and recommendations on when, where, how, and how long to display the Black Lives Matter banner in question in the future, as well as other appropriate displays of the Town Government’s commitments to racial equity, diversity, and inclusion without limiting its options to a permanent or indefinite display of the banner on Town Hall. It is the Select Board’s expectation and hope that whatever Town Meeting’s vote on this resolution, it and the Town at-large will be more informed by the Meeting’s discussion and vote. | | | |