By Adam Swift
Concerns about the town’s flag policy as it relates to a potential proclamation to raise the Israeli flag were brought up by former Town Council candidate Todd Sacco at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
During the public speaking portion of the meeting, Sacco said he understood that the raising of the Israeli flag had been on a previous agenda, but that because the person who made the request was not at the council meeting, it wasn’t brought up or discussed.
Town Council President Jim Letterie later clarified that the request was never on a council agenda.
Sacco said he reached out to Precinct 2 Councilor John Munson and asked for his help with the issue.
“My understanding is that he is going to be addressing this in the coming correspondence section of the meeting, which means that there will not be a proclamation made,” said Sacco.
Sacco said he found that disturbing, since the council has voted to approve four flag raisings since the flag policy was approved earlier this year. He said the town’s residents deserved an answer as to why a proclamation has not been made to this point.
“If you are worried about pushback from the other side, it is your policy, you made your bed, (now) sleep in it,” said Sacco. “What else are we supposed to believe, I am not in any of your hearts, but it is certainly at its lowest level discrimination and at its worst anti-Semitism. I don’t know what any of you are thinking, and I don’t believe the friends I have left on this council are anti-Semites, I don’t believe that for a minute, but I don’t know what this motivation is and you give us nothing else to think.”
Sacco urged the council to either make a proclamation and raise the Israeli flag or change the flag policy.
Letterie was later asked by another resident what the procedure was to have a proclamation for a flag raising.
Letterie said either the Town Manager or the council can make a proclamation, and that a request can be made by the public to a councilor, who can then request the proclamation.
“A councilor needs to make a proclamation, it could be from a request or it could be on their own,” said Letterie.
Councilor-at-Large Rob DeMarco later said he would make the proclamation to raise the Israeli flag.
Munson responded to the correspondence he previously received from Sacco later in the meeting. He said he received emails on Nov. 18, 19, and 20 with the request to raise the Israeli flag.
“This was not long ago, and this is the first meeting since, so we are bringing it to the attention of the town council,” said Munson. “The flag policy was created to celebrate a lot of things that make Winthrop Winthrop and we are still doing that.”
Munson said the policy is not perfect, and was crafted to represent government speech in order to protect the town.
“I just think it is important to keep all of this in consideration,” said Munson. “We are trying to do our best to fulfill this flag policy and celebrate and support all of our neighbors, residents, and friends.”
After receiving the correspondence, Munson said he wanted to bring it to the attention of the town council so that it could discuss it. Munson noted that it is not legally permissible for a group of four or more councilors to discuss an issue while not in a public session.
“It is not possible to have done anything prior to now legally,” said Munson. “I think it is important to note that Facebook posts and aggressive text and Facebooking is not a good means of trying to get a proclamation made, it’s more about asking and having a conversation and seeing if we can get it done.”
Munson added that he knows the people on the council’s hearts are breaking for all the innocent people dying in the Israeli-Gaza conflict.
“Are we going to solve an international conflict with a flag flown? Probably not,” he said. “But are we going to make people feel better? Probably. I think that we should do something.”
Munson said the town needs to come up with a solution that makes people feel safe and secure.
“What I am trying to do is have the conversation in a non-hostile and a civil and comfortable manner so that we are not making accusations of anti-Semitism without actually knowing the facts,” said Munson.
Sacco later noted that there was enough time from the date of his correspondence to the date of Tuesday’s council meeting to get a proclamation for the Israeli flag raising on the agenda.
Councilor-at-Large Rob DeMarco noted that there is no flag that is not going to be considered offensive by somebody.
“The question with this flag policy is where is the line?” said DeMarco. “Is it 5 percent of the people are offended, is it 10 percent? That’s going to come on us, and that’s the policy, that’s what we are going to have to deal with.”
DeMarco said the council is going to have to take each request on a case-by-case basis and try to do the right thing.
“I am going to make the proclamation,” said DeMarco. “People here will tell you I have been talking about it, I didn’t make the proclamation but I have been talking about it and speaking with other councilors about it for weeks. I think the policy is far from (perfect), but that is what we are playing with.”