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Proclamation didn't need vote
Other than controversy, Tuesday's genocide recognition by mayor is common procedure.
CITY HALL -- It will probably go down as one of the most controversial actions taken by the City Council this year, and yet four of the five council members had no control over it.
Mayor Gus Gomez signed a proclamation Tuesday ordering the American flag to be lowered to half-staff on April 24 to recognize the Armenian Genocide. That stroke of the pen -- and not a vote by the full council -- was all that was necessary to put the proclamation into effect.
To some News-Press readers, it came as a surprise that the mayor could unilaterally approve the action. But most proclamations the city issues are handled in the same way Tuesday's was.
"A proclamation is generally supposed to be an act of the mayor, which is why (proclamations) are generally kept to motherhood and apple pie kinds of things on which you don't need any debate," said City Manager Jim Starbird.
"This is probably the first topic that has tended to get a little astray."
Making this year's proclamation especially touchy was the clear dissent of Dave Weaver, who supported lowering the flag in the past but said he had changed his mind on the issue.
"I was put in the position of having to speak out," he said Wednesday. "I think I was the first person I've known to speak out against a proclamation."
Under certain circumstances, such disagreement could make a difference in the way a proclamation is handled. A handful of the ceremonial documents are signed by the entire council rather than just the mayor.
But Gomez, who had the latitude to pick which kind of proclamation to issue, went with a document containing only his own signature.
As such, Weaver's objections helped to clarify the public record but
had no effect on the final action taken by the mayor.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives