An apology, diversity training, and resignation were all requested by the public at Tuesday’s Washington City Council meeting following previous remarks made by two Council members. Others in attendance thanked Fran Stigers and Steve Gault for their comments.
On August 4th there was a request for an event called Peace Proclamation with Dr. Kesho Scott of Grinnell College speaking about diversity and the meaning behind Black Lives Matter. At that meeting, Stigers called Black Lives Matter a domestic terrorist group and Gault said problems come from the inner cities and move to rural areas. and he used the term “gangbangers.” At this week’s meeting, Gault defined that term and stood by it.
One of the people who spoke out against the comments was Washington resident and local business owner Jacqueline Arreola, “I feel that everyone has the right to have their own opinions but when you are a public official, comments like that, like the ones that our two council members said, it’s just not acceptable. As an elected official you have constituents who are Black and Brown as well. and comments like that instead of promoting unification and solidarity, they’re only promoting more division and more racism, from my point of view. The City of Washington has become, or is becoming more diverse every year, I have noticed that. You can see more diversity. Not as comparable to other places, but definitely changing. This could be a great opportunity for us to embrace our differences, educate ourselves, and make sure that we keep this City of Washington safe, and like as it was quoted one time, ‘One of the best small towns of America.’”
After the public comments were finished, Mayor Jaron Rosien provided each counselor time to voice their thoughts. Councilman Brendan DeLong explained he voted for the event because he supports free speech, “I voted to bring her here to town to educate the City of Washington on what Black Lives Matter is doing. Now do I agree with that? Not necessarily. But I agree that everybody has a right to speak and I agree that everyone has a right to be heard. That’s our first amendment right. I realize that they’re involved with a lot of hate crimes and stuff in bigger cities. So, if this was an event that was inviting them to do that in this City of Washington, hate crimes and stuff like that, I would not have voted for that. But I voted because it was a college professor coming to this town to preach about how to peacefully protest or peacefully bring up their opinions.”
No official action was taken, but Washington resident Bethany Glinsmann said there are plans to submit a formal petition to the council in a future meeting. She explained that the petition calls for an apology, racial sensitivity training, resignations, and the creation of an inclusion committee. It had over 200 signatures online as of Wednesday.