Thursday’s Board of Selectmen agenda features a first read of a flag policy for the Town of Greenwich.
Currently Greenwich has no flag policy in place.
Why now?
The draft proposal is to continue allowing the American, Connecticut and Town of Greenwich flags to fly on town buildings and properties, excluding those under the purview of the Board of Education. Fair enough.
The policy would allow the three-member Board of Selectmen to approve flying a foreign national government’s flag if it maintains formal diplomatic relations with the US. Also reasonable.
Other parts of the policy talk about when the US flag would be lowered to half staff, including on the death of elected officials.
The third part of the policy may be where controversy lies:
“3. Other flags displayed in conjunction with official Town events or ceremonies by proclamation of the First Selectman or by resolution of the Board of Selectmen.”
And what ceremonies or events?
Back on June 2, First Selectman Camillo mentioned a possible flag policy on his Ask the First Selectman Radio show on 1490 AM when host Tony Savino asked him to comment on controversies over the Pride flag.
Camillo said he would regret losing the ability to display other flags if Greenwich adopted a policy like the one Darien enacted last November. That policy limits flags on town property to the US, State of CT and Town flags. That meant no Pride flag, and there was a backlash. In June Darien residents protested outside Darien Town Hall and spoke at a Board of Selectmen meeting immediately afterward, testifying about the importance of flying the Pride flag at Town Hall.
Camillo specifically mentioned his reluctance to lose flags marking Red Cross month, Breast Cancer Awareness month, St Patrick’s Day and Columbus Day.
“We’re trying to come to a happy medium where we respect the Constitution. This is solely within our jurisdiction, so we can rule one way or the other.”
“The sad thing is we’ve got people in the community who always look forward to raising the Italian flag on Columbus Day and raising the Irish flag on St. Pat’s Day – and Greek Independence day and others – whether it’s the Red Cross or Breast Cancer Awareness, if you decide to just (raise) the government flag like Darien did, they would not be allowed to go up.”
“We live in a day and age where people are always looking to make a name for themselves in court, so we have to make sure the town is ready and protected,” Camillo added.
Camillo didn’t name any groups that might take Greenwich to court, but he didn’t mention the Pride flag either.
Greenwich’s Pride celebration outside town hall on Sunday, June 4 had an unprecedented turnout of about 300 people. First Selectman Camillo read a proclamation and the Pride flag was raised.
The following day morning employees showed up for work at town hall and discovered that in the overnight hours 27 homophobic signs with the word “groomers” had been erected with arrows pointing to the Pride flag.
There is no surveillance camera on the flags outside Greenwich Town Hall, and the town still doesn’t know who was responsible.
A question for Thursday will be what exactly a flag policy achieves.
Thursday’s meeting is in person and the Town Hall meeting room starting at 10:00am. It is also on Zoom. Click here for links and call in numbers.
Agenda: https://www.greenwichct.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/9838?fileID=213386
Click here to submit a comment for the Aug 24 Selectmen meeting.
