On Tuesday, Cortez City Council approved a series of guidelines for its proclamations which have recognized events like Pride Month and the Montezuma County Fair with ceremonial documents signed by the mayor.
“This policy establishes a standardized process and clear criteria for requesting, approving, and issuing proclamations to ensure they maintain a high level of dignity and relevance to the City of Cortez,” read the new guidelines.
The city’s Pride Month proclamation at the end of May reignited an annual debate among councilors, but the declaration ultimately passed with a majority vote. City Manager Drew Sanders said the guidelines were not created because of the arguments among councilors, adding that approving a set of guidelines for proclamations was overdue.
”It's always good for everything to do with council governance and those sorts of things to have structure around it so we avoid misunderstandings and create as best we can a very smooth process,” Sanders said Wednesday in an interview with The Journal. “It’s just adding structure.”
According to the guidelines, a proclamation proposal requires sponsorship by three councilors. After sponsorship, the city manager’s office will help draft a proclamation and add it to the City Council agenda for a vote. The city clerk ensures the proclamation does not endorse anything under the prohibitions section, which includes commercial ventures, partisan political campaigns, parties or affiliated organizations and discriminatory events.
On May 26, in an address to council, Councilor April Randle said she believed the Pride Month proclamation to be discriminatory.
“Discrimination can be negative in that we can condemn one's actions and make them feel shame or try to make them feel shame or alienate them from their rights. But we also have positive discrimination and positive discrimination occurs when we endorse or advance a certain person or group of people not based on the quality of their character but based on things that they have no control over,” Randle said.
Councilor Bill Lewis, in a rebuttal, said the proclamation was not bestowing special treatment on a group of people, rather offering them visibility in an area where LGBTQ individuals can be targeted or shunned for their identities.
“We're letting that community know that as a city we support you. You're part of our community. They're not getting any special treatment, we're just acknowledging that,” Lewis said.
In an interview with the Journal Wednesday, Councilor Kathleen Swope, who voted in favor of the Pride Month proclamation, said the guidelines would not have changed her vote.
“I think the only thing they really changed that was significant was to make sure no particular political party profited," Swope said. “We couldn’t make a proclamation for a particular group that was supporting a political party.”
The Journal attempted to contact Lewis, Randle and Councilor Carly Wolf and Mayor Dennis Spruell, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Councilors Clarisa Osborn and Claire West declined to comment and deferred to Sanders when asked whether the new guidelines would have changed their “yes” votes on the Pride Month proclamation.
“Once we have voted on an issue, the City Council is a united body. Therefore I do not wish to personally comment — especially in a hypothetical context — on past actions,” West wrote in a statement.
avanderveen@the-journal.com
