The city council is seeking a legal opinion on a proposed ordinance that would establish rules and regulations for the display of flags and use of city hall.
Steve Morabito, the city’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, presented the new ordinance to the council on Monday night. Several councillors questioned the intent of the ordinance and whether it would limit free expression for residents requesting flag raisings at city hall.
“This ordinance is designed to uphold the values and uphold state and federal laws of flags in the city,” said Morabito. “It also gives jurisdiction to the city council and the mayor for flag raisings within the city.”
Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri said he was confused as to why the city needed the ordinance, and that the city approved requests for flags for those who requested them.
Morabito noted that the need for the ordinance arises from a recent Supreme Court decision where the city of Boston declined the raising of a Christian flag, but the court found that the city had no guidance or rules in regulations in place to allow for the denial.
Silvestri asked if the goal of the Revere ordinance was to ban certain flags from being raised in the city.
“We are not trying to ban anything, we are trying to create rules and regulations because that is the direction the Supreme Court wants us to go in,” said Morabito.
Creating a policy would protect the city from potential lawsuits, he added.
But Silvestri said he was unsure if the city needs a policy when it has always allowed the requests.
“I think that if we just allow those who want to raise a flag to raise a flag, I don’t see any problem that has happened yet,” said Silvestri. “Have I witnessed some flag raisings that I morally did not agree with? Absolutely.
“Was I at flag raisings where I did not agree with what the speaker was saying? One thousand percent.”
But as a veteran, Silvestri said he fought for the flag and doesn’t believe the city should be making moves to restrict anyone’s freedoms.
Morabito said the proposed ordinance explicitly states that the city’s flag poles are not intended to serve as a public forum for free expression, but are to represent the public sentiments of the city of Revere. The ordinance prioritizes flying the United States, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and city flags at city hall, and grants the council and mayor the authority to lower the flags to half-mast when warranted.
Silvestri said he still had concerns that the policy could be used to ban certain flags from city hall.
Several councillors said they would like to see either an all or nothing policy for flag raisings in the city, or narrow the types of flags that are allowed to fly at city hall.
Councillors Michelle Kelley and Paul Argenzio both said they would not be opposed to having only the country, state, city, and military flags flying at the government building.
Argenzio said he attends every celebration at city hall and would like to see them continue, but without the aspect of the flag raising on the city flag poles.
Council President Anthony Cogliandro said he would like the council to get a legal opinion from the city solicitor before discussing the ordinance further at a legislative affairs subcommittee meeting. “We should have the solicitor make sure this ordinance is not violating someone’s rights,” said Cogliandro. “We’ve had some wonderful flag raisings out front, and if it’s safer for us to create an ordinance, we should, but we should do it carefully.”
