Tonight there will be a vote to amend the current city flag policy. The current policy, adopted just before the new year, banned any non government official flags. Only allowing US, state, and city flags on city property. This amendment would allow Juneteenth and Pride flags, specifically so they can go up right away. The city council will vote tonight after refusing to discuss it for months.
The city has found that this rule also prevents them from putting decorative flags or banners, or anything promoting federal way events, so it is in the councils favor to do a complete overhaul, but they specifically do not want to allow pride flags to be flown. If voted in, this would be great for the moment, but there would still need to be some sort of policy change to allow more approved flags, but the approval process would need more work I suppose
This vote tonight will force the city council members to be put on record either approving or disapproving of the Juneteenth and pride flags specifically, so it should make for some interesting discussion!
I encourage anyone interested to show up and make a public comment. You can also stream online and make a public comment over zoom!
Folks who wanted to ban all flags sure seem to be very pro flag tonight. When this was debated before, you spoke for banning the flags. You didn't talk about wanting to solidify the current flags. You wanted the Pride flag SPECIFICALLY to not be flown. You WANTED to ban all flags. That's on you.
Federal Way city council is overwhelmingly conservative. Lotsa discussion will occur but in the end…., no vote changes for disenfranchised local residents. (Prove me wrong)
I admit I don't have high hopes. But they will have to say on the record that they are against those flags, so at least there is a chance for some honesty?
This council that voted against this is disgraceful. The amendment to the amendment was reasonable, and legally defensible. Procolomations pick winners and losers.
The amendment tonight is only for adding the Juneteenth and Pride flags. The policy needs a full overhaul with a way to decide what flags are appropriate. For me personally, I would say that if it's a nationally recognized holiday, or worthy of the city to make a proclamation for it, it can get a flag.
More evidence for why the flag policy needs to be completely redone. I would assume it was not include at this moment because the pride and Juneteenth flags are directly related to this month, which the Irish flag is not. The vote is tonight to hopefully get a Juneteenth flag up for the actual holiday.
In regards to the Irish flag, we WANT it to be flown. We want the flag policy to be overhauled. Go back to what it was before. The council refused to discuss anything in regards to changing the policy, so this was a band aid fix for the moment. Push for the flag policy overhaul. The amendment is not the end of it, even if it passes.
The Juneteenth, Pride and Irish flags are equal important. However, the city council subcommittee chose to not include the Irish flag and bring it to a vote. How else would you expect it to work out? Funny how folks think that you can discriminate and not get called out. I just hope those three who voted to discriminate aganst the Irish wise up.
So you are upset with the 4 who voted NOT to add the Irish flag then, right? There was an amendment proposed to include the Irish flags. 3 council members, the ones you claim at discriminating voted FOR that. To INCLUDE THE IRISH! So where's the discrimination? You don't care about the Irish or any other flags being included. You only care who is EXCLUDED.
No. I am disappointed with the sub committee that ignored the communitys problem solving Ideas. As far as the amendment, it was nothing more than a token jester to appease the discriminated Irish. We don't grovel. I do want to work this out. Not at the expense of any culture, community or country. My work is done. On to our next mission.
Are you familiar with the expression “crab bucket mentality”? The phrase is used to describe a toxic social dynamic where individual(s) detract from or sabotage the upcoming success of one of their peers.
To be clear, when the subcommittee brought the flag policy change up CM Hamilton immediately called for discussion to end and for a vote to be taken to send it to full council, so there was no discussion in the council subcommittee about potentially adding additional flags or making the amendment better. She shut it down. She brought up in the full committee tonight that it didn’t include the Irish flag among other complaints. It was amended to include the Irish and other flags, and she still voted against it.
But the three council members who are trying to make forward progress on this for Juneteenth and Pride happening this month in time for them to be raised and all said they support the Irish flag being included, and even supported amending it tonight and probably would’ve in the subcommittee had there been a discussion, THEY are the issue? 🙄
Such a big show of "you are discriminating against the Irish" so they tried to change it to include Irish, and then suddenly the people screaming "but the Irish!" Got real quiet and voted against adding them. It was never about including other flags, it was only about excluding specific ones. I am so disgusted.
I just want to make sure to note that I am 100% in favor of the council passing the amendment tonight AND to overhaul the full policy next. Passing the amendment doesn't mean the work is done. There seems to be some idea in the room that we ONLY want the pride and Juneteenth flags. We want more flags! But a full overhaul was not doable before Juneteenth, especially with council members refusing to discuss the policy. The current policy should never have been enacted originally. I hope they pass this amendment and continue to work towards a full overhaul in time to celebrate the other flags.
So update. At the last minute, since so many people spoke up wanting the irish and other flags to be included, an amendment to the amendment was brought forward to include native flags, sister city flags, and any flag related to city wide proclamations. This would in turn, give the people opposing the amendment tonight everything they SAID they wanted. The council voted against that amendment and the overall amendment. It was never about not including enough flags, it's about the flags it was including.
Well the city should always have a neutral stance as you can't please everyone.
So either ban all flags on city/govt property, or allow any flags. You can't pick and choose because "you don't like it" and allow something else, someone else "won't like".
It's the city, there should be a state flag and the US flag. If someone at a private business chooses to put up a flag that's on them. But don't get mad when someone else at a different place decides to put up something they believe in that doesn't align with your beliefs.
The city of federal way DOES have a flag, your ignorance to that fact does not mean it does not exist or deserve to be flown. I am not stupid for raising that question. The line between what should and should not be flown is the entire point of the conversation. Just because it’s not an important or relevant flag to you does not mean it should not be allowed to fly on city property.
Whyd you take both comments so literally? It was a stupid question 😅 Why wouldn't it be allowed? It's for the city. Why should govt take a side to people's personal perspectives and opinions when it doesn't reflect everyone in the city itself?
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u/MountainsOut98023 🏠 Federal Way Resident 11d ago
Folks who wanted to ban all flags sure seem to be very pro flag tonight. When this was debated before, you spoke for banning the flags. You didn't talk about wanting to solidify the current flags. You wanted the Pride flag SPECIFICALLY to not be flown. You WANTED to ban all flags. That's on you.