Commission’s process on monument should be a wake-up call

The process by which the Manatee County Commission removed its courthouse Confederate monument should be a wake-up call to residents. The commission:

1. Rejected calls from the community to put the issue to a ballot, and allowed the threat of vandalism and violence to become the major factor in their decision to remove it. They didn’t even hold an advance-notice public town hall, where interested residents would have had the opportunity to reach some measure of consensus and mutual understanding

2. Ignored archival procedures and did not take the proper care usually followed in relocating historic works.

3. Rushed the removal, without a firm, proper, and respectful home for the monument.

4. Disregarded the relocation financing model followed just north of us in Hillsborough County, where advocates of relocation bore some of the cost of relocation.

You may not care about the monument. Or you might applaud its removal – even the damage to it. But one day, you may be very invested in a question before the commission. If they decide the question in a rapid-fire series of meetings, and ignore calls for a ballot, then will you believe your input has been considered?

Sure, the commission apparently has the power to decide these high-impact decisions without the consideration of alternatives the public might propose. But should it? If you ask a member of the commission, today, if vandalism and the threat of what activists call, “direct action” should be the main factor for a decision, they will say of course not – but that is exactly the course they followed in the case of the monument.

This story was originally published September 5, 2017 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Commission’s process on monument should be a wake-up call."