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HomeMy WebLinkAboutR-2011-033 City Council Meetings Invocation Policy and Agenda Disclaimer RESOLUTION NO. R- 2011 -33 A RESOLUTION adopting policy regarding opening invocations before meetings of the City Council; stating procedures; and reciting principles of supporting law. WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Yakima ( "the Council ") is an elected legislative and deliberative public body, serving the citizens of Yakima, Washington; and WHEREAS, the Council has long maintained a tradition of solemnizing its proceedings by allowing for an opening prayer before each meeting, for the benefit and blessing of the Council; and WHEREAS, the Council wishes to maintain a tradition of solemnizing its proceedings by allowing for an opening prayer before each meeting, for the benefit and blessing of the Council; and WHEREAS, the Council now desires to adopt this formal, written policy to clarify and codify its invocation practices; and WHEREAS, our country's Founders recognized that we possess certain rights that cannot be awarded, surrendered, nor corrupted by human power, and the Founders explicitly attributed the origin of these, our inalienable rights, to a Creator. These rights ultimately ensure the self - government manifest in our Legislature, upon which we desire to invoke divine guidance and blessing; and WHEREAS, such prayer before deliberative public bodies has been consistently upheld as constitutional by American courts, including the United States Supreme Court; and WHEREAS, in Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983), the United States Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Nebraska Legislature's practice of opening each day of its sessions with a prayer by a chaplain paid with taxpayer dollars, and specifically concluded, "The opening of sessions of legislative and other deliberative public bodies with prayer is deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country. From colonial times through the founding of the Republic and ever since, the practice of legislative prayer has coexisted with the principles of disestablishment and religious freedom." Id., at 786; and WHEREAS, the Council desires to avail itself of the Supreme Court's recognition that it is constitutionally permissible for a public body to "invoke divine guidance" on its work. Id., at 792. Such invocation "is not, in these circumstances, an `establishment' of religion or a step . toward establishment; it is simply a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among the people of this country." Id.; and WHEREAS, the Supreme Court affirmed in Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), "Our history is replete with official references to the value and invocation of Divine guidance in deliberations and pronouncements of the Founding Fathers and contemporary leaders." Id., at 675; and WHEREAS, the Supreme Court further stated, that "government acknowledgments of religion serve, in the only ways reasonably possible in our culture, the legitimate secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions, expressing confidence in the future, and encouraging the recognition of what is worthy of appreciation in society. For that reason, and because of their history and ubiquity, those practices are not understood as conveying government approval of particular religious beliefs." Id., at 693 (O'Connor, J., concurring); and 1 WHEREAS, the Supreme Court also famously observed in Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, (1952), "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being." Id., at 313 -14; and WHEREAS, the Supreme Court acknowledged in Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892), that the American people have long followed a "custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer...," Id., at 471; and WHEREAS, the Supreme Court has determined, "The content of [such] prayer is not of concern to judges where . . . there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief." Marsh, 463 U.S. at 794 -795; and WHEREAS, the Supreme Court also proclaimed that it should not be the job of the courts or deliberative public bodies "to embark on a sensitive evaluation or to parse the content of a particular prayer" offered before a deliberative public body. Id.; and WHEREAS, the Supreme Court has counseled against the efforts of government officials to affirmatively screen, censor, prescribe and /or proscribe the specific content of public prayers offered by private speakers, as such government efforts would violate the First Amendment rights of those speakers. See, e.g., Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 588- 589 (1992); and WHEREAS, in Bacus v. Palo Verde Unified School Dist. Bd. of Educ., 52 Fed. Appx. 355 (9th Cir. 2002), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recognized the continued vitality of Marsh and its applicability to analyzing the constitutionality of legislative prayer; and WHEREAS, the Ninth Circuit held that prayer before deliberative bodies must not "disparage other religious faiths," "proselytize," nor "'advance any one...faith or belief. - Id. at 357 (quoting Marsh, 463 U.S. at 794 -95.); and WHEREAS, the Council intends to avoid all of the unique circumstances that rendered the practices at issue in Bacus unconstitutional, including the facts that: a) The prayer before meetings was "almost always" offered "in the Name of Jesus," despite objection from the community. Id. at 356; and b) The persistent invocations "in the Name of Jesus," "necessarily ha[d] the effect of 'making adherence to a religion relevant' to... 'standing in the political community. - Id. at 357; and c) Such continued and "regular" Christian invocations, to the exclusion of all others, provided Christianity "with a special endorsed and privileged status..." Id.; and d) The same individual almost always offered the invocation, and "no individuals of other religions ever gave the invocation." Id. at 356 -57; and e) The prayer practice was thus not conducted "as is traditional in Congress," where invocations are "rotated among leaders of different faiths, sects, and denominations." Id. at 356 (citing Marsh, 463 U.S. 783 n.13.); and WHEREAS, the Council intends, and has intended in past practice, to adopt a policy that does not proselytize or advance any faith, or show any purposeful preference of one religious view to the exclusion of others; and WHEREAS, the Council recognizes its constitutional duty to interpret, construe, and amend its policies and ordinances to comply with constitutional requirements as they are announced; and 2 WHEREAS, the Council accepts as binding the applicability of general principles of law and all the rights and obligations afforded under the United States and Washington State Constitutions and statutes; therefore, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF YAKIMA: 1. In order to solemnize proceedings of the City Council, it is the policy of the Council to allow for an invocation or prayer to be offered before its meetings for the benefit of the Council. 2. The prayer shall not be listed or recognized as an agenda item for the meeting or as part of the public business. 3. No member or employee of the Council or any other person in attendance at the meeting shall be required to participate in any prayer that is offered. 4. The prayer shall be voluntarily delivered by a single Council member, scheduled on a rotating basis among all Council members who voluntarily choose to participate in the rotational list. 5. The designated Council member shall deliver the prayer or invocation in his or her capacity as a private citizen, and according to the dictates of his or her own conscience. 6. No guidelines or limitations shall be issued regarding an invocation's content, except that the Council shall request by the language of this policy that no prayer should proselytize or advance any faith, or disparage the religious faith or non - religious views of others. 7. No Council member shall receive supplemental compensation of any kind for providing the prayer or invocation. 8. No Council member shall be scheduled to offer a prayer at consecutive meetings of the Council, or at more than ten (10) Council meetings in any calendar year. 9. No other member(s) of the Council shall engage in any prior inquiry, review of, or involvement in, the content of any prayer to be offered by the scheduled Council member. 10. Shortly before the opening gavel that officially begins the meeting and the agenda /business of the public, the Chairperson of the Council shall introduce the invocation speaker and invite only those who wish to do so to stand for the observation of the invocation of and for the Council. 11. This policy in not intended, and shall not be implemented or construed in any way, to affiliate the Council with, nor express the Council's preference for or against, any faith or religious denomination. Rather, this policy is intended to acknowledge and express the Council's respect for the diversity of religious denominations and faiths represented and practiced among the citizens of the City of Yakima. 12. To clarify the Council's intentions, as stated herein above, the following disclaimer shall be included in at least 10 point font at the bottom of any printed Council meeting agenda: "Any invocation that may be offered before the official start of the Council meeting shall be the voluntary offering of a private citizen, to and for the benefit of the Council. The views or beliefs expressed by the invocation speaker have not been previously reviewed or approved by the Council, and the Council does not endorse the religious beliefs or views of this, or any other speaker." ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL this 15 day of February, 2011. Micah Cawley, NJyor ATTEST: 49.417 City Clerk 3 BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL • • YAKIMA, WASHINGTON AGENDA STATEMENT Item No. 7 For Meeting Of February 15, 2011 ITEM TITLE: Resolution approving and adopting policy for opening invocations before meetings of the City Council. SUBMITTED BY: Mark Kunkler, Senior Assistant City Attorney CONTACT PERSON/TELEPHONE: Mark Kunkler — 575 -6030 SUMMARY EXPLANATION: On February 1, 2011, the City Council directed preparation of a policy regarding opening invocations before meetings of the City Council. The attached Resolution incorporates the recommended policy. The policy establishes procedures for rotation of invocation among Council members choosing to participate; states that participation of Council members and all others is voluntary; provides for language to be placed on the agendas for Council meetings advising the public of the invocation and voluntary participation; prescribes that the invocation will occur prior to commencement of the meeting. Resolution X Ordinance Contract •Other(Specify) Policy • Contract Mail to (name and address): Phone: Funding Source APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL: ,/,)(4//' Acting City Manager STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Adopt Resolution BOARD /COMMISSION /COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: Recommended for adoption by Council Rules & Procedures Committee; preparation requested by City Council at February 1, 2011 regular meeting. COUNCIL ACTION: • • CITY OF YAKIMA • LEGAL DEPARTMENT n South Third Street, Yakima, Washington 98901 (509)575-6030 Fax (509)575-6160 MEMORANDUM. February 7, 2011 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Michael A. Morales, Acting City Manager FROM: Mark Kunkler, Senior Assistant City Attorney SUBJECT: - Invocation Policy — Changes to Procedure On February 1, 2011, City Council asked that a written policy be prepared and presented for consideration at the next regular meeting. A Resolution incorporating the provisions of a recommended policy has been prepared and submitted for your review and adoption. If the new policy is adopted, several new procedures will become effective. These are: A. Invocation Not Listed as Agenda Item. The policy provides that "[t]he prayer shall not be listed or recognized as an agenda item for the meeting or as part of the public business." In checking this, I contacted the City of Thomasville, North Carolina. The City of Thomasville adopted a similar policy about two years ago. in that city, the invocation is not listed on the Agenda. Instead, the Mayor introduces the invocation speaker about five minutes before the gavel sounds to open the council meeting. The invocation speaker leads the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. There is then about a two or three minute break before the gavel sounds calling the meeting to order. The policy does not specify a time when the invocation occurs, only that it will occur "shortly before" the opening gavel: Shortly before the opening gavel that officially begins the meeting and the agenda/business .of the public, the Chairperson of the Council shall introduce the invocation speaker and the person selected to recite the • Pledge of Allegiance following the invocation, and invite only those who wish to do so to stand for those observances of and for the Council. Memorandum to Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council February 9, 2011 Page 2 B. Placement of Disclosure Language on Agendas. Council Agendas will include a written statement that reads: "Any invocation that may be offered before the official start of the Council meeting shall be the voluntary offering of a private citizen, to and for the benefit of the Council. The views or beliefs expressed by the invocation speaker have not been previously reviewed or approved by the Council, and the Council does not endorse the religious beliefs or views of this, or any other speaker." The policy provides that this statement will be at the bottom of the Agenda in not less than 10-point font. C. Participation of Council Members. The policy calls for invocations to be offered by Council members on a rotational basis. However, participation by any Council member in the rotation is voluntary. A participating Council • member may offer an invocation as his or her conscience dictates. A Council member may offer to observe a moment of silence in lieu of a verbal invocation. D. Rotation,. The policy states that the invocation will be "rotated" among the participating Council members, and that no Council member may offer the invocation more than five (5) times per year, nor offer invocations at consecutive Council meetings. The "five (5) times per year" was chosen using the following rationale: The Council meets twice per month, thus 24 regular meetings per year. There are seven (7) Council members. Dividing 24 meetings by seven Council members equals approximately 3.4. The number 3.4 was simply revised upward to five (5) for ease of administration. The number may be altered, but it is advisable to keep the number close to four, five or six to help assure a sufficient rotation among all Council members. E. No Prior Review of Invocation or Limitations. No guidelines or limitations shall be issued regarding an invocation's content, "except that the Council shall request by the language of this policy that no prayer should proselytize or advance any faith, or disparage the religious faith or non-religious views of others." Memorandum to Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council 410 February 9, 2011 Page 3 F. Pledge of Allegiance. The policy provides that the Mayor will "introduce the invocation speaker and the person selected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance following the invocation." The invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance may be given by the same person. •