Huntington Beach mayor will select who gives invocation at City Council meetings
The invocation given before Huntington Beach City Council meetings has been an afterthought in the minds of many.
It has traditionally been handled by leaders of the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, founded in 1996 after a series of hate crimes in the city.
The City Council itself has typically stayed out of it. But that changed at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland introduced a motion that would let the mayor choose who gives the invocation, and it passed 4-2-1.
Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark, Casey McKeon and Pat Burns joined Strickland in voting for the change, with Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton voting against. Dan Kalmick abstained.
Strickland drew on his experience in state government in pitching the idea.
“There was no policy that ever gave the Interfaith Council the ability to give these prayers,” he said. “My experience is that the Speaker of the Assembly picks who picks the person giving the invocation, the Senate Pro Tem, many other organizations.”
A 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Greece vs. Galloway backs up prayers being given before public meetings, though limiting them to one faith would likely violate the 1st Amendment.
The conservative majority elected last fall has voiced displeasure with the Interfaith Council, claiming that the invocations it provided were too politicized, though details have been scarce.
Strickland has pointed to an invocation given Dec. 6 by Rabbi Stephen Einstein, co-founder of the Interfaith Council, at the inauguration of the four new members. In the prayer, Einstein, in part, mentioned religious groups that had recently been the victim of hate crimes.
Some in the crowd interrupted, yelling out, “Christians!” After Einstein’s invocation at that December meeting, controversial Calvary Chapel of the Harbour pastor Joe Pedick gave a second invocation.
At its Feb. 21 meeting, the City Council discussed preparing an invocation policy and having a rotating list of approved religious leaders.
Since then, chaplains from the police and fire departments — both Christian — have offered a prayer at the start of each meeting. Bob Ewing, a pastor with First Christian Church, did the honors at Tuesday’s meeting. At the previous five meetings, the invocation had been done by Roger Wing,
With no progress made on the list, Moser introduced an item Tuesday that would possibly replace the invocation with a moment of silence. Residents largely voiced disapproval of that idea during public comments.
“But when I heard the [public comments] tonight, many of them, what I heard was that it actually has been good over the past period of time, with people of different faiths giving invocations,” Moser said. “Some of the emails that were received said the same thing. For me, that makes that case for the way that it was.”
Moser expressed frustration after Tuesday night’s meeting at the new direction Strickland decided to take.
“All of the things that the mayor said about their previous item were all gone tonight,” she said. “Not politicized, nondenominational, all of these things, and then tonight all of that went away. I think it does a disservice to our city.”
Strickland said that he worked with Assistant City Atty. Mike Vigliotta to make sure he could have that authority.
“Whoever makes the choice, though, it cannot be someone from the same religious tradition all the time,” Bolton warned. “I think that puts us in jeopardy of legal issues.”
Strickland again responded with personal experience. He said that when Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who is Jewish, was the California Senate president pro tempore, someone who was Jewish gave the invocation.
“I will work to make sure we get different faiths here,” Strickland said.
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