On one level, Thursday’s Philadelphia City Council meeting marked the end of the body’s honeymoon period.
I’m not sure if he still watches the meetings of the body that he used to lead, but if he does, I’m pretty sure that former Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke looked at Thursday’s meeting with a sense of déjà vu.
That’s because the Israel-Hamas conflict, a subject that never seems to go away when it comes to Council for some reason, reared its ugly head during public comment at Thursday’s meeting.
But instead of it leading to the cancellation of public comment, an unprecedented step that Clarke had to take during one of his last meetings as council president, it ended up answering a question that many of us had been asking since Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson took the gavel from Clarke in January.
That question? How long would it take before Johnson and his opponent for Council President, Curtis Jones, showed that bygones aren’t quite as bygone as they’d like everyone to believe during a council session.
Philadelphia’s version of the San Andreas Fault opened upat 49:49 of Thursday’s Council Meeting and the Israel-Hamas conflict made the crack. Every week, Gaza activist Kate Perez comes before Council to talk about the number of children killed in that conflict every week.
And every week, Council President Johnson reminds her that the Israel-Hamas conflict is not on the agenda and can’t be addressed in public comment.
But unlike every other week, Councilman Jones, one of the two Muslim members of City Council, decided to push back and challenge Johnson’s decision. At a time when those who practice his faith are observing the most sacred month of the year, Council shouldn’t be dismissive of what’s happening to Muslims in that part of the world, he said.
“We have to do better,” he said. “This is a forum, and we have to follow our protocol on who and how people speak to things, but we need to create a forum where we privately listen to what she has to say. This is the month of Ramadan and I’m a team player, I really am. I try to be. But when there is something egregious…we at this body don’t want to fight the Middle East war here in City Council, but doggone it, we have to be fair. She comes here every week, tries to be heard, and we shut her down. That has to stop. We will not ignore it. Not another week.”
In response, Council President Johnson reminded his colleague of the rules of council, and that they were voted on as part of his election as Council President, while Councilmember Anthony Phillips said his door was always open to discuss issues that didn’t make it to the final passage calendar.
When Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson called for the Orders of the Day, meaning that it was time to get back to business, the debate ended.
Toward the end of the meeting, Councilmember Jones thanked Gilmore Richardson for calming him down, but he also reiterated that silencing people instead of talking with them, hurts everyone.
“We should always strive to do better,” Jones said. “When you listen to everyone, you gain from that experience.”
But while he recognizes that, anyone who comes to council and wishes to speak has to follow the rules, Johnson said.
“The rules exist for a reason, and just because we follow the rules doesn’t mean that we’re shutting anyone down,” he said. “Yes, this is the people’s house. But the rules are in place for a reason.”
Following the meeting, both men shook hands and even posed for pictures. But it’s a good thing that Council is going to have some time off. But I don’t think that this issue is going away.
Maybe some time off for the Easter holiday will cool things down.
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