MA City Leaders Ask for Compromise over Flag for Fallen FFs
Source Firehouse.com News
City lawmakers are asking a mayor to reconsider her decision to take down a remembrance flag honoring fallen firefighters that had flown at a Massachusetts fire station.
Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller had the Thin Red Line flag that had been hanging inside Station 4 for the past 2½ years removed shortly before Flag Day on June 14. The removal was part of Fuller's larger decision to allow only the U.S. flag and city banners to be displayed on municipal buildings.
"The mayor supports the values embedded in the Firefighters Remembrance Flag and is deeply grateful for the sacrifices made by our firefighters," a statement from Fuller's office said, according to Wicked Local Metro. "This is not about one particular flag. Rather, this is about not putting the city in a position of censoring/endorsing which banners and ideas put forward by our employees will be on the sides of our buildings."
Last week, 20 city council members signed a letter to the mayor asking for a compromise to the situation. Under the proposal, a remembrance flag with a different design—the original from 1999 that isn't a variation on the U.S. flag—could be flown on flag poles outside city stations, Newton Patch reports.
"(The mayor's decision) angered the entire fire squad, which is what we don't need," City Council Vice President Rick Lipof told Patch.
"Our mayor has been working a lot of 17 hour days and having to make a lot of quick decisions, this one was just a little too quick and should have been thought through a little more," he added.
The removal prompted the Newton Firefighters Association, Local 863, to file a complaint against the city with the Department of Labor Relations, claiming the Thin Red Line flag "is a protected activity under the collective bargaining laws of the Commonwealth." Two rallies also were held to protest the decision, although the union wasn't responsible for organizing the demonstrations, according to Marc Rizza, the union's president.
"I like the mayor. I just think she's made a bad decision," he told Patch.
