The husband of late Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan has blasted the City Council for covering up her image on the backs of banners hung on lampposts as part of the Arts Alive program, according to a report in The Coast News.
“It’s shameful that you would try to marginalize and detract from the legacy of a woman who made so many contributions in so many ways to this community, especially in death when she is no longer able to defend herself,” the paper quoted widower Ian Thompson as telling the Encinitas City Council at its Wednesday meeting.
The Coast News reported:
Organizers of the Arts Alive banner program, a decades-old tradition where local artists create works of art on banners to hang on street side lampposts and later auction off, sought to display a likeness of Houlihan, on the backs of the banners only to be denied by City Manager Gus Vina during the permitting process. The banners received the necessary permits after organizers decided to place a blue vinyl sticker over Houlihan’s image, which could be removed once the banners came down.
The Encinitas-based paper said attorneys for the Coast Law Group and ACLU warned the council that its decision amounts to ‘viewpoint’ decision-making and is a violation of the First Amendment.”
Livia Borak, an attorney at Coast Law Group, was quoted by The Coast News as saying: “These rules cannot be made on the spot, they simply cannot.”
Houlihan, first elected to the council in 2000, died in mid-September at age 63 after a battle with endometrial cancer.
I am deeply offended that this decision deprived Mr. Thompson of an opportunity to continue the discussion about an issue that is so personal to him, and which is equally important to many others in Encinitas. Moreover, I find it disrespectful to Livia Borak, who in addition to representing Coast Law Group, is also an Encinitas citizen. Couldn’t there have been a better option than making her wait 4 ½ hours to do a 3 minute oral presentation?
I had asked, during my 3 minutes of oral communications, that one extra speaker might be heard. The new policy, which was initiated under Jerome Stocks, as I recall, to force any speakers over 5 to wait until after all agenda items are heard, was "memorialized," as far as I can understand, with the same resolution in which it was determined personal electronic devices cannot be used on the dais. However, an allowance IS MADE in the new policy, for the presiding officer to allow for additional time at the beginning of the meeting with a consensus of Council. Julie is correct, to make one person wait 4 1/2 hours to speak for 3 minutes is not about saving time, for Council. It's about demeaning the public and proving that the mayor has "absolute" control. Current Mayor Stocks is clearly a "control freak," as is evidenced by his direction to our City Manager that the banners could not be permitted with Maggie's image on the back. Stocks can no longer touch Maggie Houlihan. She is beyond his petty, vindictive treatment of her, while alive, and now, after her untimely death on 9/16/11. Russell and I attended Maggie's memorial at Cottonwood Creek. We now understand that a permit was refused for that ceremony, as well, although it was held, anyway!