Though a Fort Collins City Council vote last week ended a months-long discussion regarding holiday decorations on city property, one councilman said the initial question of menorah placement still has not been answered.
Councilman Wade Troxell circulated an e-mail to other council members and staff saying the city had not satisfied the need for an inclusionary city square open for free religious expression and that it should scrap parts of the plan the council adopted 6-1.
Troxell said the council needed to work with Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelik — whose denied request to place a menorah marking Hanukkah on city property two years ago sparked the debate — to integrate a menorah with the traditional Christmas display.
Troxell cast the lone dissenting vote Nov. 20 to the proposal that maintained traditional, secular Christmas symbols such as decorated trees and colored lights on city buildings. It also created a display for next year on the Fort Collins Museum property that could have religious symbols such as the menorah.
“The museum display isn’t inclusionary at all. It’s a perversion of inclusion,” he said. “It will be developed by city workers, which isn’t an expression of faith. It’s an interpretation.”
The City Council adopted the best compromise between the July-appointed task force’s recommendation to allow only secular imagery on city property and the alternative option to maintain the status-quo of allowing only traditional Christmas decorations, Mayor Doug Hutchinson said.
“This should be a success story,” Hutchinson said. “The only thing that’s changed is that before the 20th, you couldn’t put a menorah up anywhere on city property. Now we’ve created a display that has a place for those expressions.”
Hutchinson added that the council is looking into Troxell’s idea to establish an “open city square,” but such a policy could not be adopted until next year at the earliest.
Cassie Hewlings: 303-954-1638 or chewlings@denverpost.com
