“This resolution is actually not my job”: Alachua County Commission hears over 3 hours of public comment on ceasefire resolution but moves on without a motion

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the January 23 Alachua County Commission meeting, over 70 people lined up to speak during General Public Comment, which lasted almost three and a half hours, about a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. At the end of the General Public Comment period, the board moved on to the next agenda item without making any motions on the topic.

Chair Mary Alford led off the General Public Comment period, which is reserved for comments on items that are not on the agenda, by encouraging people to combine their time; the board’s rules allow a member of the public to yield their time to a second person, who then gets six minutes to speak instead of three minutes.

Alford asked the other commissioners if they wanted to limit the length of General Public Comment, which is limited by their rules to 30 minutes unless the board extends it. Commissioner Ken Cornell said he thought an hour was appropriate, but Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said, “I don’t worry about a time limit. You know, I feel like if people are here to speak, then we should allow it.”

The “Resolution calling for a ceasefire amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza” that was considered by the board on January 9 can be found here and focuses on the suffering of Gazans due to the war. It urges the Biden administration to “continue working to facilitate… an immediate, permanent, ceasefire” and “ensure the provision of humanitarian aid… for people in Israel and Gaza.”

On January 9, the board asked both sides to get together and “come up with a resolution that all parties can agree on and support,” but that effort was unsuccessful.

On January 23, 47 people spoke in favor of a ceasefire resolution, 16 spoke against it, and eight people spoke on other topics.

There were several outbursts from the audience while anti-resolution speakers were at the podiums, and Alford threatened three times to remove people; the fourth time she admonished the audience, she asked one person to leave.

One pro-resolution speaker asked the audience to raise their hands if they knew “exactly what [she was] describing.” Alford told her she needed to address the Chair and not the audience; however, Alford allowed the speaker to say, “Please snap,” after each statement she made, resulting in many people in the audience snapping their fingers throughout her comments. 

Three hours into public comment, at about 3:15 p.m., Alford said that if they were not done with public comment by 3:30, they would take a break. Cornell said that with staff waiting to make presentations on the day’s agenda, the board should just end public comment at 3:30, and Alford agreed. 

At 3:30, Alford thanked everyone and said, “I did want to remind you that the ceasefire resolution is not on our agenda today. That doesn’t mean that at some point a Commissioner might bring it up, but it is not currently on our agenda.”

After a break, Alford started to move on to the items on the agenda, but Commissioner Anna Prizzia said they’d just had three and a half hours of public comment and should respond. 

Cornell: “I don’t think we should pursue this anymore”

Cornell thanked the “brave souls who have shared their personal stories today… I’m saddened by these efforts, and I think these efforts have really caused a lot of community division. And I understand the passion on both sides… I don’t agree with the military industrial complex, but I also understand my role as a County Commissioner, and unfortunately, weighing in on this geopolitical issue and this resolution is actually not my job. It’s not why I was elected, and I don’t think we should pursue this anymore, at this time.”

Prizzia: “I feel an obligation to have the conversation and at least make a decision”

Prizzia remarked on the number of groups asking the board to consider the resolution: “So while I hear you saying you weren’t elected to do this, I think we were elected by those people, and those people are bringing forward something that they’re asking us to consider. And I know it’s not an easy decision because there is a lot of division and a lot of dissension around this. But I think the one thing that we can all agree on is that we want to see peace and we want to see a ceasefire… I feel an obligation to have the conversation and at least make a decision one way or the other.”

Prizzia added, “Sometimes our leaders need to hear from the people. That’s why we’re democratically elected. And sometimes that includes local elected officials who represent the voices of a lot of people so that our President can hear that people in the United States of America support a ceasefire because we support a diplomatic solution to this problem.” She said both sides were targeting civilians in the war, “and it’s our obligation, everyone’s obligation in this world right now, to turn their eyes to that crisis and say, ‘No more. You may not kill each other in this way anymore.'” She said she thought they could find language that the members of the board could support to “condemn all the violence” and “support a diplomatic solution.” 

Wheeler: “My concern is that the climate of this country is so hostile at this point”

Wheeler said that if they decided to support this, other local groups would come to them about other international issues, and “my concern is that the climate of this country is so hostile at this point that anybody who looks different or dresses different is a target… My concern is for the safety and well-being of the people in this community… and Florida tends to be a hotbed for this kind of controversy.”

Chestnut: “I think it is divisive”

Commissioner Chuck Chestnut said he would support “a resolution that addressed both sides… But to choose one side or another side, I don’t want to do that; I think it is divisive.”

Cornell said he agreed with much of what Prizzia had said, but “we are actually a subdivision of the state, and so I just don’t think that this is something that we, as County Commissioners, should continue to spend staff resources for… We have the work of the County to do, and that’s what we were elected to do.” He said he would make a motion during Commissioner Comment to no longer pursue the resolution, but he didn’t do that.

Prizzia said she heard the board “loud and clear–there is not consensus on this board that we would get a resolution passed.” However, she thanked the ceasefire supporters for “bringing the resolution forward… and thank you for all the work that you did, to think about the fact that we need to represent peace in this community.”

Alford: “I’m sorry that it looks like that’s not going to happen right now”

Alford said she and Cornell were heading to Washington, D.C., on February 8 and that she would take her notes from General Public Comment with her when she talked to legislators. She said she was elected “not to count the people that show up at the podium, but I was elected to make a decision based on my conscience… I’m sorry that it looks like that’s not going to happen right now.” However, she agreed it was time to “move on for County business.”