Board of Aldermen 3-10-2020 Page 17
So it is passed into law, why they didn’t do the Board of Aldermen at the same time, | have no idea but we
can certainly do this. We can take care of this next year. So | see absolutely no problem with this, in
preparation for the change that we see coming. | will vote yes.
Alderman Dowd
| don’t have any ... two years ago when people wanted to be called Alderwoman, | had no problem
changing that, making the name tags and | have under the circumstances, calling someone an
Alderperson. | just don’t think we need Legislation to do it, because if you have Legislation and somebody
slips are they breaking the law? | think that in another two years somebody can come on and change it. |
think we have more Legislation already that we don’t need. So | think if the Board is amendable we use
those titles for anybody that wants them on their tag, that’s fine. | just don’t think we need the Legislation.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you. The reason that we need the Legislation is because we have people in our community who
have served in this position before, attacking this very Legislation. And if people of that mind were to get
elected to this Board simultaneously with somebody who would prefer to be called an “Alderperson”,
passing this now would require them to go through the rigmarole of rescinding the Ordinance, which would
be embarrassing for them. So that’s why it is important that we pass this now. Because if a future Board
decides that this is too politically correct for them, they can be more than happy to submit Legislation to
rescind the Ordinance but they would have to go through that process and the public would be made aware
of it. And so that’s why it is important that we pass this tonight.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you. | think it was Shakespeare who said, “a rose by any other name would still be a rose”. And the
thing is, when you come down to it, what are we really doing here? We are changing a name, OK? So up
at the State House we had a really big issue. What the big issue is what do people really want to call
themselves. So when it came down to licenses, now when you do your driver’s license, you have to clarify
your sex. You could either be a male or female, were the traditional choices. But we, in my Committee,
approved a non-binary that you could be X if you so choose, OK? That was doing something. Changing
the name is not doing much. Coming out with a statement from this particular Board that says, “We as
Aldermen do not support any discrimination based on race, color, sex, or creed or sexual orientation” that
would be making a statement, not changing a name. | am not going to support this because it’s just a
name change. But! would definitely support and | throw myself right behind trying to, | don’t care what
people call, but let’s be unified as a Board and say we are a welcoming City and we want to support that
everybody from all walks in the City, feel welcome to serve on this Board, regardless of what your title — the
title means nothing. Again a rose is just a rose by any other name. When you come here non-
discriminatory.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you. So! am going to start by clarifying one thing. There was a comment that there was in
discussion at the Committee that we wanted it to be City Council and we realized that was how it was set
up at the State, it’s not feasible. There was discussion that City Councilor is non-gender specific and |
really appreciate that from that perspective but also because people know what a City Councilor is. | tell
people I’m an Alderman or Alderwoman and people’s eyes glaze over. | think they pointed out that two
cities in the whole State are Board of Aldermen.
| appreciate the perspectives of everyone on this Board. But! would like to remind people that the Board
didn’t always look like this. One of the things | talk about when | talk about our Board is how proud | am
that we are a true representation of our City; we have 7 women. We have 4 or 5 people under age 40; we
have 2 people of color.
