Vacaville meeting erupts over mayor’s refusal to sign Pride Month proclamation; council votes to review policy and allow vice mayor to submit proclamation

Dozens of residents urged the Vacaville City Council on May 20 to issue a Pride Month proclamation after Mayor John Carley told the council he would not sign a proclamation this year.

Public-comment speakers included LGBTQ advocates, veterans and residents who said the mayor's refusal signals exclusion. Will McGarvey, executive director of the Solano Pride Center, told the council his group had followed the city's application process but had not received timely communication and called the treatment discriminatory: "You are treating us differently, so you are breaking your oath of office to us." Several speakers described bullying and harassment they said would be exacerbated by the lack of a mayoral proclamation.

The contentions continued inside the council chamber. Some speakers defended the mayor's decision and said a municipal proclamation was inappropriate for ideological matters. Others asked the council to put the question to voters or to limit city proclamations to strictly non-political subjects.

After public comment the council considered two procedural items. First, council voted 4-3 to direct staff to return with a review of the city's existing proclamation policy (the policy was adopted in 2017). The roll call recorded votes on that motion as "yes" from Ritchie, Silva, Wylie and Vice Mayor Chapman and "no" from Stockton, Freeman and Mayor Carley.

Later in the meeting council conducted a separate vote, 4-3, to allow Vice Mayor Chapman to submit a Pride Month proclamation to city staff for legal review and, if the document met legal and policy requirements, for the vice mayor to sign it. Roll-call entries on this second motion showed yes votes from Wiley, Chapman, Ritchie and Silva and no votes from Stockton, Freeman and Mayor Carley.

Mayor Carley told the chamber he relied on the written proclamation policy in making his decision and said the policy disallows issuance of proclamations that would amount to an official city stance on ideological or religious beliefs. Several council members and many members of the public said the timing and handling of requests were problematic and urged clearer processes and better outreach.

Councilmembers and staff said the return item on the proclamation policy will be agendized for full review. The council did not adopt or reject any substantive proclamation text during the May 20 meeting.

The public comment period on Pride and related topics consumed the bulk of the evening's public-comment time; the mayor recessed the meeting after more than two hours of public testimony.

What is next: staff will bring the proclamation policy back for council review at a future meeting. Vice Mayor Chapman has indicated she will submit text for legal review under the procedural motion passed by the council.