Federal Way council agrees to draft revised flag policy, will send proposal to committee for review

Federal Way — The Federal Way City Council on Tuesday discussed whether and how the city should fly community and commemorative flags, with members agreeing by consensus to send a draft policy to a council committee for development and later review by city commissions.

City Attorney Ryan Culler opened with a legal overview, telling councilors that the Supreme Court has made clear a municipality that claims "government speech" must adopt a written policy and apply it uniformly. "You need to have a written policy ahead of time and apply it equally if you're going to call it government speech," Culler said, warning that open-ended or highly subjective criteria increase First Amendment risk.

Culler summarized the city's current approach as narrow: the policy permits the U.S. flag, the Washington state flag, a Federal Way city flag, the POW-MIA flag, and branch flags at the Veterans Memorial when appropriate. He also surveyed nearby cities that take a range of approaches — from preapproved lists to executive discretion — and said the council needed to give direction so staff could draft a defensible policy.

Councilors split on the right path. Councilor Sessoms urged a balanced approach that recognizes the city's diversity while avoiding perceptions of favoritism, proposing "a community advisory panel comprising of diverse residents, including students, ethnic leaders, LGBTQ advocates, veterans, and faith voices" to recommend which flags or recognition events the city should adopt. "This revised policy will look very similar to the old policy," Sessoms said, adding that public education about recognized events could reduce divisiveness.

Council member Walsh said she supports celebrating diversity but cautioned that "in trying to do it via the flag policy, we can end up creating divisiveness rather than unity," and suggested using an annual Federal Way International Community Festival as a separate way to celebrate the city's multicultural population.

Several councilors, including Moore and Hamilton, recommended the issue be taken up by a council committee (often described in shorthand as Parks and Human Services) to draft policy language and solicit feedback from commissions before the full council votes. "We can develop something and then give it to the diversity commission, seek feedback, and they can get back to us for us to make a final decision," Council member Moore said. Council members noted that commissions advise but the elected council must make the final policy decision.

There was no formal motion or roll-call vote on a substantive policy change during the special meeting. Instead, councilors expressed consensus on sending the issue to a council committee to draft a policy with legal counsel involved; that draft would then be shared with commissions and returned to the full council for consideration.

The mayor then announced an executive session on collective bargaining, citing the transcripted statutory reference, and recessed the meeting; councilors said the full council will reconvene afterward.

What comes next: staff and the designated council committee will draft proposed policy language, consult with legal counsel, and circulate the draft to relevant commissions for input before the council takes a formal vote.