Pride Flag Will Not Fly At Village Hall In Arlington Heights

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Following a request to fly a Pride flag at Village Hall, the Arlington Heights Village Board voted 5-3 in favor of an ordinance last week to limit the number of flags flying on property owned, leased or controlled by the Village to just the current four: United States of America, State of Illinois, Village of Arlington Heights and the National League of Families POW/MIA flags.

Prior to the July 6 vote, those four flags have been flying at Village Hall, but there was no written policy stating those were the selected ones on the books. A request to fly a Pride flag by a resident made to Village Manager Randy Recklaus precipitated the policy update.

"The Village can and has supported various causes in other ways over the years, but for me, the answer to the question before us tonight is plain, simple and straight-forward," said Mayor Tom Hayes, who was joined by trustees Richard Baldino, Jim Tinaglia, John Scaletta and Jim Bertucci in voting in favor of the ordinance. "Local government flagpoles should be limited to flying only those flags all of its residents can support. For many practical and legal reasons, I believe that a local government should not be making political or social content-based statements on its flagpoles."

Prior to the final vote, Trustee Nicolle Grasse proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would have allowed the Village Board to vote to fly any flags that have been flown by federal and state governments. It failed by a 4-4 vote. Grasse was joined by trustees Mary Beth Canty and Robin LaBedz in voting down the ordinance in the final vote. Baldino, who had supported Grasse's amendment, eventually voted for the ordinance.

"Culture always changes with time. A static concept of tradition fossilizes a society and risks rolling back rights and freedoms of others, rather than advancing human rights," Grasse said. "I believe it's our Village Board's responsibility to put together an ordinance that allows us to adapt to our changing culture and uphold the rights and freedom of all our residents, now and in the future."

Trustee Tom Schwingbeck was not at the meeting and did not vote.

At the beginning of a discussion that lasted more than 90 minutes of the July 6 meeting, Hayes stated he wanted to clarify that the eventually adopted ordinance wasn't in response to requests to fly the Pride flag specifically.

"We're also not here to prohibit the flying of any flag by private citizens, private businesses or anywhere on private property," Hayes said. "Rather, the proposed flag ordinance is a way to deal with the bigger picture issue of handling all requests to fly special flags on Village flagpoles going forward."

Nearly 30 residents addressed the board during the public comment portion of the meeting with the majority speaking out against the ordinance.

"There was an opportunity for public input, and it's a very important part of the process. As you heard tonight, it swayed one trustee to change their vote," Hayes said in addressing the crowd, amid some jeers. "As I indicated in my introductory comments, this was not a referendum on the Pride flag."

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