Peabody Mayor Seeks Formal Authority Over City Hall Flag-Flying Requests

PEABODY, MA — Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt is asking the City Council to grant him authority to reject requests to fly flags at City Hall that might not be in line with the city's values in the form of a formal policy following threats of court action against other cities and towns that have denied such requests.

Bettencourt told the City Council Legal Affairs Committee Monday night that while he has never felt the need to reject a group seeking to raise its flag at City Hall the formal policy is an attempt to "get out ahead of a potential issue that may arise in the future" based on the evolving political climate in the country.

"Admittedly, this was not an item that I was very familiar with," he told the Committee. "But with what's happened, I think in large part based on the tense political atmosphere that has taken hold in this country, this has become a topic that has come up at a number of meetings that I have had with my colleagues — mayors, town managers, state officials."

He said that the consensus is that having no policy at all is what leaves a municipality open to court action — as it did when Boston rejected the request to raise the "Christian" flag at City Hall Plaza based on concerns about the separation of church and state, and later lost a case argued in front of the Supreme Court in 2021.

"The city has always been very generous in raising the flags of different nationalities and organizations to commemorate or to pay tribute with those flags," Bettencourt said. "But there have been times very recently where some organizations have come forward requesting flags to be raised that I don't think really fit the spirit of what we want here in the city."

Bettencourt said the text of the Peabody policy was based on similar policies in place in Beverly and Lynn.

"I think this is important for us to take (this step) just envisioning where we stand in our nation that there could be a request from an organization that would be not what we want and we would not be proud to be raised above City Hall," he said. "By having a policy in place we believe we are secure in making decisions about what flags are flown here."

The Legal Affairs Committee voted unanimously in support of the policy that now goes to the City Council for full approval.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)