The City of Signal Hill will fly 10 commemorative flags in 2022, in addition to its regularly flown national, state and city flags. Commemorative flags will be raised on flagpoles outside Signal Hill’s city hall, public library and police station, per a 2019 Signal Hill City Council resolution.
The council approved flying all 10 flags during its meeting on Dec. 14, after having discussed the proposed list on Nov. 9. Mayor Keir Jones—who initiated flying the LGBTQ Pride flag in 2019, leading to the city’s flag policy—proposed all ten flags for 2022, according to Deputy City Manager Scott Charney.
The first commemorative flag for 2022 will display the Signal Hill Police Department’s insignia to recognize National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day on Jan. 9. The City will fly the flag from Jan. 3 to Feb. 1.
The City will then fly flags commemorating Black History Month in February; Women’s History Month in March; World Health Workers in April; Public Service Recognition Week from May 2 to May 9; Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month from May 9 to 22; the Pride flag from May 22 to June 30, recognizing both Harvey Milk Day in May and June as Pride Month; Labor Day from Sept. 1 to Sept. 15; National Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 17; and Native American Heritage Month in November.
Council discussion around the flags centered on their potential cost—which Jones estimated at $20 per flag—and providing the community with context about the flags, especially through the Signal Hill Public Library.
“We could do a greater service to the community by getting the word out as to what they are, why we’re flying them and what meaning they have,” Vice Mayor Tina Hansen said during the Nov. 9 council meeting.
The council agreed during its Dec. 14 meeting that the City will neither pay for flags nor provide additional budgeting for library presentations on them. Instead, the library will proceed with its planned cultural activities, plus any additional displays based on the flags, at its discretion.
Community Services Director Ali Mancini said library programming usually includes four to six different cultural displays and activities per year, financed by the library’s budget. Programs usually depend on the interest or expertise of library staff members, she said.
Typical examples include cultural displays and activities for Black History Month, Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos, though the library has also offered programs related to Women’s History Month and LGBTQ Pride Month, Mancini said.
“From year to year, we do have different things popping up,” she said.
Library staff plans a year’s worth of activities within its allotted budget, Mancini said, managing what they can in addition to the librarians’ daily duties. Any additional programming around the council’s chosen commemorative flags may be more informational than in-depth, she said.
But Mancini expressed interest in collaborating either financially or through sharing materials with community members or organizations in creating activities or displays related to the commemorative flags.
Vice Mayor Tina Hansen noted that the council’s original intent behind the 2019 flag policy was for interested organizations to propose flags to the council that they would sponsor.
“We can’t put the onus on our staff,” Hansen said. “That was never the intention of this program.”
All council members approved the list of 10 commemorative flags except Councilmember Edward Wilson, who suggested the City should fly flags for no more than 30 days to avoid scheduling conflicts, such as the one between AAPI and public-service recognition in May 2022.
Wilson asked Charney whether the Pride flag flying for longer than 30 days is part of the original 2019 resolution, which Charney was not able to confirm during the meeting.
Contentious history of Signal Hill’s commemorative flags
Signal Hill’s flag policy has faced contention by both council members and the public during the past three years as the council has worked out its details. Councilmember Lori Woods voted against the initial policy, objecting to flying flags on City flagpoles without explanatory context.
The council also heard dozens of objections during its Oct. 8, 2019 meeting as it debated the flag policy and during its Jan. 28, 2020 meeting, when it chose which flags to fly that year. Most speakers identified as either from the Calvary Chapel Signal Hill and decried all commemorative flags or those representing LGBTQ interests who supported them.
The process was less contentious by Jan. 26, 2021, however, when the council approved five commemorative flags—including a Cambodian flag in April to recognize a genocide that began there on April 17, 1975. Woods did not comment and was not present during the vote.
“It’s a good thing to actually show inclusion,” then-mayor Wilson said at the time. “That’s what flags do.”
However, the council’s subsequent intent to raise the Cambodian flag again on May 20 as per that nation’s official National Day of Remembrance drew the ire of hundreds of local and national Cambodian immigrants who survived the genocide, the anniversary of which they recognize in April, not May, as they expressed during a special May 17 council meeting.
The council voted 3-1 during that meeting against amending the flag policy to raise the Cambodian flag on May 20. However, Wilson proceeded to raise the flag that day anyway in front of City Hall and in the presence of a small delegation of Cambodians.
The council then voted 3-2 during its June 8 meeting to table Wilson’s agenda item of playing a video of that May 20 flag-raising—the first time the council has censored a member voicing new business. Only Councilmember Robert Copeland joined Wilson in opposing the decision.
“It does make it look like the City is now celebrating May 20, which is something we voted against,” Copeland said. “But I’m a little bit concerned about us shutting down another council member.”
Though Wilson voted against the council’s Dec. 14 approval of 10 commemorative flags for 2022—a list that does not include the Cambodian flag—the process was not contentious, with only Wilson and Hansen expressing general disfavor of the flag policy and Woods still supporting the idea of education to accompany such flags.
