Monday night, Geneva witnessed a deliberate attack on our city’s democratic governance: Mayor Steve Valentino, City Manager Sage Gerling, and a crowd of aggressive “Back the Blue” supporters deliberately prevented the Geneva City Council from conducting the business of the city by prematurely and improperly forcing a council work session to end.
Throughout the meeting, Mayor Valentino permitted and even seemed to subtly encourage (with a thumbs up) the disruptive behavior of the crowd. He failed to stop them from shouting out in support of the police chief and heckling pro-PRB city councilors. Emboldened by the mayor’s tolerance of their actions, the crowd seized complete control of the meeting after Councilor Salamendra expressed a desire for council to finish their questions for the police chief and lieutenant so that the officers could then leave and council could continue their discussion. Before Councilor Salamendra could finish speaking, Councilor Pealer stormed out of the room and the crowd began to yell even more aggressively at Councilor Salamendra, telling her to leave and questioning her legitimacy as an elected official. At this point, Mayor Valentino unilaterally announced that the meeting was “over” without consulting any of the other councilors. This is an abuse of his powers.
As the meeting dissolved, combative members of the crowd physically approached Councilor Salamendra. No member of the city staff intervened to stop them, assist Councilor Salemendra, or attempt to diffuse the situation. Instead, City Manager Gerling immediately went to check on the police chief and lieutenant, smiling and putting her hand on the lieutenant’s back. Soon after, the officers walked through the room—audience members pausing in their verbal assault on Councilor Salamendra just long enough to cheer, clap, and slap the officers on the back—and left without any attempt to mitigate the increasingly hostile situation. Mayor Valentino approached some audience members who had remained by their seats, apologizing to them for not being able to prevent Councilor Salamendra from speaking. Councilor Anthony Noone rose and shouted at his fellow councilors Camera and Regan that they were to blame, saying (with more than a hint of paternalism and overt misogyny) that they had been “allowing her [Salamendra] to get out of hand.” And throughout all of this, Councilor Salamendra was left to fend for herself against the physically threatening crowd, firmly demanding that they “back up.” At this point, at the instruction of the mayor, city staff cut the public Youtube feed even though no vote to adjourn the meeting had taken place.
As the room began to clear, Councilor Camera suggested that since the council still had a quorum (Councilors Pruett, Burrall, Camera, Regan, and Salamendra were all still present) the meeting could resume. City Manager Gerling became agitated at this suggestion and responded by declaring that she, City Clerk Lori Guinan, and Assistant City Manager Adam Blowers would be leaving. The possibility of resuming the meeting continued to be discussed until Mayor Valentino (having re-entered the room) insisted that everyone leave as City Manager Gerling wanted to lock up—despite the fact that the room was reserved for nearly another hour. Given that Mayor Valentino and City Manager Gerling were intent on preventing the legitimate continuation of the city business, the remaining people left the room.
These events of last night are disturbing on a number of levels:
Not only did the mayor aid and abet “Back the Blue” audience members in their attempt to derail and overtake the meeting…
Not only were our police chief and his lieutenant flagrantly derelict in their duty to intervene and prevent violence when an aggressive crowd threatened a city councilor (just after arguing that the only way to keep the city—the whole city—safe was with more police)…
Not only did the city staff deliberately exceed their authority and interfere with the operations of the city council…
Not only all of these individual things, but together last night also showed how our police state mobilizes to stop the democratic process. Last night, on June 7, we all saw how January 6th came home to roost in Geneva. This is bigger than the mayor, the city manager, or the police chief—it is the rising tide of white supremacy, the result of a classist system that mass incarcerates poor people, and the patriarchy protecting itself from powerful women. The people of this city must stand up against these abuses and help create a Geneva that runs on the power of the people.