A City Council meeting was cancelled in Homer, Alaska this week after several members declined to attend because the city was going to recognize Pride Month.
Mayor Bryan Zak had been scheduled to read a mayoral recognition in support of Pride Month at Monday’s regularly scheduled city council meeting. After numerous emails poured in both in support and in opposition of the recognition, council members Heath Smith, Shelly Erickson and Tom Stroozas notified City Clerk Melissa Jacobsen on Monday afternoon to say they could not attend the meeting. With four members of the six members needed for a quorum, the meeting was canceled. Jacobsen said it is unclear if the absences can be counted as excused. Normally, the mayor rules on the validity of an absence, but because the meeting wasn’t held, he couldn’t do that.
The canceled meeting didn’t stop Zak from reading the recognition. At 6 p.m. — the time the meeting would have been held normally — a crowd of about 75 people listened in the Homer City Hall parking lot as Zak recognized June as Homer Pride Month.
The absent members claimed they did not oppose the recognition itself, but did not want to “promote discord and controversy within the community.”
