CITY HALL — The City Council voted Tuesday to punt a controversial decision on the winter displays in Palisades Park until the spring to allow church groups and other supporters time to develop ways to keep the program going.
City Councilmember Bob Holbrook requested the delay early in the meeting after supporters of the displays flooded his inbox with pleas for a reprieve.
“These people have never asked for anything before,” Holbrook said.
City staff agendized an ordinance for Tuesday evening that would have in effect ended a 57-year tradition of displays in Palisades Park that depicted scenes from the Christian nativity story.
It did so by repealing an exception specifically for the winter displays built into a blanket ban on unattended displays in Santa Monica’s parks, said City Attorney Marsha Moutrie.
“The proposal would eliminate all such displays irrespective of content, purpose and history,” Moutrie said.
That last point — history — has been the rallying cry of the supporters who felt that there had to be some way to preserve the decades-long tradition.
The displays, put up by a coalition of 13 churches in Santa Monica and the police officers’ union, were pushed out of their normal space last year by a group of dedicated atheists who applied for and won 18 of the 21 spaces allotted for displays in a lottery administered by city staff.
In their stead, individuals and groups erected signs like one by Burbank resident Damon Vix which quoted Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers on the importance of the separation of church and state.
Those involved with the nativity displays took the move as an attack, and quickly set up a petition to bring the displays back and cement their place in Palisades Park.
Two court cases, one out of San Diego and one from Beverly Hills, have made the case law very clear on the matter, Moutrie told council members: City Hall cannot promise spaces to any group, and instead can only create a fair system by which anybody could get space.
“The city can opt to allow displays during the season, and that includes religious displays,” Moutrie said. “You have to make the opportunity to erect a display equally available to all. You cannot favor a group or display.”
The only way to govern displays would be to put size or other design requirements on them, and it would be difficult, Moutrie told them.
Furthermore, the method of ensuring that there’s a fair system for allotting the spaces was difficult to administer in 2011 and will only get harder as more applications come in.
And they will come.
Atheist groups have stated that they will be better prepared with displays and ready to submit additional applications for 2012 if the system continues.
Speakers pleaded with council members to give them time to find other options that would allow the displays to continue.
“I love diversity and I love that we’re known for tolerance and I would love for that to continue,” said Steve Snook, a chaplain with the Santa Monica Police Department. “I do not believe this should be all about the nativity scenes.
“Let’s find a way to make this work,” he said.
Council members were amenable to giving the groups extra time to make sure that all options had been explored.
“It allows us to speak with one voice as a city,” said City Councilmember Terry O’Day.
Booked council agendas will keep the matter tabled potentially until April.
As time goes on, it will become increasingly difficult for staff to put together a lottery system for the upcoming season.
ashley@www.smdp.com
