Ceasefire advocates protesting at the Feb. 5 Board of Alders meeting. New Haveners with strong feelings about the war in Gaza will get the chance to weigh in at a virtual public hearing about a proposed ceasefire resolution.
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The Board of Alders’ “Committee of the Whole” (i.e. all 30 members) has scheduled the hearing for May 1 beginning at 6 p.m.
Advocates of the proposed nonbinding resolution, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in the war, have lobbied for three months for such a hearing, including interrupting proceedings of a Feb. 5 Board of Alders meeting at City Hall.
The meeting will be held only online, via Zoom. Read the proposed resolution here.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, who heads the committee, said she made that virtual-only decision in the interest of public safety.
She noted the large numbers of people who have attended related public events (click here to read about a similar hearing in Hamden). A virtual-only hearing will ensure that everyone can speak and be heard in an orderly way, she said, and there will be no concerns about exceeding the fire code’s legal occupancy limit for the Board of Alders chambers.
“I know it’s going to be a lot of people,” Morrison said Thursday.
“I want to keep a safe environment. That’s really what it boils down to. The things that I’ve been seeing over the last few months, it doesn’t look safe to me. I want to protect the people who come to the meeting. I want to protect the members of the Board of Alders. This way when people come to testify, their testimony will be provided uninterrupted, because everybody has that right.
“I’ve been doing social work for 35 years. I truly understand that when emotions are high people don’t always have control of themselves and what they do I’m coming from that perspective too. As the chair, my responsibility is to keep everyone safe.”
Frustrated by the delay in scheduling an official hearing, advocates of the resolution organized what they billed as their own “people’s public hearing” Monday night outside City Hall. Members of the public were invited to deliver any testimony in favor of the resolution that was submitted to organizera. They were also allowed for spontaneous sign-ups as long as speakers could find someone to “vouch” for them.
People with any viewpoint on the issue can deliver remarks at the official May 1 hearing by emailing publictestimony@newhavenct.gov.
Scenes from the Feb. 5 Board of Alders meeting.