In an unusual move Tuesday morning, a Lancaster County commissioner stepped away from the dais in the board’s chambers and addressed his colleagues as a member of the public to read a resolution that the board declined to take up.
“I come before our body today to speak about an issue that weighs heavily on my heart,” said Matt Schulte, the board’s lone Republican. “I am deeply grieved by the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the tragic killing of a Minnesota state (representative) and the attempt on our president.”
Schulte said he had drafted a resolution condemning political violence two weeks ago — in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, which has prompted a national reckoning over increasing political violence and accompanying rhetoric — but it wasn’t placed on the board’s agenda.
“Even if this board chooses not to act, the people of Lancaster County deserve to know where I stand,” he said. “I will not accept political violence as the new normal.”
So Schulte read his proposed resolution — which names Kirk, the slain former Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump last year — condemning “all acts of political violence,” extending sympathy to the families and communities affected and exalting the importance of free speech.
And before he read the resolution, he named Vest, the board’s Democratic chairman, who he said “has refused” to put his resolution on the agenda for a vote.
In an interview, Vest said he hoped to discuss Schulte’s resolution with the full board at their staff meeting last week, but he and Schulte were the only commissioners who attended.
He said he talked individually with the rest of the commissioners and “the sense was that they didn’t want to make a public statement on this topic.”
“This isn’t something the board has done in the past,” he said, naming myriad mass shootings and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as violent acts the Lancaster County Board has not condemned. “We kind of stay focused on our business. We haven’t gone into these events.”
Vest said he is “totally opposed to political violence” and said he admired Schulte’s call for elected officials, the press, faith leaders and everyday people to “unite in rejecting political violence and rejecting demonization of opponents.”
But as the board’s chair, Vest said, he’s responsible to the board at large. He said the lack of consensus around Schulte’s resolution kept it off the agenda.
Vest said he couldn’t remember another time in his seven years on the board that a commissioner participated in public comment — a move that Schulte, too, acknowledged is unusual, but one he felt was necessary Tuesday.
“I think it’s good for our political leaders to take stands against political violence and for freedom of speech, and that’s what I wanted to see happen,” he said. “And so I’m glad I was able to share that perspective today at public comment.”
Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley
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