☆ LG Planning Commissioner: Flopped censure may be leading Town in “right direction”
Planning Commissioner Kylie Clark was censured by the Town of Los Gatos this Feb for dismissing proponents of a referendum as “rich white anti-housing men” via email to CA's HCD. In April, the censureship was revoked after ACLU threatened legal recourse. Here, Clark addresses her perspective on public vs. private speech, and why she believes power holders' demographics should be in some cases discussed when making political decisions. An Opp Now exclusive.
Opportunity Now: In your opinion, can the concept of censureship from a city government ever be justified? Where should the line be drawn regarding public language from public officials?
Kylie Clark: In my email, I was very explicitly speaking as a private citizen. I think if I'd said what I said during a commission meeting, it would make sense to formally look into my language and question if it was appropriate.
Elected officials such as committee members need to be able to say what we think as private citizens. To voice our concerns, stand up for what we believe in. For me, the line exists at whether we were speaking in our official capacity as as representative or as a private citizen.
ON: During your censureship, how did knowing other local censureship cases inform your perspective?
KC: When the censure case came up for me, I did a lot of research trying to find other censures that had occurred in our area. I came up with pretty much nothing. Very few cases. I found that this is a very rare and unique form of punishment, especially because it's the second-highest form of punishment available to a city.
ON: Do you think we might see a snowball effect with censureship moving forward, considering what's happening in other institutions like the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District?
KC: Since my censureship process, I've observed that these cases are becoming slightly more common. Cupertino just considered censuring a couple councilmembers. The school board you mentioned recently censured someone. It's interesting: You'd think that the opposite might have happened because Los Gatos got threatened by the ACLU. However, I've observed that censureship is still pretty rare overall.
Q: Some are wondering if your statement—characterizing supporters of a housing referendum as “rich white anti-housing men”—would be viewed differently if some identifiers were changed. For instance, would it be okay to call out rich, Black, anti-housing women? Would you have considered your email inappropriate if you'd targeted people of a different race/gender?
A: I've heard people voice this idea, that it would've been racist if I'd specified Black instead of white men. Yes, they're 100% correct. It would have been racist of me to say that.
Right now, the power structures that exist favor rich people, white people, and men. If you're in any of those positions, you probably aren't experiencing much discrimination or racism. Unfortunately, sometimes, trying to create equality by uplifting people who don't fall into those categories is seen as discriminating against other people.
Also, I've talked a lot with other community members about how acknowledging community demographics doesn't mean you're discriminating or being racist. It just means that people who hold power are rich white men, and we need to be talking about that. The reason why I mentioned those demographics in my email (and maybe they're right; maybe I shouldn't have done it, but I did) was because I thought our Housing Element would benefit people with less wealth or who don't feel comfortable in Los Gatos—and I noticed people protesting it from their positions of power.
ON: How has the censureship impacted the town's approach to regulating speech: whether inoffensive or offensive, “free” or inappropriate?
KC: I think Los Gatos hasn't learned much of a lesson about what is and isn't offensive language, what racism really looks like, and about our housing crisis. But I think they did learn what a town is and isn't allowed to do when it comes to punishing someone for their words. I think Los Gatos will be more careful going forward as far as censuring speech they don't like. It took this situation, me being formally punished, for the town to draw the line of what's permitted and what isn't.
Really, it was so important that this happened. I think Los Gatos is learning a lot about where the town stands when it comes to race. We're learning how to have important, necessary, uncomfortable conversations in which we acknowledge the way things are right now so we can change them. These types of conversations are difficult for everyone, but we've learned and grown a lot. I'd like to think Los Gatos is moving in the right direction.
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