The Grovetown City Council is looking at taking a civility pledge.
During the city council meeting on Monday, March 13, council member Ceretta Smith told other council members about embrace civility pledge offered through the Georgia Municipal Association.
“We live in such a polarized climate these days, so I applaud GMA for stepping up and creating this initiative and this program to get city leaders to take a pledge,” Smith said. “We hold the seats that we hold here in the city. People look up to us, they respect us, we’re role models whether you want to be one or not, so it’s really important that we remember that and at all times we make sure we conduct ourselves in a manner that’s civil.”
GMA states on its website: “Civility is more than just politeness. It is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one’s preconceptions and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreement.”
Smith said it’s okay to agree to disagree, but what’s important for the council members to remember is it’s how they disagree.
“It’s important to always be respectful and to always maintain that decorum and respecting other people’s differences, their opinions, and their perceptions,” Smith said.
Council member Sylvia Martin asked if it was something they had to sign and how the council would go about it. Smith answered that it’s something to sign and that GMA would come in and do a presentation about the topic.
“As long as it’s through GMA I don’t have a problem with it,” Martin said.
Smith added the pledge is about being respectful and not taking disagreements personally and just because there is a difference of opinion doesn’t mean it’s an attack against another person.
Council member Eric Blair asked why the pledge is needed if the council has a code of ethics they are supposed to follow.
“I’m trying to understand the requirement or the request for this because you can’t legislate morality,” Blair said. “Yeah, we agree, we can agree to disagree, and it’s up to each of us to conduct ourselves accordingly. I mean, if everyone wants to sign it, ok cool we can sign it because as Mr. (Christopher) Dube (city lawyer) said, there’s no penalty for any of us that violate this. Other than we feel good about we signed it, what other advantages are there to do this?”
Smith said she didn’t want others to sign the pledge to just sign it before adding that the goal was to make a “conscious effort and commitment that when we disagree, we’re respectful.”
City administrator Elaine Matthews said city employees went through civility training in February through GMA. After that statement, Smith said how can the council ask the city employees to embrace the civility training if they won’t do it themselves.
Council members agreed to have Matthews reach out to GMA about doing a training on the topic.
