The Coronado City Council meeting on Jan. 16 saw just under 40-minutes of public comments, in a three-and-a-half hour meeting, concerning the controversy occurring at the Coronado Public Library and an update on the Orange Avenue Beautification Project.
The Coronado Public Library is currently undergoing a potential legal fight as it received a legal demand letter from two parents in Coronado, Rachel Racz and Jessica Tompane, stating that the library is in violation of federal and state law, including the First Amendment, in which the letter claims the library is restricting these parents’ right to freedom of speech when they tried to have patriotic and religious story times held at the library.
Last summer’s controversy of a Pride story time in which the same parent, Tompane, felt there was explicit content being shown to children at the library story time, was also discussed during public comment.
Other voices in the community like Carl Luna, the president of the Friends of the Coronado Public Library, have stood up in support of the library saying that he trusts the library’s decisions as the librarians are trained and educated professionals.
Two sides
Mayor Richard Bailey opened the meeting on Jan. 16 with a statement on behalf of the city council regarding this issue.
“The council strongly believes a role of city government is protecting our town, our citizens and our employees,” Bailey said. “We, as a council, condemn any language that is threatening or bullying in nature. To be clear, there is no place for threats of violence.”
Statements from both sides followed from those in attendance.
“Let’s work with our library’s dedicated staff, support them as we try to resolve our differences and look past what I believe are the hyperbole exaggerations and distortions in those news stories,” said Coronado resident Irv Cass at the meeting, referencing an interview Racz did with FOX News.
In response to last summer’s controversy, Racz created the Tiny Patriots Story Time program where Pro-America and family-friendly books are to be read at a local community center instead of the library, and she went on FOX to discuss it.
“What really struck me through that is to take those topics of resiliency, leadership, and switch those topics out and talk about sexual orientation and things related to sexual acts and to expose these 4-6 year old children to explicit photos,” said resident Jim Fabiszak who attended one of the Tiny Patriots story times.
Fabiszak’s comment referred to the library’s story time during Pride month, which he felt had sexually explicit photos in a book about a girl attending her first Pride parade with her two mothers, in comparison to the Tiny Patriots story time, which he attended, and said referenced topics of resiliency, Martin Luther King Jr. and even aviation.
Orange Avenue Beautification Project
The rest of the meeting saw a two hour presentation and deliberation on the Orange Avenue Beautification Project.
The Orange Avenue Beautification Project is an effort by the city to enhance the quality of life for residents and the experience of visitors to Coronado.
City staff sought direction from the city council regarding different focused enhancements and at the end of discussion, the city council voted on sending two options to staff: Option 1 and 2A, and to defer to the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) subcommittee that would defer to the council’s conversation that night.
Option 1 would have multiple enhancement projects through the 100 and 800 blocks of Coronado, including projects like replacing the Terrazzo sidewalk near the Village Theater as it is cracking, wrapping all the trees in the business district with lights, changing the existing wood benches, replacing the trash and recycling cans, and updating the newsracks that are spread out over Coronado.
This would cost around $4 million.
Option 2A would replace street furnishings on the 100 block through RH Dana, and that would cost around $1.6 million.
The staff report also noted that the city council may choose to do some or all of the items presented at the time of the meeting.
Certain enhancement projects would have to go through CALTRANS, according to city staff, like crosswalk colors and the backs of traffic lights that show signs of wear.
