The City of Boulder announced on June 4 that the Boulder City Council meeting scheduled for June 5 will only be available for citizens to join virtually “out of an abundance of caution in the wake of Sunday’s attack on Pearl Street.” The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube and on the city’s website.
Along with the format change, the city said that the meeting will also open with a motion to “suspend the public comment portion” of the meeting agenda. Participants who were scheduled to speak are being notified by the City Clerk’s Office. “If the motion passes, there will be no public comment this week,” the city said. “If the motion fails, these participants will speak on June 5 as originally scheduled.”
This decision came at a similar time to an influx of backlash received by Boulder City Councilmember Taiysha Adams, who did not sign her name on the council’s letter condemning the attack on the Pearl Street Mall Sunday. She is the only city council member who did not sign the letter.
Adams told Boulder Reporting Lab that she “disagreed with how the city characterized the attack and had limited time to discuss proposed changes with her colleagues due to travel.” She said that she wished to describe the attack as “anti-Zionist” and not “antisemetic.”
“Conflating antisemitism with anti Zionism is dangerous and factually incorrect,” she wrote in a text message to Boulder Reporting Lab.
Adams told Denver 7 that “her decision not to sign the letter did not reflect a lack of empathy or support for the Jewish community.” She told the news outlet that “if we are to prevent future violence and additional attacks in our community, I believe we need to be real about the possible motivations for this heinous act."
The Boulder Daily Camera reported that Adams has seen significant backlash from the community regarding her decision not to sign the letter, as well as backlash regarding other statements she has made regarding the attack.
The city did not specifically say that the format of the city council meeting was changed due to the criticism received by Adams.
