El Dorado County, CA – The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors sat through a stream of antisemitic phone calls Tuesday afternoon, from people voicing disapproval of the board’s recent vote to rescind its designation of July as American Christian Heritage Month.
The eight callers, all men, released a torrent of offensive comments during a 30-minute public forum section of the meeting. For nearly the entire half-hour, meeting attendees were forced to endure statements such as “The Holocaust was a hoax,” “Heil Hitler,” and references to Jewish people as “parasites” and “leeches.”
After the third call — which ended with one man saying, “f— those filthy k—-, white power” — board chair Wendy Thomas, who represents the Placerville area, asked County Counsel David Livingston about the board’s rules are around hate speech and profanity.
“That’s just not acceptable,” Thomas said. But the attorney said the board had no recourse.
“Sadly,” responded Livingston, “I don’t believe we have any rules of conduct that would address it. The statements, perhaps offensive, are not disruptive to the board’s meeting. “
With no action taken, the next caller was free to say, “Go fuck yourself and go back to Israel,” the N-word, “white fucking power,” and “sieg heil.”
“The board’s response was completely inadequate,” frequent board meeting attendee and activist Leo Bennett-Cauchon said after the meeting. “Absolutely and completely inadequate.”
Callers who simply wanted to address the board about issues pertaining to the county were disturbed.
“I’m ready to throw up,” said Ken Greenwood, a county resident who had called into the meeting to talk about cell towers. “What these people are saying and doing is outrageous. My father was in Dachau, the Holocaust happened.”
“I’m just blown away by these comments,” he said. “It’s throwing me off in a big way. And I’m very sad that we all had to be subjected to this.”
After the public forum ended, the board decided not to implement any changes to its code of conduct.
“I don’t know if I really want to go there,” said board member Lori Parlin, whose district covers Shingle Springs and Coloma, and who was the only member in July to vote against the American Christian Heritage Month designation.
“We usually get through these things, why make ourselves more of a target?”
John Hidahl, who’d initially proposed the American Christian Heritage Month designation, was also cautious about making any changes.
“First Amendment rights are a basic, fundamental right of every individual to express themselves,” he said. “That’s what leads to good governance, is hearing the differences of opinion. I just wish that some of the language was cleaned up. I mean, the message is fine, but the derogatory language is hard to take.”
In July, the Board voted 4-1 to approve the American Christian Heritage Month designation. It voted unanimously to rescind the measure earlier this month after protests from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, as well as residents concerned it didn’t represent the diversity of the county, and that it blurred the line separating church and state.
One of the proclamation’s greatest critics was Rabbi Evon Yakar, from South Lake Tahoe, who the callers disparaged.
The Board’s response was in stark contrast to the way the Sacramento City Council recently handled a similar problem.
When such calls came in last month, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who is Jewish, had zero tolerance.
“Any of you who are going to call and spew hate, the city clerk at my direction and the direction of the council are going to cut you off right away, end of story,” he said on Aug. 29. “We’re not having it in our chamber!”
Last week, city clerk Mindy Cuppy said in a city blog post that city council will return to pre-pandemic, in-person meetings, partly due to the antisemitic and racist phone calls.
