One of the City’s Charter Review Committee’s most divisive debates at last week’s meeting was over the use of pronouns in Section 14, which describes the functions and power of the city’s mayor and mayor pro tem.
City Attorney Palmer Davis asked the 14 committee members to consider using consistent pronouns throughout the charter — a singular “they,” or “he or she.”
The request stemmed from a section of the charter, 14(a), with inconsistency.
“The mayor shall be a member of the commission, shall preside at all meetings of the commission, and shall perform such other duties consistent with the office as may be imposed by the commission; and they shall have a voice and a vote in the proceedings of the commission, but no veto power. He or she may use the title of mayor in any case in which the execution of legal instruments or writing other necessity arising from the general laws of the state so require… “
Two committee members found themselves at odds: one based on her legal experience, the other on his personal beliefs.
Teddra Porteous, a labor and employment attorney, said she was not in favor of changing all such references to “he or she” because it could be seen as exclusionary.
“Sometimes there are people who don’t identify as either he or she,” Porteous said. “If we did ‘he or she,’ I think that would be exclusionary to those people who don’t identify as a he or she. I would suggest we stay with them.”
James Ring, who operates a political consulting firm, Outsider Strategies LLC., said he would stand opposed to removing any reference to “he or she” from Lakeland’s City Charter.
“The idea we will change ‘he and she’ to be ‘they’ to somehow deny the fact there is a man and a woman I think it’s entering ourselves into a national debate that has never been an issue in our city. I think it’s unnecessary,” Ring said at last week’s committee meeting. “I think ‘he or she’ is and has been fine since the beginning of our city. I would not be in favor in the future if we decide to change all the ‘he or she’s’ to ‘they.'”