City employees removed a one-ton granite monument from the grounds of Winston-Salem's City Hall Tuesday morning. The monument--a granite block engraved with the Ten Commandments on one side and the Bill of Rights on the other--was placed there by Vernon Robinson, current City Council member and candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Although the constitutionality of the religious monument's erection is contestable, the City Council's main impetus for removing the monument was the violation of City Council policy, which dictates that any display honoring a public servant--Robinson had his name engraved at the base--must go through appropriate channels for approval.
"We do have certain written guidelines for individuals who want to display items on public properties and I think if someone wants to do that they should follow the proper channels," said Robert Clark, a Winston-Salem City Council member.
Robinson is running in North Carolina's traditionally conservative 5th district, hoping to fill the empty seat left when current Rep. Richard Burr forgoes a re-election effort to challenge Erskine Bowles in the race for Sen. John Edwards' opening seat next fall. The political leaning of the 5th district makes the Republican primary a crucial race.
"[The move] will appeal to a certain base constituency that Mr. Robinson is trying to mobilize in his Congressional campaign," said Winston-Salem City Council member Daniel Besse. "For an investment of $2,000 he is getting national publicity.... It is a canny political cost investment from that perspective."
Carrie Collins, Winston-Salem's marketing and communications director, said public interest has been considerable. "[The affair] has garnered a lot of media attention: a lot from national media and obviously all of our local media as well," Collins said.
Robinson's monument was transported to the Department of Transportation warehouse where it awaits retrieval. The city manager has not yet issued a decision on whether the city will absorb the $550 cost of transportation or pass it along to Robinson.
The mayor's office has received a number of calls from both sides regarding the issue. "Any time you have a hot-button social issue like that you get comments pro and con," Besse said.
Besse denounced Robinson's effort as a political ploy.
"Using the Ten Commandments as a political prop is shameful," Besse said. "Nobody who claims to speak for Judeo-Christian values should use tablets of the Ten Commandments as a graven image to political ambition. I think that 'a sign of political ambition' is what you honestly have to call this when a candidate in the midst of a political campaign erects a one ton monument with his name chiseled at the bottom [on city property]."
The City Council adopted a resolution last fall that gave the city manager the authority to approve or disapprove displays and monuments that can be placed on city property. Robinson voted in favor of the resolution.
"[Robinson] never asked anyone what the procedure was, he just did it," said City Attorney Ron Seeber. "If he wanted to know, he could have asked and gotten the answer quite simply."
Robinson's idea sprung from another media frenzy: the controversy over the Ten Commandments monument that was removed from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building two years ago. Last fall Robinson asked the City Council to consider accepting the displaced monument. The issue died when nobody seconded the motion to consider.
The Winston-Salem monument is composed of two different pieces: a base and a plaque. When city employees discovered the monument, it was declared a safety hazard because one of the pieces could potentially be pushed off.
Robinson will most likely not face any legal ramifications. "I don't know that it rises to that level. We're not treating it as such," Seeber said.
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