Tempers fly over Quantico Town decorative U.S. Flag banners

Was Quantico Town Mayor Kevin Brown wrong when he ignored the orders of his town council?

That question was batted about during a special meeting of the Quantico Town Council on June 16. Last year, the council voted and directed Brown to hang decorative banners with the U.S. Flag emblazoned on them onto light poles in the town.

To date, Brown has done everything but hang them up and has fought the council at every turn. The mayor said it is against the federal and state laws to use the flag for decoration or advertising purposes. In other words, hanging a U.S. Flag on a light post is OK. But hanging a banner with a U.S. Flag printed on it — not OK.

The decorative banners were ordered last year by outgoing town Councilwoman Virginia Macfarlan at a cost of about $1,200, said Brown. Macfarland never had permission to order the banners, he added.

Officials voted June 16 to scrap the old decorative banners and order new ones — with a new design that must be unanimously approved by the town council before they’re printed. The town arranged a special deal with the printer to get the new banners at half the cost of the originals.

The council also voted to attempt to recoup the $1,200 cost of the old banners from Macfarland.

Some on the council saw this as wasteful to scrap the old banners. The small town has an annual budget of $430,000, and because every penny counts, Councilwoman Peggy Alexander said that money could better be used to purchase more playground equipment for children.

The mayor stood his ground and was chastised for it.

“What you think doesn’t matter,” Councilman Gregory L. “Alex” Alexander said to Brown. “What this council has voted to you to do [hang up the banners] is what you should have done. You could have come back to council and say ‘I don’t’ feel this is right, we should hold a special meeting to discuss this.’ These flags are not up there to do anything other than to support our American troops.”

Brown said defying the council was a matter of conscious. He also did so and because the banners were never approved for use by town government, said Brown.

The town attorney disagreed with Brown’s take on the legal matter of using the banners depicting the U.S. Flag and said the pennants could be used.

Councilman Rusty Kuhns urged everyone on the council to stop using legal jargon to describe what was happening here.

“Can we stop, up here, using words ‘illegal,’ ‘against the law’ … none of us up here is qualified to use these words. We can use words like it’s not right, it’s not ethical, it’s not correct, but can we stop using these words? Because now it’s all over town that this is ‘not legal.’”

Brown said this debate and the special meeting was a “waste of time,” and said the town council is too concerned over petty issues like this instead of focusing on  more important issues like economic development.

Quantico Town is located inside Quantico Marine Corps Base.