After Hours of Public Comments, Grass Valley City Council Takes Position on International Conflict
On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, the Grass Valley City Council held its regular meeting for which the agenda included a proposed resolution regarding an international conflict, specifically between Palestine and Israel.
The City of Grass Valley, California (population about 14,000) is located about an hour north of Sacramento in the semi-rural foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Its small, mostly homogeneous population is largely caucasian (84% white only) and elderly (average age ten years more than the national average).
A resolution was placed on the City Council’s agenda for vote, “calling for a ceasefire and an end to violence between Palestine and Israel.” The resolution called for the following: 1) that Israel end “occupation of all Palestinian territories,” 2) that Gaza’s population receive “humanitarian assistance, including fuel, water, food, medical supplies, and medical personnel,” and 3) “immediately suspending military aid and weapons transfers to any country or state credibly suspected of committing war crimes or human rights violations.”
The first two statements of the resolution favored Gaza/Palestine, while the third statement was general.
Although parts of the resolution express sadness for the deaths occurring in Israel and in Palestine as a result of the conflict, and also condemns both “anti-Israeli and anti-Palestinian bigotry,” the City’s resolution calls for Palestine to receive aid and criticizes Israel in statements such as “the City of Grass Valley stands unequivocally against apartheid and the construction and expansion of illegal settlements and illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.”
Public reaction to local city’s resolution
Public comments were given by Grass Valley residents and others around Nevada County and beyond. Many people attended in person, while others called in or emailed their comments to the city clerk.
Comments for the resolution included:
“The genocide in occupied Palestine is the holocaust of our day.”
“I'm appalled by the actions of our government in funding a genocide or complacency in war crimes and the prevention of aid to Palestinian citizens in Gaza.”
"Victory to the resistance—not just in Gaza, but in Lebanon, Sudan, the Congo, Kurdistan, and everywhere where people are fighting against colonialism."
“People have become numb to suffering of people outside of themselves and are told to just focus on your own community and don't worry about the rest of the world, but we are all connected and what is happening and what we allow to happen in Palestine to babies and women and innocent civilians will come here.”
"The point of asking a mountain town like Grass Valley to put forth a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo resolution is to activate a collective call to action, not to normalize bombing hospitals and schools and to do the right thing.”
“The disgusting dehumanization of Palestinians cannot be normalized. Indiscriminate slaughter of an imprisoned population of 2 million people cannot be normalized. We can choose here to take back our humanity and begin to make the world differently.”
“We can at least not fuel the violence. We haven't been giving arms to Hamas. We have been giving arms to Israel, massive arms. So that's, the focus for me is on the United States and our responsibility.”
“The idea that we should just stay in our own place and work on our roads and schools and not look outside ourselves is a very egocentric way of living. We are all one people in this world.”
“Our state and federal government isn't working for the people. So we need local government to step up and be the voice of the people.”
“Silence equals complicity. This resolution negates our silence.”
“I think the resolution is one small step toward acknowledging the humanity within ourselves.”
“These are clear violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Many cities all across the United States have already passed resolutions on this conflict, including our neighbors in Nevada City. During the apartheid in South Africa, many city councils passed resolutions calling for boycotts and divestments.”
Comments against the resolution included:
“There's already a ceasefire right now. So why are we having a ceasefire resolution right now when we're in the middle of a ceasefire?”
“And in actuality will have zero impact on the reality of the situation in Gaza and Israel. It is a ridiculous outcome of social media propaganda war, and your hands are being forced and convinced into thinking that it has anything to do with the people in the population of our little town. I can nearly guarantee you that this does not represent the people of this town.”
“To even think we have the knowledge, experience, or the right to call for anything regarding this conflict is arrogant and presumptuous. Who are we? Who are you? Do you really know enough to pass a resolution on this matter? I don't think so. It is not the desire or the will of the majority of the people in this town.”
“We elect the city council members to address and resolve issues that pertain to our community, like roads, parking, public works, and safety, not to address international affairs in the Middle East. We have elected representatives, senators, and a president to represent us on those matters. And so it is way above your pay grade, and beyond the scope of this council.”
"A ceasefire resolution that does not condemn Hamas for the attacks on October 7th is incomplete at best and disingenuous at worst. If this is truly about peace, why are we not calling for the immediate release of hostages and an end to terrorist violence?"
"We’re here to talk about Grass Valley, not the Middle East. This is not what city government is for, and it’s a distraction from real local issues like fire preparedness and housing affordability."
“The council lacks the legal authority to enact, enforce, or significantly influence such matters. Instead, they should be addressed by our state and federal representatives. If passed, this resolution would be merely symbolic with no impact on the situation in Gaza.”
"When you say ceasefire, we hear amnesty. … If in Grass Valley, a criminal gang took your children and beat them to death, would you be willing to sign a petition or a resolution letting them get away with it by calling for a ceasefire between the Grass Valley police and the criminal gang?”
“This propaganda war has radicalized some people so they justify. They justify this, they justify Hamas, they defend it, and it's only propaganda that allows anybody to justify that. This last year, there's been pictures of starving children from Yemen that were shown as if they were from Gaza, where if you look at the videos coming out of Gaza, you don't see anybody starving.”
“In your resolution, you mentioned how the city condemns all forms of anti-Semitism, but yet you left the number one cause of this war out, Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, modern day Nazism.”
“I wish I could be with you in person, but I am engaged in the most vital work raising my young children and they need their mother to ensure they experience the beauty, not the burden of being Jews. … In the last 16 months, the Jewish community has felt very isolated. At every event, people confide in me that the only place they feel truly safe is within our community. In the workplace, the grocery stores, even doctor's offices, there's a fear. … Please show us that our city stands against terror and in solidarity with the Jewish community.”
Heated debate
Other quotes highlighted the emotional intensity and, at times, the extreme rhetoric used during the discussion. Some statements veered into personal attacks, oversimplifications, or ideological rigidity, underscoring the challenges of discussing international conflicts in a local government meeting.
Some of the more intense public comments included:
"I wish victory to the resistance and death and destruction to the empire."
“I'd just like to mention to the City Attorney sitting over there, if you recognize him by his slime he's covered with.”
"This resolution is just another attempt by radical leftists to push their anti-Israel, anti-American agenda."
"Israel is a terrorist state, and every dollar we send them has blood on it."
City Council discussion following public comment
After public comment ended, the City Council members discussed the resolution before bringing the document to a vote. Haven Caravelli was absent from the meeting and therefore did not vote on or discuss the matter.
Mayor Hilary Hodge asked, “Has everyone on this dais read this resolution in its entirety?” All answered yes, after which Hodge said, “Okay. But nobody on this dais wrote it.” Council members agreed that none of them had actually written the resolution. Hodge replied, “Nobody in the city. From what I understand. Why not? Why was something submitted to us that wasn't written or thoughtfully put together? I don't understand. … I feel like the spirit of that transparency wasn't adhered to since nobody up here put any thought into writing this.”
City Council, Grass Valley, California. Seats left to right: Haven Caravelli (absent), Tom Ivy, Hilary Hodge, Jan Arbuckle, Joe Bonomolo
When challenged, Council Member Joe Bonomolo said, “I have the geopolitical experience,” but did not further elaborate on any educational or career experience with foreign policy.
Council Member and former mayor Jan Arbuckle made a motion not to consider adoption of the resolution. She expressed disappointment in the resolution, arguing, "We are a local government responsible for roads, water, emergency services, and housing—things that directly impact our residents every day. If we adopt this, what stops us from being asked to take a position on every global conflict?"
She also alluded to a previous statement by Councilmember Ivey, when he stated that 100% of his constituents wanted this resolution on the agenda. “A constituent is defined as a person represented by an elected official,” she said, saying “Each of us up here was elected by voting residents within the city limits of Grass Valley to represent them without regard to political ideology. … I have spoken to many residents who voted for Tom, myself included. The majority, Jews and non-Jews, did not want this resolution on the agenda. An example, a person who voted for Tom is Jewish and has been harassed, had property defaced, and been threatened by pro-Palestine community members when merely walking with their children downtown.”
Mayor Hodge also spoke up, saying, “And nobody's going to watch this video later to see what everybody said. Nobody's going to care about the thoughtfulness or not. They're going to walk away with, I think I know someone's politics because they voted yes or no on one issue in this city.”
Bonomolo replied, “This really doesn't have anything to do with politics.” He continued, “We have to come together and unite as people. This is a perfect opportunity to do that. You think that this is going to not unite the city of Grass Valley? Why not? I'm not going to look at it negatively.”
Hodge disagreed, saying, “Unfortunately, no matter what we decide, this community is already divided. If we pass this resolution, one side's going to be mad.”
Arbuckle added, “This resolution, as presented, is all about blaming one side of the conflict and pointing to one side as opposed to the other. That is not building community. That is not uniting the community.”
She continued, “If we wanted a resolution that is about, you know, saying that we don't want genocide, we don't want atrocities throughout the world anywhere without naming names, I think that that would be something that both sides would agree on. But the thing, but the thing is, is that it's not, that's not how this is written. This is written very clearly for one side of the community that wants this.”
After several minutes of discussion, during which Mayor Hodge had to ask the public to stop shouting comments, the councilmembers voted 3-1. Tom Ivy, Joe Bonomolo, and Hilary Hodge voted yes to adopting the resolution, while Jan Arbuckle voted no.
Immediately after the vote, one audience member shouted “Shame on you!” while a few people supporting the resolution snapped fingers in lieu of clapping.