At last night’s unusually short meeting of the Morongo Valley Community Services District, the board of directors agreed to allow a Girl Scout group and a Bible group to rent the Covington Park community room for free until the district could establish a discounted rate system for room rentals. The board tabled discussions on the Morongo Valley Fire Department’s new driving policy for the medic engine until Fire Chief Gary Yearsley returns from vacation. When the board introduced their revised resolution declaring Morongo Valley a “hate-free” zone, however, the room quickly divided. Reporter Andrew Dieleman has the story…
The Morongo Valley CSD Board of Directors reworded a controversial resolution declaring Morongo Valley a “hate-free” zone after it was dropped during the board’s September meeting. The rewritten resolution would have declared only the Morongo Valley CSD and fire department as “hate free” zones instead of the entire town. Some meeting attendees showed support for the reworded resolution, describing their experiences with being discriminated against. Others rejected the idea, saying that Morongo Valley was already a kind community and that a “hate free” mentality would be better spread through more community activities than through the “unenforceable” resolution. After much emotional discussion and divided opinions on the topic from directors, the board dropped the resolution for the second time.
