GUILDERLAND — Some Guilderland residents are upset that firehouses in town have flown their flags at half-staff and posted memorial messages for Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was assassinated on a college campus in Utah on Sept. 10.

A man who lives in Guilderland Center called The Enterprise on Sept. 11 to say the firehouse there had posted a memorial message within two hours of the shooting and had the flag at half-staff.

“You didn’t see that when 10 people got shot in Buffalo,” he said, concerned that a department funded with taxpayer money was showing political bias.

A woman called The Enterprise on Sept. 14 to question the sign posted by the Guilderland Fire Department, saying, “Flag at half mast in honor of Charlie Kirk by order of POTUS.”

“What are the criteria we use in this town to display grief for a shooting? How many people are getting shot?” she asked, concluding, “I see a political leaning here.”

Robyn Gray, another Guilderland resident, wrote a letter to the editor this week — “Hurt and angry that GFD is honoring Kirk” — complaining about the Guilderland sign, writing, “I found this repulsive and not in concert with the values we have as a community, or that an entire volunteer fire department would sign on to this kind of message.”

James Schanz, president of the Guilderland Fire Department, told The Enterprise on Sept. 15 that the department’s actions have been widely misunderstood.

“We continually lower the flag to half staff at the request of the government or if one of our members passed,” he explained.

At a committee meeting last month, Schanz said, it was decided to put on the sign the reason the flag was at half staff.

“It’s created quite the controversy; it wasn’t meant for that,” Schanz said.

He said the committee planned to meet again soon to discuss what to do going forward with posting messages on the department’s electronic sign.

On Monday, the flag at the Guilderland firehouse was at half staff to honor Robert Lynch and the sign said, “We mourn the loss of life member Robert ‘Bob’ Lynch.”

The message posted about Kirk, Schanz stressed, had no political intent. “Half the people don’t know when the government says the flag will be at half staff,” he said, reiterating that the committee’s intent was simply to inform the public.

 The committee sought to explain it on the sign by saying it was an order from POTUS, the president of the United States.

President Donald Trump’s Sept. 10 order to fly American flags at half-staff “as a mark of respect for the memory of Charlie Kirk” until sunset on Sept. 14, however, applied only to federal buildings.

“If it was for federal buildings only, they wouldn’t have done it,” said Schanz when informed of this by The Enterprise.

“We’re all volunteers; we all have jobs,” said Schanz. “This isn’t a job where we know all the rules and regulations of flags. Somebody probably saw the requirement to lower the flags and did it because a lot of our members are veterans and honor all the rules of raising and lowering the flag.”

Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber told The Enterprise on Sept. 15 that the town has no jurisdiction over what message fire departments post on their signs.

“All the fire departments that serve the town of Guilderland residents are operated by fire districts,” he said. “Fire districts have their own elected governing board and they follow their own policies so it’s up to them to decide what policies they want to follow in terms of flag placement.”

He likened the fire departments’ independence in this matter to that of the Guilderland Public Library and the Guilderland school system. “They operate independent of the town,” he said.

Barber also said of the town’s jurisdiction over fire departments, “Sometimes it’s not exactly clear cut.” He gave the example of a department wanting to build a new firehouse, which would involve getting approval of the planning or zoning board.

“But one thing we don’t have any oversight over is their flag policy,” Barber said.

Schanz concluded by stressing, “There was no ill intent. It’s a new policy to explain, on the sign, why the flag’s at half staff.”

Flags at Town Hall

Barber said that some people had mistakenly thought Guilderland was flying its American flags at the town hall at half-staff in honor of Kirk.

“The town is not …,” he said. “People may be confused because our flags were at half-staff on 9/11 and remained there for the next day, following what we understand to be state policy.”

Since then, Barber said, the town hall flags have been at full stuff. “They were not lowered to half-staff for Mr. Kirk’s assassination,” he stressed.

He also said that Trump’s executive order to fly American flags at half-staff applied only to federal buildings.

“The state has its own policy, which we follow,” said Barber.

He likened it to enforcement by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“ICE operates in various places around the country in different ways …,” said Barber. “Some states and communities are following the federal attorney general’s guidance. We don’t.

“We follow the New York state attorney general’s guidance on ICE activities because, again, our police force falls under the jurisdiction of the New York state attorney general.”

Last year, the town board unanimously adopted a policy on what flags can be flown at the town hall.

The town’s one-page flag policy says that Guilderland, at its town hall, displays the town, state, and United States flags and “by approval of the Town Board, flags honoring Prisoners of War, Honor & Remembrance, the Town’s Bicentennial, and Ukraine.”

The policy goes on to say, “The flagpoles and other spaces at Town Hall where a flag may be flown shall constitute a government forum, not a public forum for private speech … The Town Board’s approval to fly a particular flag at Town Hall shall be a statement of the Town Board, and a form of government speech.”

Finally, the town board can vote to display other flags at the town hall to “commemorate events or observances that have observance days, months or periods of time declared by Proclamation of the President of the United States, by Act of Congress, or by Proclamation of the Governor of the State of New York.”