Sayreville Passes Ordinance Designating The Flags Approved Flags to Fly Above Borough Hall

SAYREVILLE, NJ - The Sayreville Borough Council passed an ordinance during their Monday, July 15, regular meeting allowing only certain flags to be flown in front of Borough Hall: the American Flag, the New Jersey Flag, and the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) flags.

This ordinance passed by a 5-1 margin with Christian Onuoha as the only dissenting vote. While other flags cannot be flown on the Borough Hall flagpole, they would still be allowed to fly anywhere else on Borough Hall grounds.

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Before the vote, on Monday evening, residents expressed their opinions during Public Comments.

Veteran and former Borough Councilman Stanley Drwal read a letter that was sent from the Sayreville VFW Post to the Borough back in August 2022 that "kindly requests that the Borough refrain from flying any flags other than the national, state, borough, or POW flags."

"There are countless flags and banners that could be flown by various groups, political movements, religions and other organizations," read Drwal. "The Borough should not open itself up to scrutiny and possible legal action by aligning itself with certain groups or against certain groups."

"As far as we know, there is no law in the borough restricting anyone from flying any flag or banner on their own property," Drwal said. "The borough recognizes various groups with proclamations at its meetings, and this practice should continue."

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"I'm very concerned about these programs of flying banners and flags. I lived as a peacekeeper in a nation that was divided and split into a civil war, and I never wanted to see that happen in my own country."

Resident, Jim Robinson, questioned the borough's ordinance by asking if the flag of the Borough of Sayreville was included in the short list of flags allowed to be flown on the Borough's flagpole.

Anthony Sposato said he supported the ordinance but requested that Mayor Kennedy O'Brien and the Council discuss having a "communal flagpole" where other groups and organizations could flag their flags.

"I am not going to oppose the ordinance tonight," said Sposato. "What I'm asking for is a person on this council who would like to engage in a conversation about situating a community flagpole in a place where it can be seen."

Ken Kelly, a Vietnam vet and former Councilman, said that a similar flag policy adopted in San Jose, CA, was approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The San Jose policy includes language stating that San Jose flagpoles are not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the public and limit its approval of flags flown to those that constitute an expression of the city's official sentiments," said Kelly.

Mayor O'Brien commented on the ordinance, stating that if the Borough were to fly one of the flags outside its policy, it would have to fly all of them.

"My first instinct is I really don't want to be in the flag business because it's going to be cumbersome, and I'm going to only make people unhappy because somebody else's flag went up," the Mayor said. "It's a recipe for unhappiness because nobody's going to be happy."

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