Mayor Ron Feinsod wants to observe a moment of silence instead of opening Venice City Council meetings with an invocation. A like-minded city resident complained about the invocation to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

VENICE — An attorney for the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging the Venice City Council to do away with a longstanding practice of having the city clerk give an invocation at the start if its meetings after receiving a complaint from an undisclosed Venice resident.

Christopher Line, the staff attorney for the self-described largest association of atheists and agnostics in the nation, sent an email to Venice Mayor Ron Feinsod and the City Council on Jan. 28. Feinsod then forwarded a PDF of the email to fellow council members.

Line noted in his email that prayers had been temporarily replaced with a moment of silence, then reappeared after "backlash from religious groups in the community."

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Line later wrote, "Prayer at government meetings is unnecessary, inappropriate, and divisive. The best solution is to discontinue invocations altogether."

That jibes well with Feinsod’s belief in the separation of church and state. He said he started the concept of a moment of silence to "satisfy everyone’s individual beliefs without offending anybody."

"Each individual can pray or not pray, according to what their own belief system is," Feinsod said Monday.

Other area municipalities and counties open their board meetings with an invocation.

Former mayor John Holic was especially welcoming to the religious community. He routinely participated in the Venice Bible Read-a-Thon at Centennial Park, providing a city proclamation for the event that he would read but did not ask other board members to sign.

In 2015 Holic and former council member Emilio Carlesimo were the only two board members who were in favor of having the motto "In God We Trust" inscribed on the wall behind the dais, as part of the nationwide "In God We Trust America" movement. The city of North Port is the only area municipality to enroll in that program.

Feinsod’s first attempt to substitute a moment of silence for an invocation came Nov. 19, shortly after he and Council members Joe Neunder and Nick Pachota were sworn in for their three-year terms.

He at first skipped over the moment of silence and attempted to go straight to the Pledge of Allegiance, until City Clerk Lori Stelzer reminded him.

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On Dec. 10, Stelzer gave an invocation, as she has for most of the council meetings in her 30-plus years.

The practice has varied over the past month.

Feinsod has taken time at the council meeting to explain his issue with an invocation. Monday he added concern that a continued use of an invocation could prompt a lawsuit.

"The one thing I don’t want to do is get our city involved in a lawsuit," Feinsod said. "With that in mind I think the best resolution is to show respect to every individual and group by not turning this into a debate about religion.

"It seems to me that invocations by their nature imply religion and no matter how neutral you try to make an invocation, I don’t believe you can take religion out of them and therefore I think it’s wrong for a city government to be using invocations that by their nature imply religious beliefs," he continued. "We shouldn’t be doing anything at the government level that implies a religious connection."

He cited U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have addressed similar situations.

Line, in his letter, cited the 2014 Supreme Court decision in Town of Greece, New York v. Galloway, which did not address situations where government officials lead prayers, noting that the court approved a neutral forum, with non-Christians and atheists allowed to give invocations.

On Monday, Line said that the issue is Stelzer, as a government official, gives the invocation. He said that while his organization prefers that Venice observe a moment of silence, a rotation of guest speakers that included a variety of religions, as well as agnostics and atheists would be acceptable, too.

"Prayer is not banned from legislative meetings," Line said. "The way the prayer is being implemented can be done in an unconstitutional way that is an endorsement of religion."

The city has brought in guest ministers in the past, but the duty fell back on Stelzer when one of them leaned too much on their personal faith to give the invocation. Stelzer has led the invocation since 1993.

Her predecessor as city clerk, Bernie Simanskey, who was also an ordained minister, started the practice in 1972. David Farley, then a member of the City Council, convinced the council to start its meetings with prayers partly because other elected boards did so.

When informed about the current challenge to the practice, he said, "I’m very disappointed in the way it’s being handled, that’s all."

Since Line’s letter appeared on the city server, at least one resident, Dick Longo, a board member of the Central Venice Coalition, weighed in with an email in support of continuing the invocation.

He urged the board to not "bow to the hypocrisy and disrespect of those few, very few, who demand that the invocation be discontinued."

Longo later noted that Stelzer’s invocations are nondenominational and do "not ask that anyone believe in any particular organized religion. It does not force anyone to change their beliefs. It does not force anyone to join in or participate in any way, if someone wants to sit during the invocation it is their right and I, nor anyone else should be offended."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the city of Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 2018 for opening council meetings with the "Lord’s Prayer." He was non-committal on whether the foundation would sue the city of Venice.

Both Stelzer and Feinsod said the invocation would likely be discussed when the City Council conducts its strategic planning session on Feb. 21, especially since discussion of the entire meeting process is a planned topic. Feinsod noted that City Attorney Kelly Fernandez is researching the issue.

The invocation may return when the council meets Feb. 11. With Feinsod and City Manager Ed Lavallee in Tallahassee to meet with state legislators, Vice Mayor Chuck Newsom will run that meeting. He is in charge of the meeting to set the agenda, which includes both Fernandez and Stelzer, while Feinsod and Lavallee are away.

"As far as I’m concerned, there will be an invocation a nondenominational invocation, unless Kelly or Lori or the both of them are adamant that it needs to change for some reason," Newsom said, then added that in his personal view and conscience, the council will "have an invocation until there is some very important reason not to."