The Dillon Town Council has opted to begin reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at future meetings.

Council members voted unanimously Tuesday, Nov. 13, to adopt new rules and procedures for how the council conducts its meetings and public business. The council has been working on the new rules since hiring a new town attorney earlier this year.

While the council agreed on the vast majority of the rules and procedures, only a four member majority wished to recite the pledge.

“I know this is a divided council on many issues of substance, but the rules just passed unanimously,” Dillon town attorney Geoff Wilson said. “There was very little disagreement on the rules, and that’s the way it should be. You can fight like crazy on things of substance, but we shouldn’t fight about whether we behave in meetings.”

When Wilson came on board in the summer, he suggested that the council adopt formal rules for how it conducts its business. The new rules outline the duties of the mayor and the mayor pro tem, lay out attendance expectations, inform the order of business at meetings, define public comment policies and more.

Most of the changes to the council procedures outlined in the new rules were small, like tweaking how the council sets agendas for future meetings. But the issue of whether or not to include a flag salute during meetings proved controversial.

The Pledge of Allegiance first came up last month during a work session where the proposed rules were discussed. Wilson at the time said that some towns have rules requiring a flag salute during meetings, but that over the years fewer towns have included this rule. At that work session, only three council members supported including the pledge in the rules.

But on Tuesday, council member Renee Imamura said that she thought the pledge should be recited during the council meetings.

“The Pledge of Allegiance is a unifier,” Imamura said. “Despite all of our different viewpoints, above it all, we are all Americans, and that’s my stance.”

Mayor Carolyn Skowyra, however, disagreed that the pledge should be recited at meetings. Skowyra said that she would rather the council members recite their oath of office before each meeting to remind themselves of their purpose.

“If it were a unifier I would be in favor of it,” Skowyra said of the Pledge of Allegiance. “But I don’t think that is what it is in our current political culture. I think the Pledge of Allegiance is actually pretty divisive. Just based on the conversation we’ve had, it’s obviously not a unifier for this council.”

During the work session last month, Skowyra said that she feels the pledge could be alienating to some members of the public, particularly the part that states “One nation under God,” since not everyone believes in God.

Council member Kyle Hendricks also thought that the pledge should not be recited at every meeting, while council member Rachel Tuyn said that she doesn’t have a preference either way.

“I wouldn’t be sitting on this council if I didn’t pledge allegiance to the United States of America,” Hendricks said. “I think it’s pretty stupid to have to do that at every meeting.”

But council member Dana Christiansen agreed with Imamura that the Pledge of Allegiance could be unifying.

“At first I thought, boy that is old fashioned,” Christiansen said. “I haven’t done that since third grade or whatever, sixth grade. However, that was a simpler time when the country was more unified. I think going through that every day was part of the reason we were unified as a country. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to remind ourselves of a higher calling or whatever you want to call it.”

During the work session last month, council member John Woods stated that he was not in favor of reciting the pledge at every meeting. But on Tuesday, he changed his mind and cast the fourth vote to add the pledge to the rules.

“I too thought it was old fashioned,” Woods said. “But I rethought it and I was a little ashamed of myself. I do pledge allegiance to the United States of America, so I am changing my opinion.”