Members say mayor's edits to Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation removed victim's name and ignored committee input

Committee members criticized edits made to a Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation that, they said, removed the name of a local murder victim and left the text "vanilla" and generic. One member said the edits were published at the end of a workday with little notice and described the timing as "very malicious." Another member said committee volunteers were not consulted and that the city did not reach out to affected families before publishing.

The chair said the reported rationale from the mayor's office was that the family had not consented to include the name; committee members said they had expected consultation and expressed frustration that the final posted text did not acknowledge a July 13 murder that community members had discussed. Several members said they would raise the issue during tomorrow's city council public comment period and planned to coordinate outreach to other advisory committees.