Here We Go Again …
Christian Activist Furious Over Nativity Scene Placement;
Claims Town Is Biased

“They are putting Christians below those of Jewish faith.”

The town of Bay Harbor Islands has its own decorations displayed on a median just east of the Broad Causeway tollbooth: a Christmas tree, a menorah and sailboats. Photo by Mitchell Zachs/Magicalphotos.com.

Sandra Snowden with her Nativity scene in 2004. File photo by Mitchell Zachs/MagicalPhotos.com

By Evan Berkowitz

The Monday after Thanksgiving marked the beginning of holiday decorations season for the town of Bay Harbor Islands.

Sandra Snowden, a Christian activist and long-time critic of the town’s policy toward religious displays, visited the specific section of Bay Harbor Islands designated for that purpose — an area off the side of the ever-busy Broad Causeway. The spot is slightly raised and situated near the bridge’s tollbooths. Snowden was looking for an acceptable place to put her nativity scene, but once again she clashed with town officials over how and where these decorations belong.

That morning she found Joe Fox, the town’s public works director, at the site and told him his town was violating federal law. She said she saw three items there: a Christmas tree, decorative sailboats and a menorah. Snowden said the large tree and the menorah were taking up the high center ground of the spot and was upset that her nativity scene would be relegated to a secondary position, below and to the side of the “hill.”

Snowden, who does not consider the tree a truly Christian symbol, believes the town has favored Jewish symbols over Christian ones in the past. She said that Bay Harbor’s sponsoring and paying for that very menorah is both inappropriate and illegal. She also thinks that giving the Jewish symbol a superior position to her Christian one is unfair. “They are putting Christians below those of Jewish faith,” Snowden told the SunPost.

Snowden claims Fox was initially sympathetic to her complaints. She said he contacted Town Manager Greg Tindle and Assistant Town Manager J.C. Jimenez over his walkie-talkie and they did not realize she was listening. When she started to debate with them using Fox’s radio, she said town officials became very agitated and eventually disconnected. Jimenez, however, denies becoming upset about the matter. “When I left he [Fox] was called into Greg’s office for the town to meet and decide what to do,” Snowden wrote the SunPost in an e-mail.

“On [the following] Tuesday morning on my way to work I stopped at Causeway Island to see where to place the nativity. The grounds people were there. One man asked me where do you want the nativity? I said let’s see where the middle of the [Christmas] tree is and measure equally on both sides. He said fine I'll get the tape measure. We started measuring together,” she wrote. Snowden said they made a mark in the center, in front of the large tree, using a can of green paint.

Jimenez and Fox drove up together at that time, she said. Jimenez informed her that the menorah would be placed where it had been last year, in the more center spot. He told her “this conversation is over” and would not discuss the matter any further. “Really there is no place for my nativity except hiding in the trees,” she wrote via e-mail. Jimenez, though, maintains that there is indeed adequate space.

This is only the latest episode in a saga that has gone on for more than three years. Snowden’s legal battle with the Town Council has been extremely acrimonious at times, and included accusations of Councilman Isaac Salver getting her fired from her job, trying to have her evicted and, most famously, calling her an “anti-Semitic bitch.” As part of a legal settlement with the town (which also granted her the right to display her nativity scene), Salver was forced to step down for his mayoral term.

But Salver still holds a seat on the Town Council (the mayor is chosen from among the seven elected officials) and at the council’s Nov. 13 meeting, Snowden protested his being Bay Harbor’s representative to the Florida League of Cities. “Salver is not the person that the town of Bay Harbor Islands should be sending to Tallahassee,” she said. “He’s not even a man.”

During that same meeting the Town Council unanimously passed an ordinance that codified the rules relating to unattended holiday or religious displays. It provided “time, place and manner guidelines” and also stated the fee penalties for violators, which will not exceed $250 a day for first-time offenders and $500 a day for repeaters.

Back in 2003 town officials insisted that the menorah was a secular symbol and that a previous court ruling forbade religious decorations on state property. Then in 2004, a court ruled that the menorah is in fact a religious symbol and issued a restraining order against the town. Amid much publicity (Christian groups and national media from across the country hyped the event), Snowden set up a neon nativity scene on the causeway.

In 2005 the town filed an injunction against Snowden that prevented her from installing her crèche on Causeway Island. Citing safety concerns, the town administration disallowed the designated decoration spot as a pedestrian gathering place. A battle of semantics then followed, which did little to clarify misinterpretations of a previous consent judgment between the parties and the understanding of the resolution that Bay Harbor Islands passed.

Mayor Peter Lynch responded to Snowden’s latest accusations on his cell phone as he drove by the holiday display area on the Tuesday evening after Thanksgiving. He said that the decorations on Broad Causeway were the same as they have been for the last two years. Lynch also said Snowden’s nativity scene would be placed in a spot closer to (and more easily seen by) westbound traffic.

Due to what Lynch labels a “restrictive agreement” between Snowden’s lawyers and the town, decorations will be very limited on the town’s main thoroughfare, Kane Concourse — only white lights on the palm trees along the median. He said if the town put up any decorations at all — including candy canes, gift boxes or a gingerbread man — a minimum of six nativity scenes would be needed to comply with the court order. The town opted for the lights.

Lynch thinks the tree, which the town also owns, and the menorah strike a good balance between the Christian and Jewish religions. He said these items have to be concentrated in one area because of electrical power concerns.

“We’re doing nothing to stop her from bringing her scene,” said Lynch, a self-described Irish Catholic. As far as his town favoring Judaism, he said where public space is concerned, “There’s not a Star of David on this island.”

“The town again is in violation of the establishment clause,” wrote Snowden, referring to the clause in the U.S. Constitution against the establishment of an official religion by a government. “I must ask the courts again for equal protection against the Town of Bay Harbor.”

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.