Why a proclamation for Scientology founder's book was read in Portage

Yahoo

13-03-2025

PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) — The city of Portage has explained its process for public proclamations at City Council meetings after one received more attention than usual.
signed Tuesday recognized the 75th anniversary of the publishing of L. Ron Hubbard's book 'Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.' Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology and Dianetics is one of the principles included in the belief system.
'I really want to say my appreciation to Portage and the council members for their diversity and willingness to recognize different groups,' the presenter of the proclamation said during public comment.
'This book describes Dianetics as new science. They go on to say there is a single source of problems and suffering. These are clear signs of pseudoscience,' one local mental health care clinician said. 'There is no single cause of mental health concerns nor depression. The psych science is clear it is a multi-faceted problem.'
'This is an insult to everybody who has a friend or family member that has mental illness,' another public commenter added. 'I've known many, and they deserve better than this.'
Speaking with News 8 Wednesday, Portage City Manager Pat McGinnis acknowledged the city may have missed the mark on this one.
'We don't subscribe to Dianetics or Scientology or any of that doctrine, whatever it is, whatever you want to call it,' McGinnis said. 'We do understand the concern of the people that have spoken up and we take that seriously.'
He added that over the course of the day Wednesday, he spoke in person with two of the people who had critical comments during Tuesday night's meeting.
McGinnis also defended the city's process for proclamations. Typically, a group that wants to be recognized sends in a request via email. It is sent to the city manager and city clerk for an initial check. They ask if the group can supply someone local that has ties to the proclamation to read it at the council meeting. If they do, it is typically added to the agenda and then reviewed for content.
'What happened in the current case is we received the request to present a very specific proclamation,' McGinnis explained. 'We placed it on the agenda, which is a common placeholder, just to get it on there. After reading it, we decided it was a little overly committed to this particular philosophy or school of thought, so we backed off.'
Comparing the text of the original draft to the published proclamation, the first version is more effusive in its praise of Hubbard.
McGinnis also clarified that the 'recital' portions that are read by the local stakeholder are not technically part of the mayor's proclamation.
There was a similar proclamation read and decried in Deltona, Florida, in February and in New Jersey last year. News 8 contacted the City of Kalamazoo and City of Battle Creek to see if their city councils received a similar proclamation request. Both responded that they had not.
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