‘Her words are revolting, beyond offensive and demeaning:’ Jacob Rosengarten’s resignation speech

Juno Beach council member’s resignation stemmed from colleague’s comments about growing up in post-war Germany.

Stet News has published a detailed account of the actions leading to Council Member Jacob Rosengarten’s Nov. 20 resignation, here. Below are his verbatim comments, followed by the newsletter published earlier that day by Council Member Marianne Hosta.

Jacob Rosengarten, starting at the 4-minute, 25-second mark:  I’d like to make a few remarks regarding a decision I made regarding my future role on council. It should take two minutes or less. 

… At the meeting of Nov. 13th, Ms. Hosta’s remarks plumbed a new low during the code of conduct discussions. As a council we discussed whether there should be some sort of consequence for council members who violated the code of conduct. The most severe consequence we talked about only involved a censure. But Marianne balked at any enforcement language saying that, and I quote, the word enforcement just brings back terrible memories, end quote.

Mayor Peggy Wheeler interrupted to ask if his comments should come at the end of the meeting. Rosengarten, who was appearing by video because he was out of town on business, said, “I don’t expect to be here at the end of the meeting.” Wheeler allowed him to continue.

The word enforcement, she said, just brings back terrible memories, referring to her childhood in post-war Germany. But to all, the word enforcement is not a pejorative term, and it is commonly used in our town government. We have enforcement of building codes. We have speed limit enforcement. We even have law enforcement. The word enforcement is mentioned 88 times in our town ordinances.

It’s not a scary word, but according to Marianne, the people who want to impose common sense restrictions on her ability to insult our citizens in newsletters and I quote, ‘don’t know what they’re talking about.’ They should have gone through the experiences Hosta went through, then they would probably feel differently. 

That’s what Marianne said. My response: Utter nonsense. 

Since she was facing me as she spoke, I can say that her words are revolting, beyond offensive and demeaning. In fact, I do know what I’m talking about. I am a son of a Holocaust survivor. My father somehow survived Hitler’s death camps until finally freed by the American Third Army. His entire family was murdered in the Holocaust, as was 90 percent of the Polish Jewish population to which he once belonged. 

My mother was one of 10,000 German Jewish children, every one of them minors, who were heartbreakingly separated from their parents and sheltered by families in England during the war years. Frankly, but for the courage and humanity of these English families, my mother would have also been murdered by the Nazis. 

And so for Marianne to try to correlate the monstrosity of the Holocaust — and what that somehow meant for her childhood years in post-war Germany to the words I suggested about why some light-touch enforcement language in a code of conduct is necessary — is beyond any standard of decency. 

It’s frankly, an insult to the 6 million victims of that genocide and the brave men and women who fought to end it, including 400,000 Americans who died in combat. By Marianne’s way of thinking, if I could only understand her special experiences as a youngster growing up in post-war Germany, then I might feel differently about the ongoing right she believes she has to insult residents in her blog without any consequences.

Well, I don’t feel differently, and I’ll say it again. It is wrong, wrong for a sitting member of council to demean, to demand free rein to insult private citizens in her blog and from the dais, while government sits by passively with no effort by the mayor to control the tempo or content. 

Marianne has made it clear that she intends to continue writing future blogs with an ever increasing corrosive tone and a growing list of targets.

I refuse to be part of such an outcome and I refuse to be associated with her on council or in any capacity. Her dialogue at the last meeting was just the latest example of council’s failing culture, including the mayor, who has sat here for eight years in a variety of leadership roles, allowing this flawed culture to flourish. 

Accordingly, I am resigning my role on council, effective immediately. Given this decision, which I did not arrive at lightly, it would be inappropriate for me to vote on any items before the town tonight. I thank our citizens, truly, for the opportunity to serve and for placing their trust in me. I’ve tried to be worthy of that trust. I thank staff for their good work supporting council and the town, and with that, I now officially resign my seat, and so now will exit this meeting. 

I wish all a good night. I’m available by email or phone if people need to reach me.

Juno Beach Council Member Marianne Hosta’s Nov. 20 ‘Eyes on Juno Beach’ newsletter

Town Council Meeting / Nov. 13, 2024

“You are Garbage! Garbage!”

That is what was shouted at me at the last Town Council meeting. Before I go into details about who launched this verbal assault, I will give you some background information.

For the past year, I have been under constant attack by the shadowy “Concerned Citizens” spammers and their surrogates.

I say few words from the dais during meetings (I prefer to get right to the point.), but as you know I don’t mince words when I write this blog. My words really get under the (very thin) skin of some people. This is to the point where fellow Council members have been robustly engaged in the topic of decorum. In her newsletter, Councilor Davis said she wants to discuss methods of “admonishment” for Council members – verbal reminders, written warnings, censure, and even formal reprimands.” Wow! I don’t think any of this would be happening, if it was not for my blog.

I am wondering: Are we living in a police state? Is the STASI coming to Juno Beach? Did I immigrate to the USA in 1968 and gain citizenship in 1976, where the terms of “freedom and democracy” are used constantly, only to find leaders of our charming seaside community suddenly rule that I should be quashed when I state facts and reveal my honest opinions?

Other towns have rules for what is permitted during town meetings, but none go to the extreme of detailed forms of punishment. What is next, a guillotine in the Town Center courtyard and a mob of (masked, of course) “concerned citizens?”

My peers on the dais, all born and bred in the USA, have never experienced the lasting effects of a government led by control, consequences and enforcements against expressing the voice of opposition. I grew up in Germany after WW II, and I am grateful to the then newly elected leaders who did not cover up the crimes of the Nazi regime, but instead went to elementary schools, where they exposed the horrors of the Third Reich in films and documentaries to the very young children. They always reinforced, when you see something that is not right, you must speak up. It affected me deeply. This mantra is my second nature. Antisemitism has no place in my heart. I oppose it, wherever and whenever I come across this abomination.

Back to where I began my blog. Who was it who shouted at me, “You are garbage, garbage”? It was the person who heads our Town Audit Committee, Nancy Wolf. I was in shock when she let this out. It was unbelievable. I asked from the microphone, “Did you call me garbage?” She gleefully repeated it and stormed out of the room.

Only minutes before this outburst, her husband, Councilor Jacob Rosengarten, had admonished me for having written in a blog that someone had been acting like a “crybaby.” But when Ms. Wolf shouted insults out of order during a Council meeting, he remained quiet and composed — complicit. Without any pause, he continued to discuss the decorum rules for Councilors, not for members of the public! As if nothing at all happened.

Unfortunately, I must add here, to my great disappointment, nobody — neither my colleagues, staff members, the town attorney, nor individuals in the audience — made any comment or showed any reaction. It was business as usual. So sad.

No, I stand corrected. One private citizen, a truly courageous woman, confronted Nancy Wolf in the lobby and expressed her displeasure with the disgusting comments she had just heard from her in the Council chamber. As I found out later, Ms. Wolf called this brave individual a “tramp and garbage, too.” Who does that?

I know where I stand. When I speak from the Council dais, I do so calmly, with few words and with respect for the chamber. When I write my blogs, I allow myself to expand and be much more blunt — the public has the right to subscribe or not.