TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Kern County will raise the words "In God We Trust" on the walls of the Kern County Board of Supervisors chambers.

All that's left to figure out are the logistics.

Supervisor Zack Scrivner, who proposed displaying the motto as his first public act in office, made a motion Tuesday to direct staff to come up with an installation plan and a bill to be paid by private donations.

The other four supervisors voted to support his motion.

Supervisors, who were warned by their attorney that any display of religious motivation in their actions could land Kern County in court, said very little about why they supported the motto.

But public speakers offered their interpretation.

Lamar Kerley, a county employee who took vacation time off Tuesday to speak, said supervisors were trying to push forward their Christian faith. Scrivner, he said, was trying to further his political career by "pandering" to Kern County conservatives.

Lynn Rosenstein, who attends Temple Beth El, said the motto has the power to exclude people when it is put forward by a board whose members are Christians, as Kern County's board largely is,

"Those of us who are not (Christians) feel like outsiders because when we see that (motto), we know you're not thinking of us," she said.

But several voices spoke out in support of the motto.

Retired correctional officer Robert Anderson said that after years of seeing what God has done in the prisons, he believes any symbol that motivates people to be better people is good.

Bakersfield City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan, who runs a nonprofit that promotes the public installation of "In God We Trust," said cities that approve installation of the motto remind people of the nation's history of faith and the values the country is founded on.

It's not meant to exclude people, she argued.

When it was their turn to speak, supervisors kept largely quiet.

"The underlying purpose is patriotic ceremony," said Supervisor Jon McQuiston.

"You are never in a position where you are not welcome here," Supervisor Mike Maggard told the speakers who said they felt excluded.

Scrivner, who talked about faith and religion in the context of the motto an e-mail to his constituents last week, simply read part of the statement he made when he first proposed the idea in January.

County Counsel Theresa Goldner, first in an opinion released Thursday and in comments to the board Tuesday, made it clear that how supervisors conducted themselves during the consideration, approval and installation of the motto could have a huge impact on whether it was legal for Kern County to raise the motto in a public place at all.

If, she told them, the predominate reason for displaying the motto was based on their faith and not some other, secular purpose, putting the motto in board chambers would violate the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state clause.