Two Boulder residents have filed a code of conduct complaint against Councilmember Taishya Adams, alleging she blocked one of them on Instagram and barred the other from a book club she organized as a public official.
The complaint, filed on Feb. 5, alleges Adams discriminated against a Jewish resident after she blocked him from her Instagram account, which she uses to communicate her work on the Boulder City Council. It also alleges she restricted access to a book group that was “publicly sponsored in her capacity as a councilwoman,” misused her personal Instagram account for city business, and then blocked several other Jewish residents not named in the complaint.
“It is unconscionable that a city official feels comfortable denying access to Boulder citizens to programming or social media being used to conduct City business,” the complaint states.
The complaint was filed by Rachel Amaru, an organizer with the local chapter of Run for Their Lives, which advocates for the release of hostages held by Hamas, and Aaron Brooks, a regular attendee at city council meetings who has spoken against antisemitism.
“I think that Taishya Adams should step down from city council,” Amaru told Boulder Reporting Lab.
When a resident properly files a code of conduct complaint, the city attorney may appoint outside counsel if a conflict of interest exists. The investigator then presents their findings and recommendations to the city manager or city council. Possible sanctions include a motion of censure, according to city code.
On Feb. 19, the Boulder City Council hired the Fort Collins City Attorney’s Office as special counsel to investigate the complaint to avoid the appearance of impropriety, as Boulder’s city attorney serves as a legal adviser for councilmembers.
Adams, who represents the council on the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project, has been an outspoken critic of the war in Gaza and advocated for the council to consider a ceasefire resolution and revisit the city’s investment policies to further restrict funding for weapons manufacturers. Last year, councilmembers voted 7-2 against taking up a ceasefire resolution. More recently, they voted 6-3 against reconsidering the city’s investment policies.
Adams declined to publicly comment on the complaint as it is still under review.
The complaint comes amid deep divisions over the Israel-Hamas war, fueled in part by disruptions from protesters in council chambers demanding the council take action — either by adopting a cease-fire resolution in the war or divesting from certain manufacturers. These protests have forced several city council recesses in recent months and have led to accusations of antisemitism, concerns about free speech restrictions and the adoption of new public engagement rules by councilmembers.
The complaint does not cite any specific city code or state law, and Boulder’s code of conduct does not explicitly regulate social media use. However, the First Amendment generally protects public access to government communications. More specifically, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lindke v. Freed established a two-prong test for determining when an elected official may have violated the U.S. Constitution after blocking people on social media.
In 2023, Boulder saw a significant rise in code of conduct complaints against councilmembers, largely tied to controversies over the Police Oversight Panel, and mainly disputes over a panel appointment and allegations of bias. In 2024, no complaints were filed, according to Sarah Huntley, a city spokesperson.
Not surprised, however, I doubt anything will come of it.
Please be more careful of language on such a sensitive topic. To my knowledge Adams has never been a “critic of the Hamas-Israel war”. She has been a constant critic of Israel’s role in the war. Please look through her social media and find a word/post criticizing Hamas’ massacre of Jews on October 7 or calling on them to release the hostages even before Israel struck back. All of her criticism and calls for “cease-fire” were really calls for Israel to surrender to the terrorists because she never simultaneously called for Hamas to release all of the hostages.
Prrecisely.
I’d be interested in hearing Council Member Adam’s side of the story. How aggressive was Rachel Amaru on Instagram for Council Member Adams to block Ms. Amaru. I would have rather seen Council Member Adams invite Ms. Amaru for a one on one conversation maybe including a mediator that would have ensured that both parties truly listened to each other in a safe environment. We all could use lessons in listening and appreciating different points of view especially in heated topics such as the Gaza war. It can end in agreeing to disagree but not in attacking and blocking each other. Much more constructive.
beautifully said. Seems silly to care about getting blocked on IG, would be good to work things out–discuss, listen–and equally silly to sue over being blocked from a book group.
Seems that they all simply vehemently disagree with one another–and if we can’t achieve some listening and peace here, we shouldn’t be surprised the world as a whole is failing elsewhere.
Suppose there could have been an opportunity to do this if she hadn’t been prohibited from joining the book group. That sounds like censorship by an elected official due to an opposing point of view.
Exactly! It starts here.
Trump and his cronies and these politically biased social media forums block people all the time, the councilwoman and any elected official on their personal or public pages can block anyone at anytime if they are abusive, hostile, threatening or antagonistic, or for whatever reason she so chooses. These are **private platforms,** not public utilities folks. X and Facebook themselves can and do block, suspend of terminate anyone anytime at THIER sole discretion. And BTW again, Boulder friends, fgs leave the Boulder City Council alone, THEY HAVE NO INFLUENCE OVER FOREIGN POLICY IN GAZA- If you want to protest this issue, contact FEDERAL representatives.
hey dear! While I agree this is silly, if we’re using a private platform like X or whatever for public business, there are laws around that. That said, read my comment <3
Obviously all council members who have social media accounts need to reset their private accounts to private only. They then need to set up public official accounts to communicate in their roles as elected officials if they so choose to communicate through the social media world.
That said, I feel like Ms Adams, who has political views different than the complainants, has become the target of personal attacks.
Here is the link to a Feb 4th ‘open letter’ from Ms Amaru that gives an idea of the tone of the communication.
https://boulderjewishnews.org/2025/open-letter-to-boulder-councilwoman-taishya-adams/
That post is shocking in its one-sidedness but not surprising. She calls out Adams for not showing concern for the 1200 hostages, yet has she ever expressed a word of concern for the tens of thousands of dead and injured Gaza civilians? Does she have any concern about the Palestinian homeland or only Israel? Why does she conflate pressure on Israel to end the war with antisemitism or antizionism? So many questions.
Correction: 1200 killed, 250 taken hostage
agree. Well said, Mike!
Ms. Adams and, frankly, all elected officials (as well as Boulder Reporting Lab and its staff) and, frankly, everybody else need to *stop using Meta and X platforms* for anything.
Period.
The argument that ‘you will lose your audience’ is not valid. Your audience will follow you to other platforms, and if they don’t, then they weren’t really your audience in the first place.
Most of the Meta and X platform “audience” are (to use a common euphemism) “inauthentic accounts.” They’re either bots, or human-operated, hate driven accounts that exist solely to cause misery.
You are not gaining anything by remaining there. By persisting in not deleting your accounts there, you, personally, are contributing to ongoing harms that are being enabled by people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Have you considered the ongoing harm that you do by encouraging and enabling these fascist-operated platforms? YOUR PRESENCE THERE KEEPS PEOPLE USING THEM. Encourage everyone you know and care about to leave Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Find somewhere else to post, and then leave, yourselves.
BRL could be operating its own Mastodon instance for pennies a month, and never have to worry about being moderated out of existence for publishing something the fascist, oligarch owners of these corporate social media platforms don’t like. Or worse, being brigaded by hate groups and barraged with death threats.
Come to the fediverse, you will be welcomed there.
I watch the majority of city council meeting online, and am often astonished at the level of vitriol and abuse hurled at various city council members. But one thing I’ve also noticed is that those who do so in the name of Israel are rarely, if ever, reprimanded by city council members. They are allowed to denigrate and rant to their hearts content without response from city council. The same is not true for those defending Gaza and encouraging council to take steps locally to demonstrate their concern. Those speakers are frequently admonished by city council members in their responses. I do not see this as fair and equitable treatment of persons representing opposing views.
Sometimes the far left can start to sound an act a whole lot like the far right, in action and intelligence, harassing and antagonizing and frightening our poor city council members about international policy is beyond the pail of egregious. This must stop.
I’m embarrassed, and I feel so sorry for our hard-working city council members- who are entrusted to take care of CITY issues- City Council equals= city issues.
Dawn, I follow 6 city boards and there is not one that is not more profoundly affected by the Israel/Palestine issue than any other “local” appearing one. It is by far the most important and existential one. If you don’t understand this, you need to learn why.
Pot, meet kettle. Lynn, I’ve heard you upbraid board members who have literally no say in any of this, in board meetings for parks and transportation and landmarks.
Civility begins with you. I get that this issue is a powerful emotional driver for you, but please, can you try to let the city boards, commissions, and council work on the problems they are tasked with.
Foreign policy happens at the federal level. All this vitriol over things the council is powerless to change, is so pointless and a gigantic waste of everyone’s time. I’m frankly sick to death of it all.