Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner used social media once again to take aim at another city councilman Sunday morning.
The councilman accused Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin of being a racist in a Facebook post Sunday. Turner appeared to base his claim on the suggestion that Gavin, in the past two years, has not voted for a black appointee to a city position when a white person applied for the same post.
“I think Bill Gavin is a racist,” Turner wrote on Facebook about 6 a.m. Sunday. “I might be wrong but in the last 2 years that I’ve been on the council, I can not remember once that he voted for a black person when a white person applied for the same position. Not once. Commercial dispatched (sic) and the Columbus packet research this and tell me I’m lying. Because I don’t wanna believe it. I guess he and the media think blacks are not capable of help making Columbus great.”
Gavin, contacted by The Dispatch on Monday, denied Turner’s accusation.
“I try to vote for who I think is the best person for the position that’s open for that particular spot,” Gavin said. “I don’t try to vote race at all.
Gavin added that Turner’s post “holds no merit with me.”
“Some of my best friends are black people,” Gavin said. “I think anybody who knows me knows that that statement is not true. But if that’s the way he feels, that’s the way he feels and he certainly has a right to his opinion.”
Gavin said he could not recall his record on past appointees.
Turner, when contacted Monday by The Dispatch, referred to racism in Columbus as “the elephant in the room that nobody wants to discuss” and said he wants to help solve the problem. He said he published the Facebook post after assessing council’s votes in recent years.
Turner said he did not speak to Gavin about the issue.
Turner further pointed to a city council meeting after the Ricky Ball shooting when Gavin resisted adjusting the council’s citizen comment policy to allow a chance for the hundreds of people gathered to speak.
“He’s just afraid of black people,” Turner said. “Black people can gather together and nothing happens. It’s just time out for that — you need to leave that back in the ’60s where that belongs.”
Gavin also offered his support of removing the Mississippi state flag — which features the Confederate battle emblem — as a counter to Turner’s claim.
“I was one of the councilmen who supported the mayor in taking down the flag at City Hall,” Gavin said. “If I was a racist, would I have voted for that? Mr. Turner is just being Mr. Turner. It’s not going to weigh in on me one bit.”
Council response
The council reprimanded Turner in October when he took to Facebook to criticize former Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem after what he felt was a slow public response to the Ricky Ball shooting.
During that council meeting, Turner refused to apologize for his profanity-laced posts, which Karriem contended were a violation of the city’s social media policy.
The policy, adopted in 2013, forbids city employees from conduct that is “malicious, obscene, threatening or intimidating, that disparages co-employees, suppliers or that might constitute harassment or bullying.” The policy further lists an example of such posts as any that might harm someone’s reputation.
Turner said Monday that he did not view his post as lashing out at Gavin. He said he made the post — and other posts — because he felt he lacked viable options to bring public attention to certain matters.
“I’ve tried other means,” Turner said. “This is the only means that seems like it works. I’ve tried meeting and talking and things of that nature. It seems like it falls on deaf ears. I just say what I feel and I don’t think my constituents mind at all what I say or do. They feel the same way in the streets.”
Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box defended Gavin and sharply criticized Turner’s remarks.
“Bill Gavin is not a racist and for him to make that comment about a city councilman is completely inappropriate,” Box said. “He’s posted a lot of stuff (on Facebook) that’s borderline, but that’s incendiary and uncalled for.”
Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens said he has no problem with Gavin and he does not believe councilmen should make public comments such as Turner’s.
“I can’t account for another councilman, but if I have a problem with the mayor or with a councilman, I go to that person,” Mickens said. “We are councilmen — we’re supposed to be together regardless of what ward and department or what color, what race. We’re supposed to be together.”
Mayor Robert Smith — who noted that councilmen have the right to vote however they want — told The Dispatch he felt Turner went too far with his Facebook post.
“I hope that, whatever their differences may be, that they can sit down and work out whatever differences they have,” the mayor said. “We don’t need this from the mayor and council’s perspective and the city doesn’t need this as a community. We should all be working together for the betterment of this community.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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