WINNSBORO – Allegations of vote-buying, racism and hypocrisy overshadowed any real County business conducted during Monday night’s Council meeting, leading one Council member to erupt with rage and another to double-down on statements he had made during Council’s Feb. 10 meeting, labeling some in the audience as racists.
Addressing Council during the evening’s first public comment session, District 3 resident William Coleman scolded his representative, Mikel Trapp, for Trapp’s statement during the Feb. 10 meeting that criticism of S2 Engineering, the firm on the hot seat for the collapse of a portion of retaining wall at Drawdy Park, was motivated by race.
“Skin color has nothing to do with all the bad workmanship and expensive costs to this county,” Coleman said. “How dare you try to turn this into a racial issue. Mr. Trapp, I am colorblind.”
Coleman said Trapp’s play of the “race card” was nothing more than political theater staged to garner votes and shore up support in the wake of recent allegations levied at Trapp by the State Ethics Commission. Coleman said he had supported Trapp in the past, with his vote and with campaign contributions. He would not be doing so in the future, he said, adding, “I will bet you will deny me contributing to your campaign and I’ll bet that you didn’t report it either.”
But Trapp, responding near the end of the meeting and directing his comments not only to Coleman but to the citizens group Saving Fairfield, made an explosive revelation.
“(The) Colorblind Saving Fairfield Tea Party Republican group,” Trapp began sarcastically. After a brief pause, he continued, “You’re supposed to be colorblind. I’ve been called a n—-r (on) more than one occasion by members of this group. People have called my full-time employment trying to get me terminated. This group promotes hatred and racism and if you think you’re going to try to get me to resign, it ain’t going to happen. Like I said at the last meeting: Beat me at the ballot box.
“I don’t need support from people who support hatred and racism,” Trapp added. “That not only goes for (Coleman), that goes for anybody from District 3 who feels that way.”
After the meeting, Trapp would not be specific about which member of Saving Fairfield had tagged him with the racial slur, but said it was more than one member, that it happened more than one time and that it occurred in public.
“(As they were) walking by, where nobody else could hear it, but I could hear it,” Trapp said. “This has been going on, but I’m at the limit and I ain’t taking no more junk. But it does boil down to race. We’ve got seven or eight, 10 maybe, firms – how did you pick out the one (S2) that happened to be black?”
Trapp later conceded that perhaps not all members of Saving Fairfield were racists.
“But my thinking is, if I’m going to deal with guys, I’m going to pick people who think like I think for who you run with,” Trapp said. “That’s mainly how you do.”
In a written response to Trapp’s comments, Bob Carrison, a spokesman for Saving Fairfield, said the group would not tolerate the sort of racist sentiments or other shenanigans of which Trapp has accused them.
“I can assure you that I have never heard any of our members use a racial slur, in regards to Mr. Trapp or in general,” Carrison wrote. “I am not aware of anyone contacting his employer, and if I found that someone in our group had done so I would ask them to quit their association with Saving Fairfield.
“Our group has only one objective, that being to bring good, transparent governance to Fairfield County,” he continued. “We are a mixed-race, mixed-political affiliation organization. We regret that Mr. Trapp holds this particular opinion.”
Trapp also responded to allegations from another District 3 resident, Carrie Matthews, that graduation gifts from Trapp were attempts to buy votes.
“I have three daughters, and when each has graduated from high school she has received a check, a nice $50 check, congratulating her on her graduation from high school,” Matthews said. “I have not allowed my daughters to cash the checks or to accept that money, the main reason being is that it comes from an elected official that feels strongly to me like vote-buying, or encouraging people to vote for somebody. I think that’s kind of unfortunate when our children turn 18 for them to get money that is written, a personal check, written from a County representative.”
Trapp later said that the checks were for $25, not $50, and underscored that they were personal checks, written by him from his personal account and not drawn from his County discretionary fund.
“(Matthews) wants me to reconsider that,” Trapp said. “I’m not going to reconsider that. I give out $25 to all the graduates in my district every year and I will continue to do that as long as I’m on Council.”
Fairfield resident Selwyn Turner, meanwhile, said during the public comments portion of the meeting that she felt as though Council members’ use of their discretionary fund had gotten out of hand. A great deal of the money, she said, was contributed to “certain churches and select organizations” without any review by the full Council to determine if these institutions had “legitimate needs.”
“All of this smells like a violation to me of separation of church and state,” Turner said. “You need to stay out of the churches’ business with your free gifts. There appears to be an ulterior motive in the dispersal of these funds. Could it be for votes for reelection?”
District 2 resident Beth Jenkins also suggested that Council exercise a little separation between church and state, although for different reasons. Jenkins’s comments later propelled District 4 Councilman Kamau Marcharia into an apoplectic rage.
“Under the circumstance, the invocation being said by someone on Council I find extremely disturbing and hypocritical,” Jenkins said during the opening public comments session. “Under the circumstances, I would like to request that you just have a moment of silence and we can all have our own prayer.”
Apparently stewing on the remarks for the entire 90-plus minutes of the regular session, Marcharia popped his cork during Council’s response time.
“I understand what a hypocrite is. In my mind – I might be wrong – (it’s) an immoral person, a lowlife, a degenerate person,” Marcharia began. “A hypocrite certainly can’t be trusted. Morally decrepit. I’ve been called a hypocrite tonight and have been told, or suggested, that since you’re a hypocrite, don’t you dare come in here and pray to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you do it, you better do it in silence.”
Pounding the desk before him with a fist as he rose to his feet, Marcharia continued, shouting: “Nobody is going to tell me that I can’t pray to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in silence or out loud! I will pray, I will continue to pray! I’m going to come in here and pray how I have to pray. Now if you want to go to court, put me in court and the government can come in and say I can’t pray. I’m going to pray. I’m tired of these kinds of attacks like this, with my religion. You tell me I can’t pray? You can forget it. I mean that and you can carve it in stone.”
Jenkins said Tuesday afternoon that Marcharia had misunderstood the intent of her comments.
“I was not against prayer at the meeting,” Jenkins told The Voice via email. “I was against a hypocrite with ethics charges pending saying our prayer. I would prefer a moment of silence for all to bow our heads and pray. Period.”
