Friday, April 9, 2004
|
Friday, April 9, 2004 |
| Planning commissioner denies racial comments By JOHN THOMPSON A Senoia Planning Commission member is coming under fire for alleged racial comments made at a December meeting. Planning Commissioner Rebecca Neil appeared before the City Council Monday to deny the charges. The situation started in December after resident Perry Benson sent a letter to City Hall asking the city to investigate Neil’s comments at an August 19 Planning Commission meeting. In his letter, Benson said he heard that Neil had made racial comments at a meeting that had offended Sandra Strozier of the Newnan Housing Authority, who was present at the meeting. Strozier said this week that she didn’t perceive Neil’s comments as racial, but highly inappropriate. “We were talking about renovating the city’s housing projects and she said they should just be all torn down. I just don’t think that’s an appropriate comment for a public official,” she said. During Monday’s meeting, Neil dismissed the allegations and said Benson was using the issue as part of a personal vendetta. “His allegations in my opinion are serious and appear to be a very personal attempt to malign my character in a community that I have lived all my life,” she said. She also referred the council to the minutes of the meeting and a letter from Jack Merrick, who attended the meeting. Merrick said Strozier took exception to the word “projects” and Neil apologized for her use of the term. Merrick also said Benson was not at the meeting and wondered why he brought up the issue four months after it occurred. Benson is just shocked that the issue has surfaced again. “I'm sad for Rebecca Neil, in that she has unnecessarily brought so much public attention to herself and to her family at Monday night’s council meeting,” he said. Benson said he had talked to Neil’s attorney last week and he was under the assumption in fact that “no further conversation regarding the inquiry would be necessary.” “I'm still shocked that an inquiry such as this would result in such an enormous brouhaha for Ms. Neil,” Benson said. Neil asked the City Council to send Benson a copy of the minutes to prove that no racial comments were uttered at the meeting. “I emphatically deny and resent these allegations as I consider myself to love and serve this community and all its citizens,” she said.
| ||