Most people who have attended our council meetings or watched our meetings on live stream know I understand the rules and laws related to what Council can and cannot do better than many others and most others.

Neither I, as Mayor, nor any mayor, nor any council member, nor presiding officer, nor a majority of any council have the ability to remove a council member from office. Only a governor can do that, unless a municipal elected official fails to meet at any time the requirements to serve in the first place; such as not being a resident of the municipality, being found mentally incompetent, being convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude. 

I have known this for years. So why would the State Newspaper print that? With numerous requests, the reporter for The State newspaper is unable to bring forth any proof of me saying this. And for other papers to print and repeat such false statements without calling to verify whether I made such a statement is as much disconcerting. I can only say it's not totally unexpected since I'm sure there is still some animosity from the owner of The Irmo News for voting to remove him from the Okra Strut Commission.

As far as other stuff in the article, I have a lot of respect with other municipalities. Councilman Walker's behavior at the last Lexington County Municipal Association meeting proves he's the one that needs a class on relationship building.

I have noticed Councilman Walker, Sickinger, and Busch candidate signs together at various places, as I am sure you have as well. The previous article failed to mention them running as teammates.

There are multiple times that Pouliot and Waites have not voted with me but against me on agenda items, and there have been many votes that four of us have voted together, and even unanimous votes of 5. This comes from knowing what has support and what doesn't, and not wasting Council's time on items that have no support which Councilman Walker often does.

As the article stated Pouliot “allegedly” threatened another candidate, I know that not to be true. He tried to give a candidate some advice on how dirty political campaigns can be, as we have already witnessed. As far as the other remarks about “slummy” and “rednecks”, I was at those meetings. I heard those remarks. I understand the complete context they were made. And believe me they were less offensive than many remarks that some citizens and other candidates have made at our podium. Many of those remarks being nothing but flat out lies. Councilman Walker made a remark years ago about indians running convenience stores, while pointing to his forehead. Kirk was there, he laughed, and didn't print it still.

As far as being a “no show”. We were not invited. No phone call, no email, no text invitation. Robbie said he posted it on that non citizen page and thought we all were on that page. No I am not. That is not a social page, most uncivil communication that is not social. Anyways, I don't go where I am not invited, that is a social rule. I also have a campaign strategy, and I was out that night knocking on voters doors, listening to them.

My mailouts, whether the previous writer likes them or not, are in my opinion factual and accurate and are there to set the record straight from all the other baloney floating around.