Essex councillors are still dealing with the fallout of a heated meeting over the summer.
Police had to be called in Monday night to escort the mayor's daughter, Pam McDermott, from council chambers after she refused to leave the meeting at the Essex Civic Centre upon council's request.
Councillor Sherry Bondy had a motion backed unanimously by council to have Ms. McDermott apologize for alleged disparaging remarks against Councillor Randy Voakes.
"We all stopped. We all stood unanimous and we said, 'tonight is the night where we, the Council of the Town of Essex, is demanding respect,'" says Bondy.
Mayor Ron McDermott excused himself from the discussion and the vote citing conflict of interest. The mayor was making some exasperated gestures while sitting in the audience seats which angered Councillor Larry Snively.
"I sit here and see the mayor over there, when councillor Voakes is talking, go like this [makes waving hand gesture]. That's a bunch of [expletive]," Snively said. "You stop because you're the problem and it's got to stop."
Councillor Snively and Mayor McDermott had to be split up at least twice as the two openly argued while council paused the meeting to wait for police to escort Ms. McDermott from council chambers.
Mayor Ron McDermott and Councillor Larry Snively argue at the Essex council meeting on October 5, 2015. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
The mayor's daughter wouldn't apologize and refused to leave council chambers unless given the chance to play a recording for council apparently proving she was owed an apology as well.
Councillor Bondy says council needs to beef up its policy to ensure proper conduct by all during council meetings.
"We really have to make it black and white," says Bondy, "Personally, had Ms. McDermott been allowed to stay in the council chambers I would've walked out because I did not feel that it was right to conduct the business of the Town of Essex in a situation where I felt a fellow member of council was disrespected."
Councillors weren't able to begin working through the regular business of the day for close to an hour as the situation was addressed.
