There were some testy exchanges late Thursday evening at the City Commission meeting.
Commissioner Susan Bottcher recalled the meeting of two weeks ago. Late that night, during that meeting’s testy exchanges, Mayor Ed Braddy again raised the issue of an online letter to the editor that 19 current and former Democratic office holders -including five current members of the City Commissioners- signed during Braddy’s campaign in the Spring against former Mayor Craig Lowe.
The letter described Braddy as a “relentless, inflammatory and often dishonest critic.” At Aug 1 meeting, Braddy said his children had read that letter in which the commissioners called him dishonest.
Move ahead to this Thursday. Bottcher said that Braddy, when co-host of the conservative political radio program Talk of the Town, criticized not only her political beliefs but engaged in “personal attacks” against her and her family. She said Braddy made comments about her clothing, her hair, said she was house wife who had “never worked a day in my life” and described her as a “witch.”
Bottcher said Braddy and others on Talk of the Town, criticized her family, saying her husband, who had been a university professor, sucked off the “public teat.”
She also said that Braddy once met her daughter, who was working in the mall, and said he liked her mother but she did not care for him. He then, according to Bottcher, said he was glad at least one member of the family was gainfully employed.
Bottcher then questioned how Braddy – at the Aug. 1 meeting – could hold up his children as a “human shield” to shame the commissioners who had signed the campaign letter after “repeatedly insulting our family for your own amusement.”
Braddy then said he was not the one who said those things on Talk of the Town and she was “playing guilt by association” and engaging in “slander.” He also offered his account of the meeting at the mall. He said he told her daughter he was glad she was gainfully employed and he liked her mother because she stood up for what she believed in.
Bottcher said she brought the issue up because it was time to move on and “I’m going to let it go.”
Prior to the exchange between Bottcher and Braddy, Braddy and Thomas Hawkins had an exchange. Braddy asked Hawkins if he would answer a question member of the public had posed to other commissioners on whether an official with the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center had attempted to contact him about arbitration. Hawkins replied, “no.”
Braddy later criticized Hawkins for criticizing the Chamber of Commerce earlier in the week about a lack of transparency in its ongoing ad hoc committee meetings on the city’s electric utility. Braddy said Hawkins was not being open and transparent about whether a GREC official contacted him.
Hawkins then said when he replied “no” he meant no one from GREC contacted him. Braddy offered a quick apology for the misunderstanding.
Hawkins then said he did not care for Braddy routinely offering his opinion and criticism of the other commissioners’ stances and comments. He described it as a “snide running dialogue.”
And they meet again Monday.