By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Another St. Joseph city council member has apologized for wearing an insensitive Halloween costume.
Council member Brian Myers, who had criticized council member Kent “Spanky” O’Dell for dressing up as Aunt Jemima, has issued his own apology. Myers apologized on his Facebook page for joining with a friend one Halloween to dress up as a slave and a slave owner. He posed the next year as a mentally disabled person.
Council member Gary Roach, on the KFEQ Hotline, acknowledges he had his own insensitive moment. His first year on the council, Roach remembers the insurance representative telling the council he negotiated as low a price as he could.
“And I made some kind of comment, a Jewish comment, are you expecting us to jew you down a little more? And I did not take it as an offensive item at all,” Roach tells host Barry Birr.
Roach says he apologized in a letter to the editor.
Roach is ready to put the two incidents behind the city council.
“I say let’s move on, let’s get ready for our next council agenda for this Tuesday since the holiday is on Monday,” Roach says. “Let’s go on down the road.”
Roach says he accepts the apologies of both.
“I just think it’s kind of funny that on a Monday you have one attitude towards a person and then come Wednesday, in fact between Wednesday and Monday, you hear so many different things come out and I guess like that old saying goes, you hear a lot of stuff out and about, until you see them writing, until you hear from the person themselves, you shouldn’t let it worry you,” Roach says.
Roach says the city council has a lot on its agenda and doesn’t need to be distracted.