Five of seven members of the Trenton City Council tonight declined to condemn Robin Vaughn’s homophobic tirade in a conference call last Saturday that has put New Jersey’s capital city under a microcope.
Just Councilmen Jerrell Blakely and Joseph Harrison wanted to denounce Vaughn tonight. The others claimed that Vaughn was entitled to first receive a Rice Notice, which New Jersey requires before public boards discuss issues pertaining to an employee.
“My council colleagues have no shame and are simply cowards,” Blakely said. “Of course you don’t need a Rice notice for a legislative body censure, which is a parliamentary motion and not an evaluation process, and it was just an attempt to avoid them from going on the record.”
Blakeley said his council colleagues “hey did everything possible to avoid the vote and then when compelled with the facts, they hid behind a phony and non existent executive session and voted no.”
“Shame on Robin Vaughn, and Kathy McBride for their tacit approval of not just anti-Semitism but now homophobia,” Blakely stated. “I wonder what group will be next.”
Gov. Phil Murphy, U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, and Democratic State Chairman John Currie have called on Vaughn to resign after hurling insults at the city’s openly gay mayor, Reed Gusciora.
“It’s disgraceful and a sign that this council is not welcoming of our city‘s diversity and are completely fine with the use of divisive and toxic language that demeans,” Blakely said. “They are upset about being called idiots, of which there is ample evidence,” but totally fine with the Mayor being defamed as a pedophile by a member of the city’s legislative body.”