Greenbelt’s first council meeting of 2021, on January 11, reflected an extraordinarily high degree of discord. The shouting match itself was triggered when council was asked by resident William Orleans about a recent report in the MarylandMatters.org website in which five members of council disassociated themselves from a post the mayor had previously made to social media. (marylandmatters.org/2021/01/06/greenbelt-councilmembers-disavow-mayors-comments-about-del-lewis/), Mayor Colin Byrd had posted a six-page document on Facebook criticizing Delegate Jazz M. Lewis, chair of the Maryland House Democratic Caucus. In his Facebook post, Byrd called Lewis a “total cornball brother who has no business representing Prince George’s County or Black people at all.”
The councilmembers who signed the letter objecting to the post included all but Councilmember Rodney Roberts – who has stated that he didn’t know about either the letter or the post by Byrd.
The concern of Orleans and Roberts focused on whether the five members of council signing the letter had held what amounted to an illegal council meeting without proper notice rather than whether their letter was justified.
The letter itself expressed concern that Byrd’s characterization of his role in council was
inappropriate in that his Facebook post stated, “I lead my city…” when in their view he does not lead or speak for the city, but presides over meetings and it is council, as a body and not as individuals, that legislates and sets policy. Although the mayor is the first among equals, the only thing he has authority to do without council consent is issue proclamations. The group signing the letter did not wish the mayor’s opinions to be taken as representing the view of council as a whole.
According to the Maryland Matters article, the letter from the five members of council to Lewis pointed out that, “They were his personal opinions which he is entitled to have,” but since “his comments and decision to post them were not run past the other members of council and no vote was taken, they do not represent an official position of the Greenbelt City Council or of the City of Greenbelt.”
Byrd has since apologized for calling Lewis a cornball brother but not for the post itself.
As this played out in the meeting, tempers flared, councilmembers were shouting over each other and for some minutes it became impossible, especially over Zoom, to hear any coherent discussion. Occasional comments rose above the cacophony: Councilmember Leta Mach bewailed that the meeting would go on forever, Councilmember Edward Putens and others threatened to walk out. A motion was made for a 15-minute recess as a cooling off period. After several minutes council pulled itself together and went forward in a relatively civil and subdued manner though the negative tone remained a strong undercurrent throughout the meeting, with several subsequent exchanges indicative of continued anger.
It’s not clear what became of the discussion about whether the five councilmembers had held an illegal meeting. Apparently, no conclusion was reached, although city solicitor Todd Pounds, stating that he hadn’t read the correspondence so he was only commenting in a general sense, was of the opinion that it did not necessarily constitute an illegal meeting.
City residents can view the recording of the council session at greenbeltmd.gov/government/city-council/minutes-and-agendas. The remainder of the meeting will be covered in a separate article in a later issue.