Residents praise downtown events and press council on transparency during public comments

Several residents and community organizations used the public-comment and presentation portions of the Oct. 13 Mount Holly City Council meeting to highlight local events and press the council on transparency and organizational support.

Michelle Yao, owner of Black Sheep Coffee at 2021 Lake Vista Drive, described a privately organized Pride business crawl she said drew an estimated 500 to 600 attendees to downtown Mount Holly. Yao said the event included a 14-business business crawl, a 15-vendor market and a resource fair with 11 community groups.

"We printed 300 of these passports, and they were all passed out within the first 2 and a half hours of our 8 hour event," Yao said. She said fundraising collected $2,806 from 57 donors, that the organizers donated almost $500 to Time Out Youth and $721 to the event artist in residence (MJ Rep), and that the organizers retained $500 for future programming while planning to register as a 501(c)(3) by year-end. Yao said the event had no city sponsorship and said she hoped the city would reconsider support next year.

Jimmy Wilson, president of the Black Forum Foundation (formerly Black History Forum of Mount Holly), presented the group's recent activities including a turkey giveaway and scholarship work. Wilson asked whether the foundation could be assigned a council liaison and said the group would benefit from a small office corner for printing and storage of materials.

Several residents used public comment to raise questions about council transparency and ethics. Bob Hendricks said he had heard recurring concerns from residents about decisions including proceeding with Veterans Park after a prior no vote, accepting a lower bid on 131 Main with an alleged $300,000 loss, the characterization of a recent tax-rate action, and utility-rate increases planned over five years. He asked whether those actions indicated a lack of transparency.

Separately, Council member Brian Hough took a point of personal privilege to respond to campaign-related accusations about his appointment to council. Hough said the appointment process that selected him mirrored the process used two decades earlier to appoint a prior mayor and called the current online attacks "half truths and false innuendos." He said, "It is a travesty to see this town I love being embarrassed by so called leaders who will do anything to win an election. It is shameful and 1 day each of you will be held accountable for your misdeeds."

Mayor David Moore and other council members acknowledged the presentations and public comments; staff offered to follow up on liaison requests and community-event coordination. No formal council action was taken on the matters raised during public comment at the meeting.

Separately in presentations, the council recognized retiring firefighter Travis Collier and staff who worked on the Mount Holly Sewer Pump Station commissioning.