Former Valdese Councilman Glenn Harvey addresses Mayor Keith Huffman from the audience during Monday's called meeting.
MICA BANKS / THE PAPER
“Yes, daddy” are not words commonly spoken by elected officials at public meetings.
Nor is it common for a mayor to pass the gavel to the mayor pro tem so he can set impartiality aside to share a personal opinion.
Both happened at Valdese’s called meeting on Monday, which also triggered the near-expulsion of a former councilman.
The 10 a.m. meeting was called to discuss the proposed 2026-27 budget, which has drawn sharp criticism from residents with a fire district tax that will hike the property tax rate up from 41.5 cents to 54.5 cents per $100 valuation on top of higher fees for water and sewer services.
Three things happened in quick succession.
Mayor Keith Huffman passed the gavel to Mayor Pro Tem Rexanna Lowman and addressed Councilwoman Heather Ward directly, stating that she had not raised these concerns previously.
Ward attempted to respond several times, and Huffman said he was not done, which led to Ward slamming her hand on the table and saying, “yes, daddy.”
Then, former councilman Glenn Harvey called Huffman out from the audience for “attacking” Ward. Police Chief Marc Sharpe approached Harvey and said he would have to be removed if he continued shouting from the audience.
The full story will be in Saturday’s edition of The Paper.
Here’s the deal: the Valdese Town Council Rules incorporate Robert’s Rules of Order to ensure decorum at public meetings and to follow parliamentary procedure. The state requires council members to complete governance seminars shortly after the election.
Not to excuse the disrupter, but these key provisions were so blatantly violated that this old council member, who had suffered similar attacks, could not ignore his upbringing about how to treat a woman and his recognition of the violations of these key provisions:
• The chair is the “designated parliamentarian” and must remain neutral when calling on members.
• No member of a governing body may call out or criticize another member during a meeting; all comments must be directed to the chair.
• The chair must be an impartial moderator and cannot enter the debate except when a motion is under debate and he believes the motion decided merits his point of view.
• If the chairperson relinquishes the chair to another member, that member remains the chair until the motion is voted on. In this case, there was no motion to debate.
Finally, it is the responsibility of the chair, the Mayor Pro-tem at this meeting, to restore order, not that of the council member who was speaking or the Police Chief, whose show of force was more appropriate to an active shooter than to a verbal exchange.
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Here’s the deal: the Valdese Town Council Rules incorporate Robert’s Rules of Order to ensure decorum at public meetings and to follow parliamentary procedure. The state requires council members to complete governance seminars shortly after the election.
Not to excuse the disrupter, but these key provisions were so blatantly violated that this old council member, who had suffered similar attacks, could not ignore his upbringing about how to treat a woman and his recognition of the violations of these key provisions:
• The chair is the “designated parliamentarian” and must remain neutral when calling on members.
• No member of a governing body may call out or criticize another member during a meeting; all comments must be directed to the chair.
• The chair must be an impartial moderator and cannot enter the debate except when a motion is under debate and he believes the motion decided merits his point of view.
• If the chairperson relinquishes the chair to another member, that member remains the chair until the motion is voted on. In this case, there was no motion to debate.
Finally, it is the responsibility of the chair, the Mayor Pro-tem at this meeting, to restore order, not that of the council member who was speaking or the Police Chief, whose show of force was more appropriate to an active shooter than to a verbal exchange.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.