Former Portsmouth Mayor Sean Dunne hijacked the invocation at the City Council meeting to protest the vote that removed him as mayor.
The First Ward Councilman volunteered to lead council in prayer, then said it was time to ‘come to Jesus’ before embarking on a speech complaining about the vote that selected Charlotte Gordon as mayor and Lyvette Mosely as Vice Mayor. He reiterated his claims that the four council representatives that voted for Gordon and Mosely had communicated “round robin” style in violation of open meeting rules before the vote.
When it was pointed out that he was giving a speech and not the invocation, he claimed his statement was a religious ritual and that if the council stopped him from speaking, they would need to ban all religious rituals. Members of council moved on to the Pledge of Allegiance, which an obviously disgusted Dunne sat out.
During his statement, Dunne denied his demand for a revote was tied to racism or sexism and claimed that community leaders wanted the revote to dispel any notions of impropriety. At the previous council meeting, the former mayor had warned council members that their friends and family members could be called in for depositions if a revote was not held.
SCDN will closely monitor the developments in this situation while the former Mayor continues to ratchet up tensions among the legislative body.