Stuart City Commissioner Collins under fire for posting racially divisive photo on Facebook
STUART — City Commissioner Christopher Collins is under fire after posting a racially divisive photo on Facebook that prompted Black community members to speak out at a commission meeting Wednesday.
The photo showed Zippy The Chimp from "The Ed Sullivan Show” with a caption urging residents to come to the meeting. The chimp's shirt, which read “ZIP,” was a nod to the formal name of the issue being discussed at the meeting: zoning in progress.
Collins apologized at the beginning of the meeting, calling the photo a “misunderstanding.”
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The photo was on Facebook for six days until Collins deleted it after the Wednesday-night meeting.
Multiple Black speakers at the meeting described the photo as offensive and divisive, while reminding Collins he represents the commission as a whole and should be mindful of his actions.
Pastor Jerry Gore, of Pentecostal Church of God in Christ, and Martin County NAACP President Jimmy Smith, were among those in attendance who told the commission they felt the photo affected the city’s relationship with Black residents.
Now every time he sees Collins, Gore noted, he will associate him with the photo.
“We get along with the chief (of police), we get along with the city manager, we get along with the whole city board … But now, to sit at one table and look across at this figure of a monkey, that’s not going to be good,” Gore said. “We forgive you, but I hope it won't stop the progress we’ve been having here in Stuart.”
Gore and Smith both accepted Collins’ apology.
“We have come so far to turn around,” Smith said. “We want to make sure that we continue to pick up one another here in the city of Stuart.”
In posting the photo, Collins said, he intended to get more residents to attend the meeting “to focus on the development of Stuart going forward.”
“I hope you will take my word that I had no desire to offend anybody, and if it did offend you at the time, I want to say I’m sorry,” Collins said.
Collins declined to comment further on the issue after the meeting.
Concerns over the photo weren't limited to community members. Eula Clarke, the only Black member of the commission, asked city staff to determine whether posting the photo violated the city's code of conduct for commissioners.
“I’d suggest that we do that and set this thing to bed and just deal with it. And keep moving forward,” Clarke said. “I think as a commission, we need to be big enough to say that we’ve responded to it in some kind of way because the residents have asked us.”
Clarke herself was involved in a racially divisive situation in 2017. She ultimately resigned as mayor after she allegedly used the word “pig” in front of a city police officer in a local grocery store.
The City Commission voted to investigate the incident and whether she had made similar remarks to other city employees.
The state Ethics Commission later dismissed a complaint by the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, which represents Stuart police officers, alleging she broke state law by misusing her public position to harass city employees.
Lina Ruiz is TCPalm's watchdog reporter for Martin County. You can reach her at lina.ruiz@tcpalm.com, on Twitter @Lina_Ruiz48 or at 321-501-3845
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Stuart City Commissioner faces backlash for racially divisive Facebook photo
