Charlotte City Council member denies accusations she made racially offensive remarks

Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt made racially offensive comments during a private meeting with community activists last year, according to two ethics complaints.

Eiselt said the meeting took place, but denies making any inappropriate remarks.

The Observer has obtained copies of the complaints filed last week against Eiselt by Corine Mack, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, and Cade Lee, a former Democratic candidate for the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners.

Lee and Mack allege they were meeting with Eiselt on May 16, 2019, when Eiselt “told a story about how her son shared her fear about going into a predominantly black neighborhood for fear he’ll be attacked,” documents say.

Eiselt and Lee are white and Mack is Black.

In separate interviews, Lee and Mack told the Observer they met with Eiselt, a Democrat, to discuss anti-violence initiatives soon after a shooting at UNC Charlotte left two dead and four wounded. Eiselt began talking about how her son felt about traveling to a neighborhood where he was tutoring a child, they said.

“I was shellshocked,” Lee said. “She said they were afraid of him being shot and attacked going to tutor the child. It was blatantly disrespectful.”

Mack described a similar version of events.

Eiselt said she would not make such negative remarks about Black neighborhoods. She said the ethics complaints are part of a long-running effort by Mack to discredit her since she did not promise taxpayer money for anti-violence programs.

“It is frivolous,” Eiselt said. “This is just an ax to grind.”

Ethics complaints

The accusations come at the same time some City Council members are pushing to change ethics rules.

Since last month, residents have filed a flurry of ethics complaints against council members, often accusing them of using their positions for personal gain or to curry favor with campaign donors.

Under city policy, City Attorney Patrick Baker reviews ethics complaints filed with the City Clerk’s office to determine if they meet technical requirements needed to call for an independent investigation. Some council members are lobbying to change the policy to give the city attorney more latitude to assess whether complaints are credible or legitimate before they are sent for an outside investigation.

City Council member Tariq Bokhari, who has been the subject of recent ethics complaints, sent officials an email last week urging Baker to evaluate whether complaints are actually supported by specific facts.

“I know there are flaws in this policy that need to be revised, but it will take time for us to get that done,” Bokhari said in the Aug. 17 email. “... In the meantime, if we don’t enforce some level of correlation between an allegation and the specificity of facts included - I assume some Democrats will continue filing daily allegations on myself and (Republican City Council member Ed Driggs) without providing correlated specificity of wrongdoing, and some Republicans will do so to the other 10 members until there is literally no bandwidth to do any other work on our plates.”

Eiselt said the ethics complaints filed against her by Lee and Mack are examples of how the system can be abused.

“You can take out an ethics complaint because you don’t like someone,” Eiselt said. “This has gotten to be ridiculous.”

Lee’s complaint accuses Eiselt of violating the City Council’s code of ethics, which stipulates that council members “act as especially responsible citizens whom others can respect and trust.”

He said he was moved to file the complaint after seeing worldwide protests against racial discrimination following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota.

Lee said he considered filing an ethics complaint against Eiselt in 2019, but was advised against it because he was going to run for county commissioner. He lost in the District 3 Democratic primary to Commissioners Chair George Dunlap in March.

Mack said she only recently learned that citizens could file ethics complaints. She filed one earlier this month against Bokhari, alleging it was a conflict of interest for the city to propose giving public money to benefit a jobs training program run by a nonprofit where Bokhari is executive director.

Filing a complaint, Mack said, allows citizens to hold city leaders accountable for their conduct.

“I’m not going to lie on anybody,” Mack said.

Tense meeting

Before she was elected to the City Council in 2015, Eiselt helped found Neighbors For A Safer Charlotte, a group that advocated for court resources and reduced crime.

She has publicly detailed an experience in 2007 when a man tried to abduct her at gunpoint.

In May 2019, Lee was helping lead the UNCC chapter of March for Our Lives, a student-led effort to support legislation to prevent gun violence. Mack said she agreed to accompany Lee to meetings with city leaders.

Lee and Mack said they wanted to get Eiselt’s support for multiple anti-violence measures and to see if she would support providing taxpayer money for them.

But they said almost immediately after the meeting started inside a conference room at the Government Center, Eiselt said she had no interest in speaking with Mack.

“I told her it was racist,” Mack said, when Eiselt described her feelings about going to a predominantly Black neighborhood. “She jumped out of her seat and started screaming.”

Lee gave a similar account.

He said he became uncomfortable when Eiselt turned her back to Mack and started to speak only to him.

Lee’s complaint says that Eiselt failed to put the city’s interest ahead of her own.

“Mayor Pro Tem Eiselt acted and spoke in an incredibly appalling display of racism,” the complaint says.

Eiselt said Lee and Mack inaccurately described her behavior.

During the meeting, she said she explained the city has a formal process that must be followed for financial requests. Eiselt said she asked them to make a formal request for public money for their proposals.

Since the meeting, Eiselt said that Mack has made false accusations about her on social media and encouraged college students to do the same.

Eiselt said she did not make any reference to being afraid to go into Black neighborhoods.

“How do you fight something that someone just makes up?” Eiselt asked.

This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 11:18 AM.