I attended the County Council meeting on Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. This meeting follows the special meeting that was held on Dec. 8, addressing County Executive Brenton Davis’s 2026 budget vetoes. 14 of the 21 vetoes issued by Davis were overwritten. However, portions of the budget funding the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Commission (Diverse Erie) and Black Wall Street failed. Constituents spoke out against this vote during the council meetings. “The willingness to claw back that money from an organization that has boosted homeownership amongst Americans in Erie, PA, it’s tough, it spells out the quiet hate that spoils this society,” Constituent Kennedy Horton, son of Council Member Andre Horton, said. “That money was clawed back for no other reason than the color of those businesses and homeowners.”
Constituent Cyndi Treiber also spoke on the events of the special meeting, stating: “I witnessed people sitting here completely disengaged, completely disinterested, offering one word monotone responses that gave no impression of having a care.”…