City Councilman Eric Mays of Flint, Mich., discusses his leadership over the course of the previous year regarding Flint’s ongoing water crisis during a city council meeting, which introduced the topic of whether Flint residents should have to pay for their water bills, at Flint City Hall on February 3, 2016. | Source: The Washington Post / Getty
A notable councilman in the Michigan city of Flint who died over the weekend is being remembered for his fiery, outspoken style of governing his hometown following his unexpected death.
Eric Mays, widely revered in and around his district for his unabashed style of telling it like is, particularly surrounding the environmental disaster commonly referred to as the Flint Water Crisis, was 65. His death was reported on Saturday.
Local news outlet WJRT reported that Mays’ cause of death was “natural causes after an illness.”
Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley called Mays’ death “a tremendous loss for our community.”
Mays, a three-term council member who was first elected in 2013, frequently made headlines for his candid takes assessing any given situation. He represented the first Ward of Flint — which is 91% Black, according to data — with furiously proud zeal, as evidenced by no shortage of video footage of him advocating for his constituents through no uncertain terms. Much of that footage has gone viral since May’s death was announced.
Keep reading to find — and watch — five noteworthy examples of the late Flint Councilman Eric Mays telling it like it is.
In one particular instance, Mays could be seen railing against one of his colleagues in the city council who he claimed was interrupting him as he spoke.
“Why is she talking?” Mays can be seen asking before he continued: “Can you warn her and get her the hell outta here?” Mays went on to call the other council members’ words “stupid.”
When the other council member asked if she had the floor to speak, Mays trolled her with a sarcastic sing-songy response: “Yes you dooooooooooo!”
In another fiery exchange, Mays can be seen excoriating an unidentified white man he accused of not doing his government job properly. Mays asked him point-blank: “Why ain’t you fired?”
When the white man asked if he could get a word in edge-wise — “are you gonna let me answer or are you gonna yell at me?” — Mays was ready: “I’m gonna do both!”
In a separate instance, video footage showed a constituent claiming Mays “don’t like” him.
That promoted Mays to swiftly interject in an attempt to correct the man speaking.
“I’mma make it clear I love you and everybody else, I just pray for you more.”
During an apparent council meeting, Mays and another council member can be seen verbally sparring. Mays told the councilwoman that she was “out of order,” a claim she threw right back at him before he threatened to throw her out of the proceedings.
When Mays challenged her to “say another word,” the councilwoman went silent — but she extended her middle finger at Mays to let the sign language do the talking for her.
Mays promptly kicked her out while seemingly imitating a baseball umpire: “You’re outta here!”
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And finally, in an example of Mays’ inimitable style of presiding during a city council meeting, he once lectured another council member — a white woman — for allegedly calling him a “racist.”
“We have GOT to help the city of Flint,” the woman said, placing a heavy emphasis on the word “got.”
In a way that only Mays could do it, he then blamed the woman for how he planned to vote against her interest, saying, “You GOT to stop doing that!”
Eric Mays was a true original whose voice clearly resonated beyond the city council chambers and into and among his Ward 1 constituents, who will miss him dearly.
May he rest in power.
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