The Detroit News reports that Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy has been swept up in the storm of controversy around Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Bellamy invited Kilpatrick to speak at last week’s MLK Breakfast, an event attended by more than 1,000 people that serves as the annual kick-off of Asheville’s MLK weekend events. Detroit media have been reporting that Kilpatrick spent some of his time at the Grove Park enjoying the resort’s world-class spa with a female friend other than his wife.
The Detroit paper says Bellamy is “outraged” by the reports. It also notes that Asheville has been sullied by all the negative press.
Let’s go to the story:
DETROIT — Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick soaked in a luxury resort hot tub and got a massage with a woman other than his wife last weekend, according to a report by Detroit News reporting partner WXYZ-TV (Channel 7).
The report outraged the mayor of Asheville, N.C., where Kilpatrick went to be the keynote speaker at a prayer breakfast sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Association in honor of the civil rights leader.
Now the small Southern city is being pulled into the controversy surrounding Kilpatrick over recent revelations that he traded salacious and intimate text messages with his chief of staff Christine Beatty.
The story quotes Bellamy as saying she thought Kilpatrick could bring some knowledge about mentoring and support programs to help our mountain town’s youth.
“We have a gang problem,” Bellamy said. “I thought he could rally the community around mentoring programs and supporting our youth.”
Now Bellamy has been flooded with calls from the media asking about Kilpatrick in the wake of the widespread publicity.
“It is not our goal to be in the limelight,” Bellamy said. “It’s hurting our city. It’s hurting me.”
Bellamy received more calls Friday night regarding Kilpatrick. Those calls came in the wake of new allegations leveled against Kilpatrick that he cheated on his wife.
The Detroit News needs to check a map when referring to mountain ranges, but here’s more:
Kasey Smith, a manager of the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa, nestled in the Pisgah Mountains, said she could not “divulge any information” about hotel guests, citing confidentiality rules. She said the resort markets many of its room packages to couples, specifically newlyweds.
Bellamy said the storm of controversy swirling around Kilpatrick does not take away from his speech at the MLK event.
“He did an extraordinary job,” Bellamy said. “He got a standing ovation. He was on target with some of the issues surrounding the youth.
“It’s unfortunate because he was invited with the most sincere intentions,” Bellamy added.
The MLK event in Asheville is one of the city’s most popular programs, she said.
Bellamy said she did not see Kilpatrick with any women: “I didn’t see him with any person other than a male assistant.”
2 Comments
The MLK jr. Association does not have a good track record.
They chose Leonard Smith as a recipient of the MLK humanitarian award (while he raped little boys) and Andrew Reed got the same award (while he videoed the rape of little boys and uploaded his astonishingly evil videos to his child porn buddy list). It is no surprise that they would now choose a man who is a corrupt politician, a womanizer and has zero honor.
It is also no surprise that WLOS won’t air this angle of the story.
In Asheville, it has become all about what looks good, not about substance. When the "looks good" is only skin deep, we are left with nothing but a souless shell and egg oin our face.
This is what happens when your mayor is more interested with "making statements" then, you know…doing her job.
The civic center is still in Limbo, decisions need to be made about downtown parking and trash pick up (our night porter is dragging our trash about three blocks at the moment), etc etc.
And what is she doing? Using our money to fund dozens of committees or whatever she calls them, and flying to staples to talk about the least pressing issue facing our city.
how long before we can vote for someone else?