Another AH official asked to remove Facebook post

Another Airway Heights elected official has garnered some heat after a post they made on their personal Facebook account.

As reported in a story on the Cheney Free Press website, Sept. 3, the city of Airway Heights released a press release, announcing that Councilman Dave Malet posted an offensive picture on his personal Facebook account, Sept. 2.

Deputy City Manager Lee Bennett said he received a phone call regarding Malet’s post. According to Bennett, the picture was of an African American man and a Caucasian man with their arms around each other. The African American male wore a shirt, with the words “My redneck” pointing to the Caucasian man, who was wearing a shirt with a derogatory term on it and pointing to the African American male.

This comes on the heels of the incident where former Airway Heights Mayor Patrick Rushing made a comment on his personal Facebook account, comparing President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle to “monkeys.”

“This wasn’t like the incident with the mayor where it targeted one person,” Bennett said. “I think Councilman Malet was trying to share that we could all get along. I told him it was offensive and asked him to take it down. He obliged.”

Malet released a personal statement, Sept. 4, apologizing for sharing the post and not using “good judgement” when he shared it.

“I think as an elected official I should use better thought and judgement in my activities,” Malet wrote. “I will strive to do that in the future. This post does not reflect the thoughts of the city or the council and I take full responsibility for it and have deleted it from my timeline.”

In the release, staff declared that it does not “condone inappropriate statements including racial words, photographs, or any other media that could be construed as harmful to any race, gender and belief system.”

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].