RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — Riviera Beach City Council members publicly expressed fear over Tradrick McCoy's behavior during a special meeting Wednesday night.
Those council members said a fight occurred between McCoy and another council member at last week's meeting.
There are five elected council members and a mayor, Ronnie L. Felder, who doesn't vote.
Council members KaShamba Miller-Anderson, Dr. Julia Botel and Shirley Lanier said they feared McCoy would eventually hurt somebody based on his prior behavior. Douglas Lawson is the council chairperson and also expressed concern about safety at meetings.
"I have stated this publicly at least three times regarding my fear of Mr. McCoy," Lanier said. "...I am truly afraid of Council member McCoy. What needs to happen for this board to take action? Somebody harmed? Somebody killed?"
Lanier said she called the police on him and read from the incident report.
They voted unanimously to complain about him to the governor's office and the state Commission on Ethics.
Council members said they placed a metal detector near their council chambers because they were scared of McCoy.
Another woman said McCoy consistently gives the city a bad reputation.
"He disrupts the meeting with his temper," she said. "He jumps in their face. He disrespects the vendors when they come in here."
McCoy, who spoke with WPTV via telephone Wednesday afternoon, said he can't speak about any accusations. However, people at Wednesday's meeting defended McCoy for being angry after getting cut off from talking about a water report showing fecal bacteria.
"This meeting is utterly ridiculous," a woman said. "What's important is what he was talking about — feces in the water. That's the meeting we should be having today."
City staff said the contaminated well water was filtered at the treatment plant and made clean, safe and drinkable by the time it reached people's homes.
A spokesperson for the Riviera Beach Police Department said the investigation into the incident at the last council meeting is being led by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. It also said it has no video, 911 call or call for service regarding the incident.
