PALATKA, Fla. – In a letter, the former vice-chairman of the Putnam County Democratic Party is calling for the censure of two county commissioners.
“They also represent everyone in this county, not just the ones who voted for them, and I think they need to be cognizant and mindful of their positions and that their words matter,” Party Vice Chairman Joshua Mast said.
Mast said that the actions of commissioners Paul Adamczyk and Jeff Rawls on social media do not reflect they represent all the people of the county.
“I think too long in this county, nobody has wanted to pay attention to our local politics, and so that’s what I am doing. Last year, I ran for county commissioner District 3, I was the first openly gay candidate to run for office in Putnam County and would have been the youngest commissioner to serve if elected,” Mast said.
The 33-year-old lost to incumbent Commissioner Terry Turner.
“I was aware of the DMA, and the uphill battle, but it was about starting conversations here that should have started a long time ago with my new position. I am going to continue to be a voice for the thousands of people here that don’t have a voice and feel they are left out of our government and feel they don’t have any representation,” explained Mast, who went further to say the commissioners’ actions on social media ostracize and marginalize citizens they work for.
In a post Rawls shared on his wall -- a post that has since been taken down -- you could see a man wearing a sombrero with a caption that reads: “Mexican word of the day: ‘body wash.’ Biden was on tv but nobody wash him.”
In another post, Rawls poked fun of political correctness calling those who support it: snowflakes.
The second commissioner, Adamczyk, posted the following: “It’s funny to me lol,” with a meme that reads: “liberals after finding out girls menstruate and not womenstruate.”
“Just trying to be rude and incendiary to certain groups of people, whether you want to call them liberals, Democrats, or the radical left, whatever term they want to call us, it’s just not necessary. I brought a motion forward with our party to issue a censure on their actions on social media and their content and it was approved unanimously through our executive committee.” Mast said.
News4JAX called, emailed and stopped by the offices of the county commissioners. We received a quote from Adamczyk that reads: “I Love every member of our community forever regardless of our differences politically or otherwise. I have an open door to anyone in our community and am very willing and ready when on single matters we cannot find agreement, to find other areas, if they are willing, on which we can work together. I am also committed to ensuring anyone who has an issue, or item to bring before our citizens BOCC, that I will do everything I can to ensure they are able to represent their interests and have their ideas or opinions heard regardless of my opinion or potential vote.”
News4JAX also received a statement from Larry Harvey, the chairman of the Putnam County Board of Commissioners about the matter, whichreads: “Putnam County is working hard to Promote itself, I personally choose to focus on the things we as a Board and our Administration are doing now, My goal as Chairman is to Promote this County and our citizens and to keep the Board priorities on the forefront. If you want to know how two Commissioners feel please ask them.”
As of Thursday evening, News4Jax not received a response from Rawls.