Flint, MI— Flint City Council members voted 5-2 to suspend Councilwoman Tonya Burns for 30 days and censure Councilman Dennis Pfeiffer during a City Council meeting on Monday, March 25, 2024.
Council President Ladel Lewis, Vice President Candice Mushatt, Councilmembers Eva Worthing, Quincy Murphy, and Judy Priestley voted in favor of Burns’ suspension.
Councilmembers Jerri Winfrey-Carter and Pfeiffer opposed the suspension, while newly elected 1st Ward Councilman Leon El-Alamin and Burns abstained.
“I abstain because this is ridiculous, this is riddled full of lies and if you’re going to put a resolution it should be truthful, and it’s not,” Burns said. “Shame on them who voted on it, and I’ll see you in court.”
When the council discussed censuring Pfeiffer, Pfeiffer said he would not support the move until the rules were “equally applied” to the entire council.
“If you guys vote for it, have at it,” said Pfeiffer. “But until the rules are applied equally, this won’t have my vote. If the rules were applied equally I would vote to censure myself, but they’re not.”
Worthing said she would vote in favor of the censure and cited several instances in the past when Pfeiffer insulted her.
Winfrey-Carter said she would not support Pfeiffer’s censure.
“There’s several councilmembers up here that should be getting censures for behavior that’s unbecoming of a councilperson,” she said. “It’s a double standard. I hope the residents of the City of Flint, I hope you guys see what’s happening on this council.”
Before the vote, Mushatt introduced two resolutions: suspending Burns for “behavior unbecoming of a council member” and censuring Pfeiffer.
The resolution language was not made available to the public.
Burns and Pfeiffer objected to the resolutions, arguing that they weren’t provided copies of the resolutions ahead of time. Mushatt said she was given the resolutions just before she took her seat for the meeting.
Pfeiffer said the resolutions were “absolute retribution” and a “double standard” because Lewis also exhibited behavior unbecoming of a councilperson at recent meetings.
“You are an agent of chaos. You abuse your position and your power, and you have made it a normal routine to weaponize the police against the residents,” Burns said of Lewis. “You rule like a tyrant and a dictator.”
As Burns was escorted from the meeting by an officer from the Flint Police Department, she repeated that she would “see them in court.”
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