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Courtesy photo (far left) / NSBNEWS.net photo (near left) by Henry Frederick.
A sign outside the Babe James Center asks the question: Would Adam Barringer sponsor you 4 the Anglers Club?" Several other signs there encourage voters to vote for Mayor Sally Mackay in order to keep the Babe James Center open, even though there are no plans to close it. Mayoral candidate Adam Barringer says both signs are examples of the "dirty politics" put on by the Mackay camp intended to scare voters in the predominantly black Westside neighborhood with the subliminal message that because he's an Angler he'll cut programs in that community. The signs were taken down earlier today.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Mayoral candidate Adam Barringer was infuriated when signs went up the night before the election outside the Babe James Center that urges voters in the predominantly black Westside neighborhood to re-elect Sally Mackay in order to keep the Babes James Center open.
There are no directives or plans by Interim City Manager Pam Brangaccio or the City Commission to close Babe James, which provides a host of recreational and educational programs for children and adults alike.
"The mayor is so desperate she's resorting to lying and scaring people," Barringer said. "It's low and disgraceful and it does not show a high level of integrity on her part. It's despicable."
Mackay responded: "He says he wants to cut taxes and that means programs."
City Commissioners were taken aback by Mackay's bringing the Babe James Center into the mix.
"I don't care what the signs say, we're not closing Babe James," said Commissioner Lynne Plaskett whose district includes the Westside.
Commissioner Jim Hathaway concurred: It's not true. We are not closing Babe James. That's pretty low."
Barringer said a large sign referencing the Anglers is "race-baiting" that since he's an Angler he's going to discriminate against Westside residents. Barringer said there is "no place for this kind of dirty campaigning" and that such tactics are "racist."
Critics of the Anglers have challenged the 99-year lease signed with the city in the mid-1940s for prime waterfront property on the North Causeway with 43 boat slips. At that time only whites were allowed, but racial segregation was practice throughout New Smyrna Beach and the South in general. Such discriminatory practices were abandoned by the Anglers as with the rest of society decades ago.
At the mayor's urging, the city spent $20,000 to hire an outside attorney to review the Angler's lease. The outside counsel, who ended up charging the city $28,000, said it was his opinion the lease could be challenged, but he urged the city to negotiate a settlement with the Anglers.
It was during the third and final citizens candidates debate sponsored by the Public Watch Committee and NSBNEWS.net that Barringer revealed a letter written by Mackay when she was running for mayor the first time around in which she wrote in part: "I both respect and value the contribution that the Anglers Club and the Boat and Ski Club makes to the community to New Smyrna Beach and will not initiate or support any attempt to break the leases they hold with the city."
Mackay responded at the debate that she had a different view of the Anglers since then.