Radio host apologizes for gesture captured on video during Jan. 27 City Council meeting

QUINCY — A local radio personality apologized for a gesture she made — putting an imaginary gun to her head and pulling the trigger — during the Quincy City Council’s Jan. 27 meeting.

The gesture was captured during a live recording of the meeting on the City of Quincy’s Facebook page.

“I stand here tonight to issue a sincere apology and to express my remorse for a gesture I made during the City Council meeting on Jan. 27 while a citizen was exercising his right to free speech, a right I cherish,” Mary Griffith, news director at WTAD Radio, said to aldermen during the public comments portion of Monday’s meeting.

Steve Homan claimed incorrect ballots have been distributed in the 3^rd Ward during early voting for the primary election on Feb. 25 when he spoke during the public comments portion of the Jan. 27 meeting.

“That should be a concern,” Homan said. “Everybody wants a fair election. Nobody wants a Biden-Trump election of 2020.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election have been refuted by numerous judges, state election officials and members of President Donald Trump’s previous administration, including former Attorney General Bill Barr. Most of the president’s 2020 campaign lawsuits across the country were thrown out of court.)

Adams County Clerk Ryan Niekamp recently told Muddy River News that no ballots were incorrect, although people who moved and had failed to change their addresses may have received ballots that pertained to their former address and not their current one.

Homan spoke at the podium in the middle of City Council chambers in front of the aldermen. Caught on camera was Griffith, who sat at the table just behind Homan. When she heard the reference to the 2020 election, Griffith looked to her right, then pointed an imaginary gun to her head, pretended to “pull the trigger” and jerked her head slightly.

Homan wrote two days later on his Facebook page that he took Griffith’s action “as a threat from her to myself.” He also said he planned to file a report with the Quincy Police Department.

Griffith, host of “The Mary Griffith Show” on WTAD Radio on weekday mornings, said she became “frustrated and despondent” during Homan’s remarks.

“I reacted by making a gesture universally understood to mean I would rather kill myself than listen to this,” Griffith said Monday night. “This was wrong, and there is no excuse for it.

“Feigning suicide is insensitive. I myself have a diagnosed mental health condition — namely, depression. I always advocate for people who are struggling with emotional issues, and I urge them to seek help immediately from a qualified counselor. My behavior has no place in a public meeting or in my profession.

“Again, I was wrong. I want to apologize to all of you, and I will strive to do better.”

Aldermen approved a housing officer agreement for 2025 between the Quincy Police Department and the Quincy Housing Authority.

Adam Yates, chief of the Quincy Police Department, said QPD has filled a Quincy Housing Authority (QHA) officer position for more than 20 years. The agreement calls for assigning a sworn police officer to serve as a full-time housing officer. That position is responsible for all the normal duties and responsibilities of a patrol officer. 

The Quincy Housing Authority agrees to pay the City of Quincy 55 percent of the cost of salary and benefits for the assigned officer, estimated at $73,432. QHA provides and maintains office space and a computer for the housing officer.

“It’s a beneficial program for both the Housing Authority, because there’s one officer who becomes very familiar with all the residents who live in the housing projects and the issues that go on there,” Yates said. “Then we have the opportunity to get reimbursed for the work that we’re doing at the Housing Authority.”

In other action, aldermen:

• Gave permission to St. Anthony Church and St. Dominic Junefest to conduct a raffle from April 10 through June 7. 
• Gave permission to Jeff Butler of Clean Restoration to bore a two-inch PVC sewer line under city-owned right-of-way between 3120 North 12th and Highland Lane, subject to eight conditions.
• Approved a special event application from the Quincy YMCA requesting the Kelly’s Fun Run on March 16 begin at Kelly’s, 2902 Broadway, go east to 30th Street, go south to Maine and east to Flinn Stadium, then turn around and return to Kelly’s. 
• Accepted a bid for $10,000 for the sale of non-essential property at 1516 Van Buren to Ryan Sparks with Sparks Home Automation & Real Estate, LLC. The 141 feet by 50 feet lot is zoned for single-family residential use. Sparks told the Finance Committee on Feb. 3 that he intends to build a 1,700-square-foot home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms within 24 months of the date of closing. However, the City Council amended the resolution to eliminate the 24-month deadline. 
• Approved a resolution to terminate the intergovernmental agreement with Quincy Public Library. Without an agreement in place, the city will distribute the library’s property tax revenues as collected and will continue to distribute the library’s 10.969 percent share of personal property replacement taxes upon receipt from state per statutory requirements.
• Amended a previously approved contract with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly of Springfield to an amount not exceeding $35,000 for all costs associated with engineering services to assist with acquiring snow removal equipment.
• Approved project change requests from Tyler Technologies totaling $18,200 for additional project management and training time to complete the financials and human resource management (HRM) implementation phases of the Tyler Technologies ERP Implementation project. The financials implementation phase is on track to go live March 3. The HRM implementation phase, which includes payroll processing, is scheduled to go live April 8.

While doing business as supervisors for Quincy Township, aldermen approved Joshua Ayres to fill the remainder of the term of Lisa Gasko as Quincy Township assessor. Gasko was approved in January by the Adams County Board as the county’s new supervisor of assessments, replacing Georgene Zimmerman, who retired at the end of 2024 after more than 51 years with the county. 

Aldermen also approved the tentative budget and appropriation ordinance for fiscal year 2025/2026 to be placed on file with the township clerk. They will vote on the passage of the budget on April 14.

“We are requesting an increase in the levy by 4½ percent,” Township Supervisor Maggie Hoyt told the City Council. “That would be for the property taxes that will be payable in 2026, so we’re increasing the levy for the township from $290,000 to $303,050.”