Piedmont's Mayor Jeff Wieler recently took to social media to express his frustration with the Black Lives Matter movement, liberals, and trans people and is surprised that his constituents have a problem with it.
CBS 5 reports on Wieler and his alarming Facebook posts, which include calling transgender people "mentally ill" and alleging that Black Lives Matter encourages the murdering of police officers. The statements were made alongside Wieler's posting of right-wing, anti-liberal articles.
At a recent city council meeting, residents took advantage of public comment time to (rather calmly and courteously) call Wieler out on his social media posts. When it was his turn to talk, the Mayor's expressed his hurt feelings. "This has been a painful half hour for me as I'm sure people can imagine. I apologize if, by posting articles from various magazines has offended anybody," apologized Wieler, not really apologizing.
As you may or may not be aware, Piedmont is a small, wealthy, independent township surrounded on all sides by Oakland that has its own school district, police force, etc.
According to the East Bay Times, Resident Conna McCarthy is calling for Wieler to step down. She confronted Wieler directly and asked him about his FB posts in a conversation in which Wieler allegedly called McCarthy an "Irish Catholic claiming to be Miss Sensitivity."
"We had an exchange, and it was not pleasant," said Wieler of his chat with McCarthy.
Wieler had also refused to participate in a city council meeting moment of silence for the victim of the Charlottesville protests.
"What the hell?" asked Piedmont resident Roderick Alemana. "How can the mayor justify violence? There can't be two sides talking about Nazis. I'm scared our mayor may have that mindset."
As for posting things that make him "think" to social media, Wieler said, "I should keep my Facebook postings private."
In what might be related news, The Daily Show was apparently in Oakland Wednesday working on a segment and shooting on Piedmont Avenue, at least according to a Reddit thread. Could this segment be about Mayor Jeff Wieler and his social media presence? Only time and basic cable will tell.
If he does not step down, Wieler has 18 more months in office. "I just want to put this matter to rest and not talk about it any further," he said.
Related: Piedmont Ranked First, San Pablo Dead Last In Ranking Of Best Bay Area Suburbs