A mayor of a small Texas town resigned Tuesday following a controversial social media post in which he told residents without electricity and water due to severe winter weather they are “lazy” and seeking a “handout.”
Tim Boyd, who was the mayor of Colorado City, voiced frustrations in a since-deleted social media post about residents who he said called him to complain about power and water outages in the midst of unprecedented winter weather across the Lone Star State.
“The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!” Boyd wrote. The mayor added it is “not the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim, it’s your choice!”
Colorado City mayor… literally speechless at how anyone can be this tone deaf in a public service position. People are freezing without information and PAY for these services and somehow we are still blaming socialism. ? pic.twitter.com/jOZbOHvIn4
— alyssa ? (@achavez48) February 16, 2021
Boyd told residents who do not have electricity to “step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family,” as Texas faces a statewide energy crisis due to severe weather that has left more than 3.8 million people without power in recent days.
After backlash from several members of his community of nearly 5,000 residents, Boyd said he turned in his resignation and did not file a ballot application to run for office in May, a local ABC affiliate reported.
Boyd expressed regret for his comments in his follow-up post, saying, “Please understand, if I had it to do over again, I would have just kept my words to myself and if I did say them I would have used better wording and been more descriptive.”
