A planning commissioner’s choice of a T-shirt to wear at last week’s meeting of the group rankled some citizens and at least one fellow commissioner.
Turner wore a shirt showing a smiley face with its mouth duct-taped over and the words, “I like the sound you make when you shut up.”
About 10 citizens attended the meeting, which included a public hearing on a conditional use permit for a heliport at 35 Mile.
Permitting of heliports and helicopter tours has been controversial for more than a decade, sometimes triggering emotions at public meetings.
Resident Sue Waterhouse said a person sitting in the audience at the meeting didn’t have to look closely to read Turner’s shirt. “You could read it plain as day.” She said the shirt was “in extreme poor taste.”
“I find it difficult to respect and question his judgment as a public official when I could easily read (it),” Waterhouse wrote to planning commission chair Rob Goldberg. “Should Don Turner choose to wear this shirt in a social setting is one thing, but as a public official in a local government meeting is another.”
Turner this week characterized the reaction as “hysterical and sad,” saying he wore the shirt because, “I was in a good mood and it was a funny T-shirt.”
Asked if the shirt couldn’t be construed as a message to the audience, Turner responded, “Pfft. I listen to people… I can’t imagine anybody taking it to heart. I don’t think anyone should read anything into it. It was a T-shirt. That’s all it was. My daughter gave it to me.”
Turner said he was sorry if anyone was insulted by the shirt but said “99 percent” of people thought it was “kind of funny.”
Mayor Jan Hill this week said she’d heard concerns about the T-shirt but she wouldn’t speak with Turner or take any action on the matter.
“If people have a problem with the way people are dressing, they need to take it up with them,” Hill said.
Hill said the borough had no dress code and although she understood that people may not have liked the message on Turner’s shirt, she oftentimes sees articles of clothing that are offensive to her. A beer T-shirt might be offensive to an alcoholic, she said.
“They should talk to Donnie. I don’t think it’s my business,” Hill said.
Hill said saying that Turner’s T-shirt sent a message to members of the public who came to address the commission is an interpretation.
“I’m not going to assume that Donnie Turner wore that shirt to send a clear message to anybody. I have no idea why he chose to wear that shirt… I think people should lighten up a little bit, but that will probably get me in some trouble,” Hill said.
Commission chair Goldberg sent a similar message to Waterhouse, also saying he didn’t think the shirt was a message to the audience. “I think he was just attempting to be funny,” Goldberg wrote in an email to Waterhouse, noting that Turner also has worn T-shirts mocking People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and one saying, “I’d be a vegetarian if broccoli was more fun to shoot!”
Commissioner Heather Lende this week said she took the T-shirt as a message. “I was sitting across from him and it hurt my feelings. It seemed at the very least poor judgment, especially the duct tape over the mouth at a public hearing. Of course it could have been construed in a negative way.”
Lende noted that planning commissioners get a handbook from the state that says, “public involvement should be encouraged at all times.”
“Wearing a shirt that says ‘shut up’ doesn’t exactly encourage public involvement,” Lende said. “Even turning it wrong-side out might have been a better move. Even if he didn’t intend to do it, it’s a good reminder that how we present ourselves is important. We represent the borough up there.”