St. Cloud Council Censures Brandmire

ST. CLOUD -- The St. Cloud City Council has voted to censure one of its own members for comments made during a regular council meeting. Last month during their discussion on a citywide mask mandate councilmember Paul Brandmire referenced having COVID-19 positive people wear a yellow star on their lapel. In Nazi Germany, Jewish people were forced to wear a yellow star for identification.

During the council discussion at the following meeting council members asked Brandmire to apologize for using the analogy, which he did not.

Councilmember Carol Lewis says the comments were insensitive to the Jewish community.

The Jewish Community Action Comittee found that these same sentiments were used by other candidates seeking higher office.  In other words, this was not unique.

Councilmember George Hontos also believes the comments were not appropriate.

I don't know if they were political or campaign speeches, but they were long-winded and in one case he crossed the line and it was a hurtful line with a poor analogy about the yellow star and it was just inappropriate.

The council voted five to one to censure Brandmire with the lone no vote from Mike Conway,  saying that what Brandmire said fell under the First Amendment.

Brandmire is a candidate for Minnesota House in District 14B.