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Mayor accuses councilman of being drunk during housing debate

Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley was facing tough questions when he deflected attention

Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and City Councilmember DaJuan Gay
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and City Councilmember DaJuan Gay (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, Twitter/@DGayforOffice, www.md30dems.org)

“Alderman Gay, you’re wasted.”

That’s the libation accusation Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley lobbed at City Councilmember DaJuan Gay during an affordable housing debate on Monday night, Patch reported. Gay, who does not appear to be inebriated in video recordings of the meeting, denied being drunk and immediately requested a point of order. 

“You are. You know you are,” said the mayor.

The confrontation followed a tough line of questioning Buckley faced from a constituent, Tara Stout, according to the outlet. 

The city council meeting was debating an affordable housing project, The Willows, which Stout works on as a real estate broker. Progress on the Willows has stalled since last spring, according to the publication.

Stout asked the mayor why a project proposed by his business partner, local Annapolis developer Jody Danek, appeared to be getting preferential treatment. Stout’s questions referred to the second phase of a development started by Danek and Buckley in 2008.

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“The target market for that development is a higher socio-economic demographic than the market for The Willows,” she said. “The Willows application was submitted in April, had work sessions in August and September and anticipated a public hearing at Planning Commission immediately thereafter, but it has been in limbo at Planning and Zoning ever since.”

“There was nothing expedited or unusually quick about this process, especially given that it had previously gone through the process and been approved,” a spokesperson for the mayor said.

Initial plans for the second phase of the project were abandoned during the pandemic despite having approvals, and new designs were approved by the Annapolis Planning Commission in March, the Capital Gazette reported. 

Stout had three minutes for her line of questioning, and when it ran out, Gay advocated for her to receive more time. That’s when the mayor accused him of being inebriated.

“I am not sure why, or what he was referencing,” Gay told Patch in an email.

“It was a contentious debate where unfortunately, as human beings, tempers flared,” the mayor’s spokesperson said.

— Kate Hinsche

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