Palmetto Bay officials, residents call on DeSantis to intervene after embattled councilman’s controversial post

PALMETTO BAY Fla WSVN Village of Palmetto Bay officers are calling on Florida Gov Ron DeSantis to investigate and possibly remove an embattled councilman from his post over a controversial comment following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk Councilman Steve Cody has faced pressure to resign over the past week for posting a now-deleted post on social media In the post Cody wrote Charlie Kirk is a fitting sacrifice to our lords Smith and Wesson Hallowed be their names Following the backlash from the general and his fellow councilmembers Cody deleted the post and apologized Earlier this week Palmetto Bay leaders held a meeting with hours of population comment where they voted to censure Cody and ask DeSantis to investigate whether Cody s post is grounds for removal On Wednesday the resolution arrived to the governor s office I transmitted the resolution to the governor s office I have someone making contact with the governor this afternoon explained Palmetto Bay Mayor Karyn Cunningham Due to the council not being able to remove Cody they want the governor and the state attorney general to see whether Cody should go We re kind of in a wait-and-see mode We ve done our part commented Cunningham Also on Wednesday Florida State Rep Omar Blanco sent a letter to the governor asking him to investigate Cody for his post District members gathered outside Village Hall to begin the attempts to recall Cody He has no right to be here anymore He s lost that right revealed resident John Waters However before a recall can occur Cody necessities to serve a quarter of his term which isn t until December It also makes me question if he s going to have a conflict of interest going forward with so a large number of residents voicing their opinion against him and now he makes decisions for us It s just a really bad situation explained resident Alan John Farquharson Despite the pressure Cody has stated he s not going anywhere It s not going to happen I wrote something that was very stupid but if every time a politician did something that was stupid we d never have anybody who d ever be able to serve in office he disclosed DeSantis while not explicitly mentioning Cody commented on the contemporary wave of firings over comments about Kirk s murder on Wednesday When you re in these positions of trust when you re in training when you re in administration operation when you re in healthcare where other people are impacted by what you are doing there is a higher standard of conduct that we have a right to insist upon he disclosed As of Wednesday evening Cody remains in office Public members notified News they have formed a committee to launch a recall effort against him