Joie Kitchen Gadgets 77700 Monkey Banana Tree Stand, Plastic, Multi-Colour,40 x 15 x 15 cm

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The imbroglio featured at the Sept. 7 council meeting, where one resident slammed Snyder for allowing “bananas on the dais with a monkey.” Days after the deal was approved by the council, the lawsuit alleges, Snyder and another council member launched a campaign to disparage Jones and scuttle the severance payout. They allegedly put out a press release that accused Jones of violating the agreement, trashed him in the media, and threatened to ruin his “life and career.”

At the Sept. 28 meeting, Calderone once again stood at the podium, thankfully without a shopping bag this time. She slammed the anti-banana stand group for never reaching out to her and said they had “no intention of trying to make this into a teachable moment.” Wilcott told The Daily Beast that she and Thompson texted each other, asking, “Did that really just happen?" but did not say anything publicly. Several meeting attendees told The Daily Beast that there was no obvious reaction in the audience.Thompson said that he did not think the “over-the-top” gift was racially motivated until after Calderone stressed that it was specifically for Snyder. “Then I started to get very angry,” he said. “I understand bringing a prop and presenting it to get your point across, but then gifting it to a mayor, knowing that the mayor has had allegations of being racially biased?” The uproar over the banana hanger did not come out of nowhere, and this was not the first time that Snyder, a Republican who was elected mayor in March 2021, has been accused of racial insensitivity. Three years ago, when he was a council member, Snyder was named in a race discrimination and breach-of-contract lawsuit against the city. Terrence Owens, a school board member, also skewered Snyder. “When he spoke, we saw bananas,” he said, demanding that the council get diversity training. “We have to do better.” Despite the deepening discord, Snyder told The Daily Beast he has no intention of resigning because he does not believe that will solve the problem. He said he hears the community’s anger and wishes he had handled the gift, which he threw away at home after the meeting, differently. Also, he noted, he is allergic to bananas.

In an interview last week, Snyder “100 percent” denied all the allegations made at trial, said there was “a lot of misunderstanding,” and predicted the truth would come out during the appeal. Jones disagreed—and seems to be well aware of the current race controversy enveloping Snyder. Before long, the banana stand with the monkey motif was the talk of Hutto—a town previously best known for its official symbol: a hippo. The anger over the banana stand initially surprised Calderone, she said, because nobody in the community reached out to her. “I did look inward, and I was like, maybe I am culturally insensitive,” she said. “So I started researching race relations and where do we go from here.”Still, nobody could have foreseen that a special summertime council meeting to discuss a new revenue tax proposal would leave Snyder under such intense public scrutiny.