Yardley Councilman-Elect Will Decline Position

YARDLEY, PA — A councilman-elect in Yardley said Sunday he'll decline the position after racist Facebook posts he wrote using a fake account came to light.

Patrick McGovern, a Democrat, acknowledged writing the posts, saying they were intended to be satire.

The posts were cited last week by incumbent borough council member Sandi Brady, a Republican, who resigned her own post on Wednesday after what she described as a heated exchange with McGovern about them at the polls on election day.

"In order to avoid distracting from the transition to the new council, I have decided not to accept the position of borough councilman in January," McGovern said in a written statement Sunday. "At that time I will not accept the position and the borough council will follow the process to appoint a new member."

McGovern was part of a Democratic sweep on Tuesday, in which the party took all three open seats on Yardley Borough Council.

The next evening, Brady, who is Korean-American, resigned her post via a letter read at a council meeting by Mayor Chris Harding. In the letter, Brady said keeping her position was "simply too much to bear," citing a "toxic, bullying culture" on the council.

In the letter, she accused other council members, notably Democrat David Bria, of being present at the polling-place altercation but not standing up for her.

In his statement, McGovern said he used the fake Facebook account "to make some satirical posts" several years ago.

"This account and these old posts re-surfaced very recently, and they were seen by people that were hurt by them," McGovern said. "For that I am sorry."

He said he did not intend to take aim at any particular community and notes that he did not comment on the Yardley political race from the account. But he acknowledged using offensive terms in the posts.

"While this is not an excuse, I want to explain that I did intend the posts and those terms to be satire ... ," McGovern said. "In hindsight, I wish I did not post in this way, but it doesn't change the fact that ultimately people were hurt. I own this and wish to make an unequivocal apology for it."

Screenshots shared with Patch showed posts from the account using offensive language toward Asians and making jokes about gays and lesbians.

While acknowledging the posts he did make, McGovern also said that "fabrications of posts from my personal account as well as my alternate one" had been circulating online.

"Someone saw an opportunity to add fuel to the fire, and they too should apologize to the people who were hurt by these fake posts containing racist comments that I did not make and certainly do not endorse," McGovern said.

Regarding Brady's resignation, McGovern said she "had experienced much frustration in the past, and I’m sorry if my posts exacerbated that."