In a letter dated January 2nd, Williamsville Trustee Matthew Etu said he is resigning effective immediately because of a “toxic and destructive” environment created by Williamsville Mayor Deborah Rogers.
In his official resignation letter, Etu states:
Simply, the interests and business of the Village are being sidelined by the mayor’s personal agenda and political rhetoric. I will state plainly that Mayor Deborah Rogers is the reason I am resigning my position. In the last 12 to 18 months, but increasingly so over the last six weeks, the Village Board’sbfocus has veered so far from the one I joined that I can no longer in good conscience say I identify with what it stands for.
Since announcing her opposition to the county’s latest mask mandate, Rogers has gained notoriety within the local far-right community, appearing recently on various far-right talk radio shows and seen attending events hosted by local extremist groups.
At a December meeting, a group of far-right anti-mask agitators led by WBEN host Tom Bauerle became quite hostile and was further provoked by Mayor Rogers actions:
The tenor of the room was hostile and provoked by the mayor. She read aloud passages from a text string between the five board members that she knew would incite the assembly further. This was a violation of trust; it was then I knew I had seen the real
Deborah Rogers. She has claimed to respect me despite our differences and considers us friends. Yet, she chose to mock me when I dared to hold the line on enforcing the mask mandate during an upcoming meeting. I took that same oath of office to uphold the laws of NYS and I took it seriously.
You can read the full letter below:
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