News-Leader

Marionville Mayor Dan Clevenger resigned Monday night for making anti-Semitic comments in the wake of the arrest of white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller and after aldermen voted 4-1 to start the impeachment process.

Clevenger, 59, said he was personally hurt to hear resident after resident say he was a local and national embarrassment to the city.

Clevenger had told the News-Leader last week that he would not resign. He was asked why he changed his mind. He silently motioned to the residents who had come to the meeting.

Although he had supporters, those who spoke were overwhelmingly in favor of either his resignation or impeachment.

Clevenger was asked if the words he heard Monday night hurt.

"Yes, it does," he said.

It was a raucous meeting. Police were present, and at times residents shouted at one another. Resident John Horner read a prepared statement.

"We must show our neighbors, state, our nation and a global community our true, kind, caring, loving and accepting community," he said. "We simply cannot tolerate a public official who makes anti-Semitic comments."

Horner said Clevenger's recent comments about Jews are "almost verbatim" from a book written by Miller years ago.

Miller for years lived just outside of Marionville, and Clevenger had considered him a friend, prior to Miller's recent arrest.

"Please move to impeach the mayor and restore Marionville's reputation," Horner said.

Supporters of the mayor said he had free speech protection, but others in the crowd shouted that as mayor, Clevenger has a duty to speak for them, not embarrass them.

The meeting had some strange twists. At one point, a young man said that he had lived in Marionville a year and had never seen a single black person.

This prompted Dan Noyes, 53, to leave and return with his son-in-law, Damian Harris, 34, who lives in the city and is black.

Noyes wanted to prove that there was at least one black person in the city of 2,250. Marionville is 30 miles southwest of Springfield.

Harris is a captain with the Marionville Fire Department.

"The city has accepted me from Day One," Harris told the News-Leader.

Noyes urged the mayor to step down.

"I don't know if you still feel the same way, but that is between you and God," he told Clevenger. "But I will say this, if you don't step down, I ask you from this point on to keep your mouth shut unless you know that everybody in this town agrees with you."

Gene Smith spoke in support of the mayor and pointed at his fellow residents.

"I have seen a lot more hatred from some of you people than I have seen out of Dan Clevenger," he said. "I thought we had free speech in America."

Smith blamed the media for "twisting" Clevenger's words, and when a News-Leader reporter later asked if he could take his picture, Smith tried to hit the reporter with one of his crutches.

Former Mayor Bob Duda addressed Clevenger, who throughout the meeting sat stoically, saying little more than that he would make no comment on his recent remarks.

"The words that you spoke to the media, on numerous occasions, were vile and disgusting," Duda told Clevenger. "Mr. Clevenger, I am asking you to step down."

Resident John McCormick told the board, "We have been slimed, like in 'Ghostbusters.' "

A woman who stood next to him also spoke.

"I personally know and love a Jew," she said. "I have a grandson who is Jewish."

After saying that, she added that the investment firm of Goldman Sachs in New York City has played a large role in damaging the U.S. economy.

One speaker said Clevenger's comments not only engendered fallout locally but "across the nation."

She said Clevenger was hurting businesses, including local restaurants, as well as the Hillbilly Gas Mart.

Aldermen Mary Ellen Brundle, Kay Leffingwell, Donna White and Jessica Wilson voted to start impeachment. Alderman David Arnsmeyer voted against impeachment.

After the meeting, Clevenger told the News-Leader he regrets writing an anti-Semitic letter to the editor to the Aurora Advertiser about 10 years ago. He said he was heavily influenced by Miller at the time.

Miller is accused of killing three people near Kansas City. The three, who were all Christian, were shot near a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement center.

Clevenger was asked if he regretted any of his more recent statements, which reflected continued anti-Semitism.

"That's it," he said. "We're done."