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Uniontown refuses to allow Black treasurer take office

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Uniontown’s City Council is not allowing the city’s first African-American city treasurer to take office, reports WTAE.com. City officials say it’s because she was unable to get an insurance bond. Under state law, some elected officials are required to be bonded. But Treasurer-elect Antoinette Hodge says she was denied a bond after City Council member Martin Gatti made a racist comment to the bonding company. “This councilman told the bonding people ‘this colored girl’ shouldn’t sit as the treasurer for the city of Uniontown,” said Joel Sansone, Hodge’s attorney. “It was like, you’ve got to be kidding me, because by now you would figure people are over that. We’ve had a Black president,” Hodge said. At a council meeting Monday, Gatti denied making any racist remarks. “I have never ever been accused of anything racial in my life,” he said. “Finances are finances. I don’t know how race got in this.” Gatti and other city officials said the only reason a bond would be denied is if Hodge had a poor credit rating. Hodge said she was a victim of identity theft, which affected her credit rating. But it did not prevent her from getting initial approval for the bond. “It was about race. It was not about my credit because if it was my credit, the bond never would have been issued in the first place,” she said. On Tuesday, Hodge got word that she had been approved for a bond. But she is still planning to sue the city and Gatti. “To have her kept out because she is Black is a throwback to the days of slavery, which we are just not going to accept,” Sansone said.

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