WINNSBORO – A month after Fairfield County Council Chairman Clarence Gilbert refused to appoint council’s only female member, Peggy Swearingen (Dist. 3), to any of the five council standing committees, there are still community criticisms and questions about his failure to do so.
At Monday night’s council meeting, three members of District 3 came forward to publicly shame Gilbert for not only excluding Swearingen, but for not giving the public an explanation for his decision to do so.
JoAnne Clowney Hook 
Tangee Brice Jacobs 
Brandon Henderson
“I live in the upper part of the county where we elected Peggy as our council representative,” said JoAnne Clowney Hook. After chastising Gilbert for singling out District 3 for exclusion from membership on any of the council’s five standing committees, she asked Gilbert to explain himself.
“Why was she (Swearingen) not put on any standing committee?” Hook asked. “It seems odd this day and age that the only female [member of council] is not assigned to a standing committee. You’ve got 14 committee seats and seven council members. It doesn’t take a math scholar to know that if you appoint two members to each committee, that everybody carries the load.”
District 3 constituent Tangee Brice Jacobs also had strong criticism for Gilbert.
“Voting is the language of American democracy. Voting is at the core of what it means to be American,” Jacobs said, addressing Gilbert. “Your decision to exclude our [district’s] elected official is undemocratic.” She then held up a petition signed by hundreds of members of District 3, specifically Feasterville and Blair, calling for Swearingen to be treated equally.
“We want our representative to have her rightful place. She represents us. We believe in fair and transparent governance that ensures every community has a voice in county affairs,” Jacobs continued. “The recent removal of our elected representative from all standing committee assignments without explanation has effectively stripped our district of meaningful representation. We demand full transparency and accountability from county council regarding this decision. Our community deserves to know why our voice has been silenced, what led to this action, and what steps will be taken to restore her to her rightful position in the decision making process.”
Brandon Henderson also spoke on behalf of Swearingen, asking Gilbert why she was passed over.
“Ms. Peggy represents us well, very well. There’s not a time that I’ve called her and she has not given me an answer or she didn’t get back to me with an answer. Every single time,” Henderson said. “Another unique thing about Ms. Peggy is that I’m all over District 3 and the western side of Fairfield County. I’ve yet to hear anybody say anything bad about her. So that just adds fuel to the fire as to why she is not on a committee. She represents us well,” he said.
“We stand behind Ms. Peggy 110 percent. If I have to stand up here and make a presentation every week so we can work this out, so be it,” he said.
The audience applauded.
When previously asked for an explanation for why he singled out Swearingen by not appointing her to a committee while appointing other members of council to multiple committees, Gilbert offered a scathing, prepared statement laced with quotes from the Bible and referencing his own authority as chairman, his leadership, his experience, and a vague rationale for how he made selections for the standing committee seats.
“The role of chairman holds the most authority and provides leadership in appointing roles based on assessment of character, background and ability,” Gilbert said.
However, none of these ‘assessments’ are listed in the bylaws as requirements for appointment to standing committees or any other county committees.
On Monday night, Gilbert offered a new explanation.
“When you make a decision, you stick by your decision,” Gilbert said.
However, that was not the process he followed when making other appointments to the standing committees. He initially eliminated Councilmen Don Goldbach and Dan Ruff as well as Swearingen from appointments to the standing committees. After receiving public criticism for his decision, however, Gilbert changed his initial decision and appointed both Goldbach and Ruff, but not Swearingen to the standing committees.
