A nominee for the open seat on the South Jacksonville Board says he’s fine with the decision of the current board not approving his appointment.
Todd Warrick was nominated to return to the Board of Trustees by current Village President Dick Samples. Warrick failed to receive approval to be appointed last Thursday night by a 3-2 vote.
Warrick says he understands the decision: “First of all, I didn’t ask to come back. They reached out to me on several occasions and asked me if I would consider coming back to being on the board. This last time I said ‘yes, I would.’ I mean, the vote…does it surprise me? No, not really. You know, if they don’t want me on the board; I’m okay with that.”
Warrick says that he understands at least one of the reasons why one of the trustees voted against him. Stacy Pinkerton was one of the three ‘no’ votes last night. Warrick says that he and Pinkerton had a disagreement in 2019 when Pinkerton posted a profanity-laced Facebook post reacting to a Spanish-speaking customer coming into the engine-repair shop owned and operated by her and her husband. Pinkerton would later apologize for the post and take it down from her social media. Subsequently, when Pinkerton’s trustee seat came up for election, she was voted off the board. Warrick says he and Pinkerton have had a disagreement about that particular situation: “I know with Stacy, it’s because I had called her out a couple of times on what she had said on social media about her husband’s business when somebody came in there that didn’t speak English. I thought that was extremely unprofessional as a trustee to do something like that. I understand she doesn’t agree with me on that, but that’s her thoughts.”
Warrick says if he is eventually installed, he hopes to be a part of helping the village get a new water tower and bring back a full-time ambulance service. Warrick says he doesn’t blame the village president for how the vote went last Thursday night: “I think Dick is going to do a great job here. Dick has been with the village for a long time. Everybody knows him. He is the most knowledgeable person on that board about the village’s business.”
For now, Warrick says he will await the board’s future decision.