Whem did communication between BLC and F&M end?
During a subsequent phone call with Charles Walsh, councilman Matt Rinker, who was not authorized to represent in the city on the call and instead was speaking on his own behalf, and school board president Joel Sieren, Brown and BLC Vice President Merquiche Lewis learned the bank already had created the scholarships and that they were earmarked for minority students, not specifically Black students. A phone call between the Black Leadership Council, F&M, a member of the Burlington City Council and the Burlington School Board took place Jan. 19, 2021, Charles Walsh read from a statement he had prepared for the work session. At this time, the Black Leadership Council asked for $125,000 to be paid to the Black Leadership Council. If this amount wasn t feasible, then $95,000 would be adequate. This is when communication between F&M and the Black Leadership Council began to end.
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School officials meet with F&M Bank CEO and Black Leadership Council representatives
The president of F&M Bank and Trust met Wednesday with school officials and representatives of the Burlington Black Leadership Council to discuss how to resolve damage done by a vice president s words.
The Hawk Eye
Burlington School Board members serving on a joint committee met Wednesday with the president of Farmers and Merchants Bank and Trust to learn what progress the bank has made in mending relations with minority communities.
The committee, made up of members of the district s business and community relations committees, was established in November in response to a social media comment posted by Lisa Walsh, a vice president of F&M Bank, that targeted then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and was perceived by many as racist and sexist.