BLYTHEWOOD — Blythewood Mayor Pro Tem Andrea Fripp initiated a public confrontation with Mayor Sloan Griffin during Monday night’s town council meeting about his handling of $20,000 of the Town’s H-tax money. Throughout the 45-minute confrontation, Griffin refused to answer Fripp’s and other council members’ questions about the funds that he says he gave to his friend and mentor, Edward Straiter, the CEO of UniversalCMG World Entertainment.

 The funds had been allocated in July 2024 from the general fund to be used for the Town’s 2025 Juneteenth celebration. Instead, Griffin bypassed council and instructed the Town’s marketing director, Jordan Langland, to write a check from the H-Tax funds made out to UniversalCMG World Entertainment.

Fripp and two other council members accused him Monday night of bypassing policy, breaking the law, giving the money to a friend and refusing to discuss or answer for his actions.

In a tense exchange, Fripp called for the discussion to be held in open session.

“This issue has been in the media and on social media and needs to be addressed transparently,” Fripp said. “We needed to have this discussion … so we can go over the facts. If there’s anything that I say that is not true … correct me.”

With that, she laid out a series of concerns centered on the mayor’s decision to direct $20,000 in hospitality tax funds to UniversalCMG World Entertainment, a company led by Edward Straiter, to produce the Juneteenth event.

Based on her review, Fripp said UniversalCMG did not qualify for the funding and that the proper process was not followed.

“We can start with the fact that they are not a non-profit,” she said. “We can talk about the fact that the application, which is required by law … was waived by you … and you didn’t have the authority to waive that,” she continued.

She added that the waiver prevented the request from ever coming before council for approval and left members “in the dark.”

Fripp also questioned how the event, originally planned for Blythewood, was later moved to Chester while still tied to town funds.

“To this day, I don’t know … how that happened,” she said.

Throughout her remarks, Fripp repeatedly invited the mayor to respond point by point.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” she said. “Tell me I’m lying … or do what you normally do and just don’t say anything.”

The mayor did not directly answer her questions.

Fripp’s criticism extended beyond the funding decision, accusing Griffin of a pattern of acting without council approval and then portraying himself as a victim publicly.

“I’m really tired of you not taking any accountability,” she said. “Stop making us out to be the bad guy.”

She also pushed back on any suggestion that council’s criticism of Griffin’s handling of the $20,000 was racially motivated.

“This has nothing to do about you being a Black mayor,” Fripp said. “It has to do with you being accountable.”

After Fripp concluded, Councilman Rich McKenrick posed three direct questions to the mayor, focusing on whether he knowingly shifted the event to hospitality tax funding and whether policies were followed.

“You said you made the conscious decision to move Juneteenth… to an H-tax event,” McKenrick said.

He also questioned why the mayor did not correct a report that was presented to council that described $20,000 as “missing.”

“You knew exactly where the $20,000 was at the time, and you didn’t say anything. That’s just disturbing on a lot of levels,” McKenrick said.

He also addressed the mayor’s authority to give the money away to a man he described as his friend and mentor.

“Does the mayor have the authority to pay an outside company out of H-tax without the council’s knowledge or approval?” McKenrick said, directing the question to Town Attorney Pete Balthazor.

Balthazor hesitated to respond then answered the questions generally, saying that the hospitality tax policy must be followed.

“The policy is there for a reason… it should be followed,” Balthazor said, finally adding that it appeared the policy “was not followed in this situation.”

Addressing the fact that Straiter/UniversalCMG did not submit an application for the funds, Balthazor stated that, under the Town’s H-tax policy, the mayor does not have authority to waive required applications.

Councilman Donald Brock took a more direct approach, arguing that the issue went beyond procedure and into legality.  “It has been clearly determined that UniversalCMG … is a for-profit entity,” Brock said. “Therefore, they would not be eligible at all to receive any funding from the town.”

Brock said the council had previously restricted for-profit organizations from receiving H-tax funds and suggested the mayor’s action violated both policy and the town’s budget ordinance.

“You overrode the budget ordinance,” Brock said. “Therefore, you broke the law. Hard stop.”

He also challenged the mayor’s public statements about the money, noting that the event was ultimately canceled.

“When you cancel the event, that doesn’t automatically say … we can just take those monies and put them elsewhere,” Brock said.

Fripp, McKenrick, and Brock challenged the mayor’s use of social media to address the controversy rather than addressing it in council chambers where he could be questioned in public.

“Social media is no help,” McKenrick said. “When you have any sort of one-man show … those are the kind of “facts” that pit us against each other.”

Brock went further, warning that continued silence could lead to formal investigation.

“If silence is your position… then I think we have to consider asking state authorities to investigate,” Brock said.

Despite repeated invitations from all three council members, Griffin declined to respond to the allegations or answer questions during the meeting.

“The only response that I’m going to give you is from the statement that I returned to you,” the mayor said briefly, referring to a prior communication.

Fripp closed the discussion by again emphasizing that the goal was transparency.

“I want to be fair to you… to us… and to the public,” she said. “If there’s anything that has been misrepresented, then let’s address it tonight.”

She paused, then added: “And you sit in silence.”

No further response came from the mayor.

The council took no formal action on the matter during the meeting, but the discussion left open the possibility of formal investigation into how the Juneteenth funds were handled.