Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton faced accusations of body-shaming Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco from the city dais last Wednesday after using a gesture deemed “disgusting” by Mayor Michelle Gomez.
Fusco spoke about several city issues at the June 26 commission meeting, including recent controversies involving alleged kickbacks and bullying claims made against Bolton. Later in the meeting, a grimacing Bolton raised his left arm and pinched its underside – an apparent reference to Fusco’s recent weight loss and the appearance of her arms, the union president said.
“Commissioner Bolton, that was rude and disgusting,” Gomez said moments after Bolton’s display. “You are actually sitting here trying to intimidate a resident and making comments about her body. That is deplorable.”
“Making fun of me for being fat, that is what he just did,” Fusco, a Tamarac resident, said from the audience. “Making fun of my arms.”
“You’re a class act,” she told Bolton. “You’re garbage.”
Reached by phone Friday, Bolton declined to comment on the allegations.
Fusco told Tamarac Talk Friday she confronted Bolton after the meeting.
“I said, ‘I’ve worked really hard for the last two years to lose weight, and I’ve done it on my own. And for you to do that, one, as a human; two, as an elected official; and three, being a pastor, is just inappropriate and completely disrespectful.’”
Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said, “I’ve worked really hard for the last two years to lose weight.”
Fusco said Bolton, the pastor at North Lauderdale’s Praise Experience Church, told her: “I wasn’t making fun of you. I was complimenting you.”
“No, you weren’t; you’re not talking to a dummy here,” Fusco said Friday. “100 percent he denied it.”
According to Fusco, Bolton was more interested in the fact the teacher’s union had not thrown its support behind Commissioner Elvin Villalobos’ challenger in the November election than his having “body-shamed me.”
“He’s just got no moral compass at all,” she said.
While Bolton did not respond to the body-shaming claims, he did tell a reporter Friday: “Tamarac Talk is not a real news outlet. Tamarac Talk is not real. I’d be happy to talk to you if you were working for the Sun Sentinel or the Miami Herald, or something like a credible news source. But not Tamarac Talk; that is full of innuendos and lies.”
Bolton, a frequent critic of Tamarac Talk‘s coverage, has been linked to a different online platform called Tamarac Post. According to claims made by Villalobos at a February commission meeting, the site is operated and authored by Bolton – and frequently criticizes his political rivals and detractors.
The site, which contains glowing praise of Bolton, has previously been accused of using antisemitic imagery and spreading disinformation.
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