Words were traded during last week’s Daphne City Council meeting between Councilman Pat Rudicell and Mayor Dane Haygood following an email exchange that had angered Rudicell.

During the council comments section at the end of the meeting, Rudicell laid out what he called a pattern of bad behavior from Haygood.

“The mayor approached me in the parking lot after the primary during budget season last year,” Rudicell said. “He said in no uncertain terms that if I didn’t vote for the operations director position he wanted that he would actively call people to vote against me.”

Rudicell said former Councilman Randy Fry was similarly threatened by Haygood at that time. Rudicell said further unkindness from Haygood came after a recent committee meeting.

“We had a vote this last week and in committee meetings that were part of my job,” Rudicell said. “I had an email from the mayor about some of this and he called me petty. In my younger days, if I had been threatened in the parking lot or like this, I don’t know what I might have done.”

Rudicell said he was taken aback by the mayor’s statements, as he felt he was just exercising his rights as a council member.

“I guess getting called petty is strange when it was a policy issue I was addressing,” Rudicell said. “But when he does it to multiple people, that’s a pattern, and when he brags to department heads about doing it, that’s some form of deviant behavior.”

For his part in the spat, Haygood said Rudicell’s recollections were a mischaracterization of what happened.

“To some degree what you’ve heard is true, but it was stated in a different manner,” Haygood said. “With the election, I couldn’t support candidates who didn’t do business the way we did in Daphne because we should always be looking for ways to improve the operation. I can’t support candidates who don’t support positive movement in the right direction.”

As for the email, Haygood said the “petty” comment wasn’t the entire story.

“The rest of the email you didn’t mention was focusing our efforts on positive things,” Haygood said. “Sometimes, those who want to keep making mountains out of molehills don’t realize the efforts that are being made for the greater good.”

Haygood likened the situation to a simple difference of opinions.

“A lot of times there’s a difference of opinions on how we go about things, but that’s the beauty of this city,” Haygood said. “We can agree to disagree. But, at the end of the day, everyone respects each other’s views and we can continue to move the city forward.”