Wrightsville Beach woman calling for Mayor Pro Tem to step down

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — A Wrightsville Beach woman said the town is no place for bigots, and that is what she and a Facebook page for her cause are calling Mayor Pro Tem Darryl Mills.

Mia Banks said she came to work at King Neptune’s Restaurant recently like any other night. She said she greeted Mills, who is a regular at the restaurant. According to Banks, her conversation with Mills soon took a turn for the inappropriate. Banks said she asked Mills to stop and then he used derogatory language toward her.

“Aside from being shocked, I felt instantly degraded,” Banks said. “I felt humiliated, and because he was sitting next to patrons of the bar and also in front of my coworker, it made me feel low.”

Banks said Mills has since apologized twice, once in person and once via email, but she says it’s just not enough. Banks said she thinks Mills should resign his office immediately.

Banks and her friend William Rinehart have started a Facebook page called “Wrightsville Beach, Not Wrightsville Bigots,” hoping to get more from Mills.  The group has more than 1,000 members.

“The group ‘Wrightsville Beach, Not Wrightsville Bogots’ has only one objective, it is to see that Mayor Pro Tem Darryl Mills resigns. This is not just about Mia Banks, Wrightsville Beach, or Darryl Mills. We simply do not want to live in a community where such grotesque comments from a public official can occur without consequences. The time for silence and status quo racism is over,” Rinehart said in a statement.

We reached out to Mills, but he said he had no comment on the situation.