Enough is enough. It’s time for citizens, council members to reject Williams’ behavior.

If you’re a parent, you know that there is something to be said for the strategy of ignoring bad behavior.

There is a certain wisdom in realizing that the antics and the tantrums are, quite simply, attention-seeking — that rewarding them with a reaction will only lead to more theatrical outbursts in the future.

So, when we witnessed what unfolded during the Goldsboro City Council work session Jan. 21, our instinct was to ignore it — to resist the temptation to feed into what can at best be described as a “look at me” moment from a councilman who acts, well, like someone who is unfit to serve.

But the future of our city and county — we’ll get to that — is too important to allow this man, or any representative, to go unchecked.

And if we don’t call District 1 Councilman Antonio Williams out for his latest “performance,” there is always a chance that the community at large will normalize his ignorance and embarrassing lack of couth.

Along those lines, before we get into detail about what unfolded during the meeting, a few things need to be said.

Mr. Williams is still under investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly mistreating a city department head.

The charges? Discrimination and “severe and pervasive” behavior that “amounted to harassment and hostile work environment” that “adversely impacted (her) job and health.”

Now, the councilman would have you believe that because he was reelected in the fall, that the public has vindicated him.

Wrong.

Mr. Williams has not been cleared by the EEOC and any argument that a few hundred votes in a city of more than 34,000 is somehow reflective of widespread support for the accused is ridiculous.

So why is this ongoing saga relevant to what unfolded Tuesday?

Because the accuser, Community Affairs Director Shycole Simpson Carter, substantiated her claim, in part, by pointing to a September 2018 incident that unfolded at a GATEWAY board meeting where Williams allegedly berated her for accurately pointing out that the city had worked tirelessly to help residents displaced by Hurricane Florence — a claim Mr. Williams disputes without nearly the paper trail she used to support her stance.

Fast forward to this week.

During the council’s work session, Mr. Williams argued that Ms. Simpson Carter should be removed from her GATEWAY assignment because she has filed a complaint against him and the city.

Sounds crazy, right? How in the world did anyone on the council not see that Williams should have zero contact with Simpson Carter, let alone use a public forum to critique her filing of an EEOC complaint?

Anyone who runs a business — or has an ounce of intelligence — knows what a no-no that is.

Clearly, the City Council missed a beat.

And in a true bonehead move, members actually voted to put the District 1 councilman back on the GATEWAY board with his accuser.

So, let’s break that down.

The City Council decided it was a good idea to put Mr. Williams back on the GATEWAY board while he is under investigation by the EEOC.

His accuser is on the board, writes grants for GATEWAY and attends the meetings.

There is no shortage of adjectives to use here. One council member has since called it “a mistake.” Mistake doesn’t even begin to do that maneuver justice. Irresponsible seems a little more appropriate.

And frankly, given Williams’ track record — you know, the comfort with which he has publicly lambasted his accuser since she came forward — the council should have foreseen what unfolded Tuesday. Here’s a taste of what Mr. Williams said about Ms. Simpson Carter:

“So, we reward bad behavior here? We have an employee who is suing the city of Goldsboro and we let her do any and everything that she can possibly do? I don’t understand. We are living in an alternate universe here when you can do harm and you’re rewarded. How dare you all.”

“Where you can do harm and you’re rewarded,” you say?

Oh, the irony.

But we digress.

So, because of the board’s appalling lack of foresight, Ms. Simpson Carter was called a liar AGAIN — with cameras rolling and her colleagues seated in the conference room.

At the very least, the council owes Ms. Simpson Carter an apology for putting her in that situation. But thanks to Mr. Williams, she’s got something else coming her way that will probably suffice.

Need a hint? It’s green, you can buy stuff with it and some of it comes from city taxpayers.

But the antics didn’t stop there.

Mr. Williams then took aim at Mayor Chuck Allen — an ill Mayor Chuck Allen — by proclaiming that he had “vacated his seat” by failing to attend council meetings while he receives treatment.

And if he had simply accepted the answer to what was a fairly reasonable question — when is the mayor coming back — everything would have been fine.

But when the answer was given — Allen expects to return to his duties by the next council meeting — Mr. Williams did what Mr. Williams does.

He spoke as though he was a legal expert. Spoiler alert: He’s not.

And he challenged those able to back up reality with actual facts with loud proclamations and unreasonable demands.

Now, let’s forget, for a moment, about the fact that legally, Mr. Williams is dead wrong about Allen having forfeited his position as mayor by missing meetings — or that several thousand more citizens voted for Allen than they did for the man who launched an offensive against him Tuesday.

What was really striking was his exchange with City Attorney Ron Lawrence.

Williams asked that Lawrence prove that Allen had not vacated his seat. Lawrence said he would be happy to do so — that he had a file back at his office that would put any question of Allen’s legitimacy as mayor to rest and offered to provide each council member with his notes and research.

Sounds reasonable, right?

The city attorney does, after all, need to be present during the council work session. That is, you know, the job.

Williams didn’t seem to think so.

He commented that Lawrence was “being dishonest” by not “going online” immediately to produce the information he wanted.

It was unnecessary. It was rude. Even patronizing. And for the city, it was the latest instance of Williams trying to wield his power as a councilman to belittle someone he said merely “serves” the board.

Talk about a power trip. From a man who, time and time again, seems to refuse to acknowledge the fact that he serves US.

And given the fact that Lawrence is correct — that Allen has not, by any stretch of the imagination, vacated his seat — it again showed the ignorance of a man who, for example, loves to talk about “transparency,” but refused a records request from this publication and defended his defiance of public records law by claiming, get this, that the 4^th Amendment protected him from having to disclose public documents.

That’s right.

The 4^thAmendment.

So why does all of this matter to you?

Well, for starters, city taxpayers will likely have to foot some of the bill should the city settle with Ms. Simpson Carter.

But more importantly, Mr. Williams is currently running for a seat on the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.

Ask yourselves if this is the kind of behavior you want seeping into the Wayne County Courthouse — if county officials can afford the liability their counterparts in City Hall are facing as you read this.

Do we need a man who shouts “conspiracy” every time something doesn’t go his way on the county board? How about someone who treats government employees — from the city attorney to the decorated veteran who serves as Goldsboro’s city manager — like garbage?

Is sitting out during the primary election — and risking having to endure another several months of divisive politicking — really what we need after having suffered through it last fall?

Either way, Mr. Williams’ colleagues on the council need to reject this behavior.

They need to take a stand and show this community — and the rest of the state — that Goldsboro has a bright future and that its leaders are people who can be taken seriously as we fight for grant money and recruit businesses that will help Wayne County prosper.

Newcomer Taj Polack did.

So did his predecessor Mark Stevens.

Doing so cost Stevens a great deal. (Much more on that is coming.) Polack says he has already been called an “Uncle Tom” by Williams’ supporters for rejecting the ideology of a fellow black councilman.

How disgusting is that?

It is also indicative of what is to come.

But you can make it stop — and so, too, can the Goldsboro City Council.

Speak up. Comment here. Send a message to Polack and others on the council that you support their efforts to stop this divisive nonsense and encourage them to challenge Williams’ dangerous behavior.

We are certainly not going to stop pointing it out.

And we will be watching closely to see which members of the council normalize it.

And it is not because Williams is black — although we are certain we will hear that charge. It is because he is an embarrassment.

Apathy put Williams in that seat — a few hundred votes from a district that could ill-afford to put someone so irresponsible in charge.

They deserve better — and so, frankly, do we.

The state of politics these days has made many people shy away from public office. They don’t want the grilling or the hassle that goes with that service.

But this is how we get people like Antonio Williams in positions of power.

And it is how cities fail and progress is turned on its ear.

We will be watching all of your representatives this year.

And we are going to tell it like it is — no matter how many people tell us we can’t — or shouldn’t.

That is what a responsible watchdog does.

And it is what we think you want to see.