Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A confrontation earlier this week between a Stanly County commissioner and a member of the Stanly Community College Board of Trustees came up at Thursday’s joint meeting between the two boards.

Commissioner Peter Asciutto told of an experience he said happened Tuesday when he was spending time at a county convenience center.

He said the incident was uncomfortable to talk about and that he hated to do it to not embarrass people.

As people drove through the center to drop off trash and recyclables, Asciutto said he was giving his card out to citizens.

One person he tried to give a card to said, “I don’t take cards from Democrats.”

Ascuitto, a registered Republican, identified himself to the man as such. When asked his name, the man said he was Gerald Wayne Efird, a former county commissioner and current SCC trustee.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God. This guy is still on the board of trustees and we’re going to have a professional meeting in two days,’ ” Asciutto said.

Asciutto said Efird called him “a complete piece of ****” and got back in his car.

“There’s so many layers to what happened there,” Asciutto said. He proposed a hypothetical situation, asking if Efird would be able to work with current Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

“I just think we need to work on behaviors and stuff like that,” Asciutto said.

Efird apologized to him before the meeting, Asciutto said, but the current commissioner said he was going to bring up this matter in the meeting.

Asciutto said he loved the community college, but added, “when we appoint people to these positions, we represent everyone in Stanly County. We should look at everybody in Stanly County,” Asciutto said.

After the commissioners adjourned the meeting, Efird had no comment when asked for a reaction to Ascuitto’s statements.