Concerns about communication and accountability reached a boiling point at the Nov. 18 meeting of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors, with some board members often talking over residents during the public comment period, despite earlier calls by the chairman for civility and respect.
“Is this power of thee or is this power of me,” Valerie Loy asked at one point of the three minutes she and other residents are allotted to address the board. She noted the rules read before public comment also include a section directing residents to address the board and not individual board members.
“This is stereotyping everybody on the board. Reasoning, chairman Doug Perry was upset with several citizens for questioning him that the county is $29.7 million in debt, which he continues to deny. It’s still on the website, you can look it up,” she said.
Loy said Perry requests residents to give respectful comments with no personal attacks or insulting remarks. Individuals can also be removed from the speaker’s chair for breaking the rules.
“Some of us citizens come to the board with concerns over the inmates at the Transfer Station only to be ignored and we were told with pictures and videos by Mr. Marshall that this stuff was not true, and it was.”
When residents come to the board with concerns, Loy said they are shot down.
“But Mr. Perry, you called people liars, and you called me ignorant. Yes, you did. You can listen back, and I totally resent that, and that’s very uncomfortable,” she said.
Perry, of the Smith River District, and Steve Marshall, of the Blue Ridge District, repeatedly engaged with residents during public comment.
Mike DeCapp cited a recent Enterprise article, which quoted a board member saying, “If people raise a fuss, we’ll change our mind.” DeCapp called the remark emblematic of a lack of openness to public input.
Those words “came off the page and hit me like a punch in the face. That does not speak well to the board’s receptiveness to listen to ideas from the citizens. That’s really unfortunate, there’s a lot of intelligent, thoughtful people in this county that are every bit as passionate about it as you are,” he said.
Their positions, even if in opposition to the supervisors, at least deserve fair consideration, DeCapp said, adding some residents experienced not receiving this to some extent during solar facilities discussions.
“I was told once by a longtime resident of this county – by the time the public hears about it it’s already a done deal, and I’m starting to think that statement carries some merit. I hope that certain members of the board for the duration of their term can find it within themselves to at least give the citizens opinions the considerate that they so richly deserve,” he said.
After DeCapp finished speaking, Perry said more of that happens that it appears.
“I know rumor control and that article in the paper (The Enterprise) was basically tabloidish and… it was not accurate,” he said to the uproar of the audience.
“By your own rules this is not question and answer,” Trena Anderson said.
“Trena let the man speak! You don’t talk over people,” Steve Marshall yelled.
“Hey! Time out! Stop, stop, stop please, please. So, I’m just saying that we do listen, and we do hear, and we weigh the ins and outs, and a lot of that, it doesn’t come across,’ Perry said.
During his allotted time to speak, Gilbert said after reading the Nov. 13 edition of The Enterprise he got inquisitive.
“As you said it was tabloid information, here’s all the texts that you all have been corresponding. I got every one of them, and I’m disgusted. I am very disgusted. This ain’t tabloid, this is fact,” Gilbert said, while slamming his hand on the binder full of text messages in front of him.
He said the supervisors need to quit spinning what they say and backstabbing other members and get a backbone.
“Our county administrator … I don’t know who works for who? I don’t know if she works for y’all or if y’all work for her, but I’m not happy. And yes, in the hall I have said” an employee “needs to be fired,” Gilbert said.
“No, you were cussing her,” Marshall said.
“I don’t need a comment from you! This is my time,” Gilbert yelled.
“Your time’s running. Go, please,” Perry said to Gilbert.
Another speaker, Trena Anderson, said she was grateful The Enterprise “chose to expose some of the activities of this board for all to see.”
A public body is not required to charge for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) information, Anderson said, and asked the board to reimburse “the outrageous fee that the county administration charged for your attorney, J. Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald should know an attorney is an intermediary, thus this time should be charged to the board, and not to The Enterprise,” she said.
Anderson said the current board adopted Rules of Procedure in January, which don’t specifically cover public comment.
“You need to review them and clarify that. Section 5-4 of your Rules of Procedure Prohibited Conduct: Persons appearing before the board will not be allowed to #2 use language which insults or demeans any person which when directed at a public official or employee is not related to his official duties. However, citizens have the right to comment on performance conduct and qualifications of public figures,” she said.
Anderson said this blows Perry’s “unconstitutional rules for public comment right out of the water.”
She also cited Section 8-2 of the county’s Rule of Procedure: Amending Rules of Procedure, which states that the adoption of amendments shall require an affirmative vote of the majority of the board.
“There was no discussion on these rules nor was there a vote,” Anderson said. “Once again, this current board failed to follow your own rules and procedures when you sought to silence the public comment in June. Mr. Perry and Ms. Simms (county administrator) violated those new rules immediately during that first meeting in June right after reading them to the public,” she said.
Anderson said it’s obvious when reading Perry’s texts and emails to other supervisors that he “lacks tact, management skills, and following rules and orders.”
“The manner in which Mr. Perry speaks down to women during meeting in this room and in his written communications is disgusting and degrading. Mr. Perry and Mr. Marshall have sat here in this room and called citizens ‘liars’ and ‘stupid’ during meetings,” she said.
The behavior of some supervisors shows blatant disrespect for taxpayers, other supervisors, laws, procedures, and transparency, Anderson said.
“You work for us. You should immediately resign your positions on this board and save taxpayers the expense and time of removing you. Many of us have no trust, respect nor confidence in this board,” Anderson said.
The responsibilities and objectives of the Facilities Director, a newly created and filled position, fall in line with those of the County Administrator’s position, which has a six-figure salary, Karen DeCapp said.
“When the most major issue to face this county for months is a solar facility buying hundreds of mountain land for which the company withdraws and the response of the CA (County Administrator) is ‘I didn’t ask why.’ This exposes utter incompetence or lack of transparency it could be one, or sadly both,” she said.
Karen DeCapp said a pattern’s emerging of the county hiring for high-paying administrative positions and providing them with county vehicles.
“As the CA works and assists with the goals of the board, I would ask is this is the change in growth you’re striving for? With the new hires being from outside the county and seemingly from the same county, a county which has three times the population and half of the poverty rate, this is an insult to not only the struggling PC (Patrick County) taxpayers but the dedicated, hardworking PC employees,” she said.
If the hiring judgements continue, Karen DeCapp believes the personal property tax rate will have to be increased to fund them.
“Now with the conduct of BOS (Board of Supervisors) being revealed, I want to thank The Enterprise… for their honorable commitment to provide truth to the citizens of PC. To BOS, you know who you are, this continual embracing of deceitful, D.C. tactics to go behind the backs and against the will of your own voters to the detriment of the county taxpayers short of resignation, I would urge the board to release the current CA and make an amendment to have the CA become an elected position,” she said.
Kurt Bozenmayer also noted the state of communication between the county administration and the public.
“I have addressed the board of supervisors on this issue several times over the past few years, and I am disappointed to find that the state of communication has grown worse over that time, rather than improved. The recent issue of The Enterprise, containing extensive quotations from supervisor e-mails and an article on restriction of communication between supervisors and county employees, seems to highlight the deterioration,” he said.
Recent “hot button” issues like solar facility applications, the hospital issue, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) budget crisis, Bozenmayer said only emphasize how much residents are being disenfranchised by rumor and innuendo, “rather than obtaining honest and reliable information from the county administration.”
Bozenmayer noted he’s advocated for the county to place a short weekly column in The Enterprise to give accurate, factual information on the issues the county’s facing.
“At this time, I feel that we need more open communication between the administration and the public, and for that matter more open communication within the county administration itself, rather than a lot of behind-the-scenes e-mails and restrictions on county employees speaking to supervisors and/or the press. Please consider this an urgent issue for action soon,” Bozenmayer said.
As a business owner, Vance Agee said the county is a business.
When times became tough and cuts needed to be made, Agee said took his salary cut first as he “wasn’t entitled to it if it doesn’t exist.”
“Therefore, 50 percent reduction in my salary to run this business and try to keep it afloat and keep everybody employed, I took the hit. So, when it’s in the red you close up shop,” he said.
As supervisors, Agee said they’re duly elected to manage these affairs.
“We need to do it internally and respectfully look for any waste and inefficiencies, and I didn’t see anybody in here in the administration take a hickey on it. Fixed income, you manage with what you’ve got, I think our budget needs to be managed accordingly,” he said, adding he believes the county’s budget needs to be cut.
Following the meeting’s public comment period, Perry took a moment to clarify his comment about The Enterprise story he previously called “tabloidish.”
“The difference between news and tabloid – When an article is written and it leads the reader to a conclusion that the editor is going for – that’s tabloid, and that’s what this article did. Mr. Gilbert, yes, I’m not denying texts, emails and I’ll stand behind everything I sent, and I feel they were very professional,” he said.
Perry said if he had been asked, “hey, Mr. Perry in this email you said blah, blah, blah, what was that in context, what did you mean, what’s the specifics. None of that was done, it was an opinionated article that was very one-sided and very misleading,” he said
Perry then told the audience they gave their opinions, this was his opinion, and it was time to move on with the meeting.
The often heated exchanges continued after the meeting, with one board member asking a resident to repeat an allegedly previously made statement.
As he left the meeting, Steve Marshall, of the Blue Ridge District, was questioned about a text message he sent to Perry after the October 21 meeting. The 9:25 p.m. text stated in part that there were discussions in the hallway during closed session “brain storming on how to fire” a county employee “and getting the rest of the public fired up.”
Marshall named Galen Gilbert as one of the residents involved. He added that his wife, Donna Marshall, relayed the hallway conversation to him. “I got it from someone I trust.”
Gilbert noted that he was standing outside in a group at that meeting.
Donna Marshall was not part of the group that was talking, and stood some distance away.
“I didn’t put any names, but you were the one who was cussing, and frankly I’m anxious to see if you have the, I should say balls, the intestinal fortitude to confront the woman yourself instead of talking behind her back and calling her a liar and a thief, and naming names and literally cussing her,” Steve Marshall said, interrupting Gilbert.
“Who called her a thief,” Gilbert asked.
“You did,” Steve Marshall said.
“I don’t think so,” Gilbert replied.
“One hundred percent you did, I was standing right there,” Steve Marshall said.
“No, you wasn’t,” Gilbert replied.
“Yes. You said she was a liar and a thief, and she tried to steal Woodridge,” Steve Marshall said.
“I said she tried to steal Jeb Stuart Rescue (Squad). Jeb Stuart Rescue, get your story right if you’re going to tell it,” Gilbert said as Steve Marshall walked away. Earlier in the meeting, Marshall made a motion to appoint Steve Ferring to the Planning Commission. The motion died for lack of a second.
The meeting marked Jane Fulk’s last as the interim supervisor representing the Dan River District. No one on the board acknowledged Fulk’s last meeting or her service to the county.
Andrew Overby was elected the supervisor of the Dan River District in the special election held in November. His first meeting will be on December 9, beginning at 6 p.m.
The November meeting can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YffXNcFAzI, or Facebook.com/TheEnterprise.
The second part of the meeting, which included the board coming out of closed session, did not appear to be available on YouTube.