In a majority vote on Monday, the Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted to censure Steve Marshall, Blue Ridge District representative.
On a motion of vice chairman Andrew Overby, of the Dan River District, and a second by Mayo Rive District Supervisor Clayton Kendrick, the motion was open for discussion.
Overby said he asked for a resolution to be prepared to censure Marshall and remove him from all committee assignments.
Overby read the resolution, which stated in part that the board “expresses their displeasure with the consistent display of unprofessional behavior of Board of Supervisors member Steve Marshall by his repeated attempts to silence, harass, intimidate, bully, threaten and defame other members of the Board of Supervisors as well as appointed members of the board’s committees, commissions, and authorities and citizens of Patrick County.
“Marshall operates multiple social media accounts and/or websites with the intent to silence, harass, intimidate, bully, and defame members of the Board of Supervisors as well as appointed members of the board’s committees, commissions, and authorities and” county residents, Overby read.
“Marshall has publicly made defamatory statements against members of the Board of Supervisors as well as appointed members of the board’s committees, commissions, and authorities and citizens of Patrick County in public meetings of the Board of Supervisors and on social media accounts and/or websites operated” by Marshall, the resolution stated.
Additionally, “Marshall has continuously committed acts to restrict free speech of the citizens of Patrick County by blocking citizens from his official social media accounts, blocking comments on his posts on social media, and deleting his own as well as citizen’s comments on social media; and … has attempted to silence, harass, intimidate, bully, threaten and defame other members of the Board of Supervisors through email communications and serving members of the Board of Supervisors and Patrick County with ‘Notice of Claim and Intent to Bring Civil and/or Criminal Action’ against the Board of Supervisors” and the county, it stated.
Overby said, the board “seeks to formally express its disapproval of Board of Supervisors member Steve Marshall’s continued unprofessional behavior, abuse of power, and disdain for the citizens of Patrick County.”
The resolution “formally censures … Marshall for his continued unprofessional behavior, censorship of the citizens of Patrick County, and attempts to silence, harass, intimidate, bully, threaten and defame of other members of the Board of Supervisors as well as appointed members of the board’s committees, commissions, and authorities, and” county residents.
It added, “the Board of Supervisors hereby revokes Board of Supervisors member Steve Marshall’s appointments to the Department of Social Services Board, Community Policy and Management Team, and as Town/County Liaison and prohibits Supervisor Marshall from being appointed to any of the board’s or county’s committees, commissions, and authorities for a term of no less than 1 year, effective as of the date of this Resolution of Public Censure.”
Kendrick, Overby and chairman Jonathan Wood, of the Peters Creek District, voted to approve the resolution.
Marshall abstained.
Doug Perry voted against the motion. During the brief discussion preceding the vote, Perry, of the Smith River District, encouraged residents who had an issue with Marshall to file the paperwork needed to have him removed from office.
After the vote, Marshall said, “Understand that censure – these things, that’s free speech. It’s meaningless, absolutely meaningless. What’s trying to be done here is silence what I’m saying online which is exposing things that this board does. Okay, other than that that’s their right to censure, and that’s pretty much all I have to say. You can censure every meeting.”
More about this developing story and the meeting will be published in the May 7 edition of The Enterprise.
