Patrick County Administrator Beth Simms took the floor during the public comment period at Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, addressing criticisms and clarifying several issues raised by the public.
Visibly upset, Simms responded to accusations ranging from the use of a county credit card to purchase lunch to claims about her character. Near the end of her more than seven-minute speech, Simms said, “It is completely out of the realm for a county administrator” to speak during public comment but noted she felt compelled to respond to what she described as “complete lies” affecting her personal and professional reputation.
“Just so everyone is aware in this room, defamation still applies to public comment,” Simms said. “Yes, I am a public figure, yes I am supposed to have a thick skin, but lies are not exempt.”
The “first comment tonight about Patrick County paying for my lunch – I have been an employee of this county for 15 to 16 months now. I have never once used my Patrick County credit card to pay for my lunch,” she said.
However, it would be “a completely acceptable use” when local government officials have a work meeting, Simms said, adding that most of the time, county credit cards are used, just like businesses would when engaging in a work meeting.
“But knowing the challenges with Patrick County when I applied for and accepted this job, I have never paid for a lunch with my Patrick County credit card,” she said.
Simms said she applied for the county administrator position when it was posted “just like anybody else in the room could have.” She had a virtual interview with members of the Berkley Group LLC, then an in-person interview with the board on August 28, 2023.
“My interview was at 12 p.m. that day. I got a call at about 10 minutes after 5 p.m. getting offered the job with the salary of $120,000 a year, a car, stipend, couple of other things. My contract was recently in The Enterprise, so everybody should be familiar with that. I did not negotiate my number up, I pretty much accepted what they sent me. Mr. Kendrick (Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District) then signed my contract, I signed it, we both signed it here on September 11, 2023,” she said.
Simms noted The Enterprise also covered her contract signing when it occurred, and added “Not really sure why this is coming up as an issue now. But it is what it is. I just wanted to clarify all of those things.”
Regarding the kind of insinuation or some conspiracy she has with the consulting firm, Simms explained the group is an executive search firm and a community development consulting firm.
“As everyone knows, or should know, Patrick County does not have a community development department. They did not have one when I came here. We have had some community development issues come up,” she said, noting that solar, dilapidated buildings, a VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) project and other items were on the agenda to be considered by the board.
“These are all community development projects that we have no staff nor budget for,” she said, adding consultants are used to fill staff gaps. She noted such practices are not taboo, but rather common in local government or organizations which lack staff for specialty items.
The funds to pay the consulting firm were in the budget that was adopted by the board on May 28.
Addressing what she said was the insinuation that she’s creating positions or spending money, Simms said it’s not allocated to her.
“Once again, false. The Director of Facilities was in the budget (that was) approved by the board of supervisors. The bills, appropriations, claims is all in the packet tonight. There is nothing in that packet that I spend that is not approved by the Patrick County Board of Supervisors,” she said.
If the board or county residents don’t like something in the budget, Simms said concerns need to be directed to staff to amend the budget. “But I do not spend money outside of the budget. I was in economic development, and still consider myself an economic development practitioner, for years. We keep talking about how poor Patrick County is. Patrick County is going to stay poor if every time our elected body wants to invest in Patrick County, we are met with just gut everything, cut everything. Who wants to invest here if we do not invest in ourselves,” Simms said.
The next time that subject arises, Simms said the county needs to think about what it’s doing to remedy that.
“The insinuation that I am disconnected, or against the citizens – you all know nothing about me. You all have no idea how hard – not just me …. County administrators do not do this to get rich. We do it to solve problems that quite frankly nobody else wants to touch,” she said.
Simms said she’d appreciate anybody that has a question about her, her character, her background, or anything else to set up a meeting with her.
“I’m pretty open. I have my phone numbers public, my email’s public, I’m in my office. Set up a meeting, ask me a question, I’ll be happy to talk to you all, to anybody, but this whole us versus them, I’m corrupt, I’m stupid, I’ll be honest I am sick and tired of being humiliated,” she said.
Simms said the board votes on a budget and policy, while she’s charged with accomplishing it. For example, she said the county shares a building with Patrick & Henry Community College (P&HCC).
“We’re in the process of working out what that looks like, a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), lease, whatever you want to call it. I have to represent their interests in an executive level type capacity. I meet with the president of the college, their CFO (Chief Financial Officer). I can’t go in and do these things when this is what I’m constantly worrying about, and I’m constantly getting accused, of being corrupt, or dumb, or disconnected,” she said.
While she recognized that it’s completely out of the realm for a county administrator to speak during public comment, Simms said as everybody knows she recently had children. “I am not going to continue to let their mother be humiliated for no reason by people that know nothing about me. And if we want to become unpoor, then we need to have good governance,” she added.
