Steve Marshall said he wishes the best for the person who publicly shared his personal financial information and called on him to step down, but he has no plans to do so.
“I hope that God will bless her and give her peace whatever her demons are,” said Marshall, who serves as the Blue Ridge District representative on the Patrick County Board of Supervisors.
His comments came after Trena Anderson called for him to step down at the May 13 meeting of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors.
“We have a supervisor on this board who has a track record of personal financial irresponsibility voting on county financial matters that affect every taxpayer in Patrick County,” Anderson said. “Mr. Marshall has a background and history of not paying his personal bills.”
She alleged that public records indicate Marshall filed for bankruptcy in 2010 after several financial judgments. “This debt was discharged in 2011. Now, he’s tasked with paying our bills. Many of us have no confidence, no trust, that he is able to perform responsibility with our money,” she said.
Anderson alleged that each time Marshall is confronted with information, a fact, or a comment that he opposes, he “verbally on social media attacks the very citizens he swore an oath to represent. He attacks and harasses citizens publicly with third-hand information in an attempt to humiliate them then deletes his posts and comments. I have a binder of photocopies of some of these incidents.”
Noting that elected officials are held to a higher legal standard and that she’s attempted to inform Marshall of this several times, Anderson said former chairman Brandon Simmons asked Marshall to curb some of his behavior before he resigned from the board.
“Obviously, Mr. Marshall has chosen not to heed that advice,” Anderson said. “These incidents violate Virginia’s laws of ethics, which he swore to uphold when he took the oath to serve. Mr. Marshall’s actions and behavior put this county and this board in what promises to be a legal mess in the near future.
“Can Patrick County afford lawsuits due to his behavior and actions? I am asking that Mr. Marshall step down from his role as supervisor of the Blue Ridge District immediately. I suggest this board investigate Mr. Marshall’s background and behavior on their own. Many of us can provide the other members of this board with documentation of these events. An investigation is legally allowed by statute,” Anderson said.
She also requested that Marshall be censured immediately, pending the outcome of an investigation, and noted her comments were not personal.
The board took no action.
Marshall attended the meeting via Zoom due to a health issue. Reached later by phone, he said Anderson’s comments failed to explain the entire story.
“My father had had a severely debilitating stroke,” and other family members “basically stepped in and took control of his finances but did not help him,” he said.
Marshall said he and his wife, Donna, helped his father for more than nine years, which put them in “pretty extreme debt. So, we filed bankruptcy, which is a fairly normal thing.”
In terms of Anderson’s request, “there’s nothing serious about her call for anything,” Marshall said and added that he and Anderson have a personal background.
“She worked … with my wife …, and ever since then …. There’s been some bad blood there for years, and she hasn’t got any place so far. I haven’t given her any attention so far. It’s just another ditch for attention,” he said.
Also at the meeting, Kurt Bozenmayer discussed the deterioration of public perception of the county administration and elected officials.
Referring to the August 22, 2018 issue of “The Enterprise,” Bozenmayer said the lead article was about Debbie Foley’s resignation as Economic Development director, citing a lack of support from the administration.
“Since that time, we have gone through three more EDA (Economic Development Administration) directors, the last one lasting less than a year. Is there a problem here,” he said.
Bozenmayer said another article in the paper described a joint meeting between the supervisors and the EDA to discuss “personnel.” The meeting was declared “unnecessary” by then-board chairman Lock Boyce.
“The third article described a call from supervisor Crystal Harris for County Administrator Tom Rose to step down due to a perceived lack of performance in his job. And that’s just the front page,” Bozenmayer said and noted that all the people mentioned in that edition, who were placed in their positions because they were the best available, have been replaced in less than a six-year timeframe.
“Now we are facing a situation where one supervisor has resigned, and another is unavailable for medical reasons, and the county malcontents are spoiling up social media calling for the resignation of a third supervisor. Where does this end,” Bozenmayer asked.
After attending nearly every board meeting for the past four or five years, Bozenmayer said he hasn’t seen one shred of evidence that any of the supervisors acted out of personal interests or due to outside influence.
“I find it insulting that people can suggest that elected officials should step down because of the possibility of an opportunity for a conflict of interest. In such a case, no property owner in Patrick County should run for office since they ‘might’ vote on an issue to lower their taxes, as some large landowners have been accused in the past,” Bozenmayer said.
In his past dealings with current supervisors, Bozenmayer said he has found them to all act in the best interest of the majority of residents, and commended them for their integrity.
“Unless a specific charge of impropriety can be cited with valid evidence, not just conjecture or rumor, this character assassination of our elected official should stop. If anyone has a more fitting candidate in mind for these positions, they should run for office when the elections are held, not try to force someone from office over a single perceived issue,” Bozenmayer said.
“It is time to start promoting a positive attitude about our county and offer helpful suggestions via the proper channels rather than parading this image of perpetual victimhood across social media,” he said.
