Town Comments on Social Media Remarks

By David Quesenberry

Patriot Publishing

At the Tuesday night meeting of Pulaski Town Council, both the Council members and the Town Manager expressed their frustration with social media … especially with its comments regarding the Rest and Rise warming shelter proposal.

“The social media is destroying this community and I absolutely mean that,” said Town Manager Todd Day. “I’ve been in local government for 28 years . . and the misinformation is incredible.” While not a member of any social media platform, Day said that, “People send it to me right and left when there is stuff that is posted that’s inaccurate. Ninety percent is so inaccurate, they’re just misinformed. People don’t understand.”

Day praised the efforts of Terri Sternberg for trying to start a program that he described as “incredible.” Yet, “there’s posts on Facebook,” Day said, “That ‘Todd has told her no.’ Just crazy,” he added frustrated.  “What bothers me more than anything,” Day continued, “is that there are champions in this community; there are so many opportunities in this community. But these people posting this stuff aren’t hurting the locality, they’re dividing what you’re (addressed to Sternberg) trying to overcome.” Day challenged those in the chambers and persons on Facebook, “who hear these blatant untruths,” to comment on them.

Councilman Jeremy Clark read a prepared statement concerning earlier comments by Councilman Steve Erickson, which included posts from social media on the Rest and Rise program. He also submitted his remarks as an Open Forum letter to the newspaper.

As one of several points, Clark said that the Town had “never threatened any church, pastor, or individual with fines or jail time related to Rest and Rise or any other shelter initiative.” Since Rest and Rise had approached the Town formally concerning its shelter proposal, the Town had a “legal and ethical obligation under state law to ensure that any facility used to house people overnight complies with safety, fire, and occupancy codes. This is not optional.”

Council, Clark continued, has not rejected the proposal, neither has it voted against it. Any decision “must be made based on law, verified facts, and the long-term welfare of the entire community” not social media pressure and misinformation.

With respect to social media comments read in Council, Clark said portraying the Council as “uncaring, inhumane and ethically deficient” recklessly inflamed public sentiment with partial truths and falsehoods. Policy decisions must be “based on law, verified facts, and the long-term welfare of the entire community,” not social media.

Clark said that the allegation of selective enforcement of ordinances was “inaccurate.”  Referring to the recent offering of land to adjacent homeowners, Clark said that was “unrelated and not comparable to health and safety compliance for overnight shelters.”

In a final note, Clark said that the “tone and delivery” of comments felt more like an attempt to “coerce and shame” the Council to adopting a single viewpoint without due process.

Councilwoman Sunshine Cope said, “We’ve got a lot of nice things happening in this town. And I know that ‘keyboard warriors’ like sometimes to dredge up what’s bad. But, things didn’t become bad in any area overnight nor will they turn around overnight. I think everybody is committed to making a better environment for our town.”

Cope reminded listeners that all of Council lives in the Town and that it was not an “us against them” situation, but everyone was in it together.

“It’s hard when it feels like people are being pitted against each other. I don’t feel that needs to be done at all.”

Councilman Erickson took issue with Councilman Clark’s statement that ordinances were not selectively enforced using the sale of land to owners along Pepper’s Ferry Road as an example.

“If there was an ordinance that says a building has to have permits and has to go through the process and the building is built on someone else’s land and we sold them that land, then absolutely. As soon as we knew there was a building on that property that was our property, by our own standards we should have done something about the building. So that’s what I was addressing with those buildings. Yes, we ignored the ordinances. You could say we didn’t, but what did we do about the buildings? Was it ever inspected? Did Nathan (Building Inspector) go and inspect it? Nope. We sold them the property.”

In response to the mention of rhetoric, Erickson said, “All I did was read statements that our citizens feel. I never mentioned anybody threatening pastors, law enforcement.” He agreed that a number of comments on the sites were “nonsense.”

“It does not take away the fact that there’s still people out there that care for these people and there’s still things that can be done.”

Councilman Joel Burchett noted that much of the discussion during the evening involved illicit drugs.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could take some of this attention,” he said, “and put it maybe to the elderly; people that work every day and try really hard and they just can’t make it.”

Burchett noted that he did read social media, but said, “isn’t it a shame to turn ourselves on each other?” He criticized the medium for the way people were slandered or lied about by anonymous persons posting on the sites. In a final comment he commended the Town employees for doing all the work they do and felt it was wrong for them to be “hammered” on social media.

Vice-Mayor Brooks Dawson said that there was a big misconception as to what the Town organization does especially in regards with what the Council does or what it could do for the organization. The Town is held responsible for a very specific set of things for example, building codes, fire codes and zoning regulations, with many of them defined by the state or someone else as to what was required or expected.

“Within that framework,” Dawson continued, “one of the things the Town of Pulaski can’t do and never will be able to do is tell anyone that they can’t help somebody. No one in this organization has ever told someone you’re not allowed to help that person. Thank the Lord that we have people in this Town that have that passion to try to help and serve.”

Dawson continued, “What bothers me is when it’s misconstrued in a way that it looks like someone’s told any of those individuals, ‘You can’t help somebody.’”

Despite the complexity of the issue Dawson said, “I want to be clear no one has told anyone that you can’t help someone. If you have the ability to feed someone who is hungry then feed them. If you have the ability to clothe someone who is cold, then clothe them. If you have the ability to help somebody get a job; find someone somewhere to stay that is legally allowed. Then do it. Take somebody in. Help them fill out an application. Don’t say you couldn’t because somebody wouldn’t let you.”