Let me first start by saying that I do not have the time or the inclination to write this article, but I feel that I am forced to do so due to events over the past week.
I have been outspoken regarding local politics only one other time in my life when, in 2010, disgraced former Sheriff Gerald Hege decided to run for Davidson County Sheriff against incumbent Sheriff David Grice.I felt that is was my duty to speak out as a citizen to prevent what I perceived as a very corrupt person from holding a very important local elected office. I am speaking out today for the same reason.
Fast Forward to the Summer of 2017
For the past year or so, I could not help but to take note of the increasing divisive tone displayed in Brian Shipwash’s Facebook posts related to disagreements that he had been having with other local elected officials. Up to the point that I noticed this, I had never taken issue with Brian and even then it wasn’t worrisome, just peculiar. After a while it became a topic of conversation with some of my friends. We started visiting his Facebook page to see what and/or who he was going to “whine about and chastise” next. The reason I say “whine” is because that was the prevailing tone of his posts. Then he started posting announcements for his Facebook followers stay tuned for big news regarding corruption a the highest levels of our local government. Finally the “big news” hit the front page of our local newspaper. Brian filed suit against a couple of county officials and two county commissioners. For the sake of time, click this link for details.
It was serious, but sort of comical at the same time when I realized that Brian had been setting the table for this vendetta on Facebook for months. Hence the divisive and whiny posts mentioned previously. The first thing I thought after reading the article detailing his lawsuit was, “WOW! Brian has become such a drama queen that nobody else in local government wants to deal with him in meetings or otherwise”. Come to find out, that was the gist of it. Brian dropped his lawsuit as fast as he filed is. Click this link for details. After reading this article, It is obvious why I am no longer a Shipwash supporter. I know Attorney Charles Frye to be an honest forthright individual with nothing to gain or lose with his assessment of Brian’s frivolous lawsuit.
Fast Forward to Today
Brian is running for re-election on May 8th. Obviously I am supporting his opponent and have been volunteering to do what I can to help this lady defeat Brian. He is skirting the edges of corruption at this point. Apparently he has convinced several of his cronies to contest three incumbent county commissioner seats up for re-election May 8th. He has surpassed “simple drama queen” and graduated to full on “vindictive drama queen with cat claws” and judging by the events of this past week that I will explain in the following paragraphs, his core supporters share the same vindictive nature.
This Past Week Recap
I need to lay out some history to put this past week in perspective. About a year or so ago, Mt long time friend, Steve Shell added me as an Administrator on a Facebook community group that he and a mutual friend, Todd Yates administer called Concerned Citizens of Davidson County (CCDC) so that I could help streamline the page a bit. I am a website developer and Social media marketing professional. As such, I have a lot of experience dealing with Facebook features that ordinary people may not know exist. One such feature is a Facebook Group Topics feature that streamlines group posting much like a discussion forum platform integrated with many websites. This feature was being beta tested and I tried unsuccessfully to convice Facebook to apply it to the group. I am not a moderator, and have very little interaction on the page. I do, however, read some of the discussions when I have time.
Regarding Steve and Todd, I have known both of these men for many years and know both to be upstanding, honest individuals. Both are Davidson County Commissioners and both are campaigning for re-election this May 8th. Todd was one of the target of the lawsuit filed by Brian Shipwash mention earlier in this article.
Now that we have some important history established, I will get straight to the point. After reading the CCDC discussions related to Todd Yates and Leigh Truelove and the incredible level of nastiness, I posted the following message on my personal page.
It should be apparent to any reasonable person that read the nasty messages on CCDC before they were deleted that these people were intentionally trying to get banned from the page so they could cry foul and play victim and illicit sympathy for the Shipwash campaign on similar forums. The CCDC Group has just under 11,000 members, and all are local, so this tactic’s intended effect was successful, but only temporarily. Fortunately most people are smart enough to figure it out the longer it goes on.
So after I post my rant above (on my personal Facebook page), Brian posts the following reply on CCDC and apparently even posted this message to another group prior to posting to CCDC. Yes. overkill. This is further proof that he is using a sympathy tactic. He is fully complicit in this entire escapade. Is there any wonder why so many people in the county government do not like to deal with this guy.
I am not sure of the reasoning for mentioning me by name, except that he may think that I am deleting posts and banning people because I am a CCDC Admin. I am not, but I do support the reasons for other admns decision to remove people and posts that are guilty of relentlessly piling on. I’m sure these people feel like they are winning something by forcing admin action, but reasonable people are watching and understand exactly what these nasty people are up to. Regardless of that, does Brian not realize how stupid and irresponsible it is for a sitting elected official to call out a private citizen by name on a public discussion forum? On Facebook? My God, what a moron!!
Congratulations to Brian! He is officially a power abusing, corrupt politician. He is, at this moment not fit to hold any public office. The potential liability that he just brought to the State, County, and to himself is astronomical.
Why is this a liability? Shortly after Brian posted the message in the image above, I received a friend request from the wife of one of his supporters posing as a would be Facebook friend. This lady is also the wife of Shipwash supporter and County Commissioner candidate, Chris Elliott. She wanted to spy (in other circles, it is referred to as stalking) my page, so I let her. I have nothing to hide. Over the past two days, i have had five other Shipwash supporters that are on CCDC to do the same exact thing.
This is problematic for several reasons. Number one, I consider it an attempt to harass and intimidate. Number two, it shows a high level of potential corruption if these people are privy to the perks and power of holding public office. What else are these people capable of? How will they treat private citizens that oppose them if they are re-elected, in Brian’s case, or in Chris Elliott’s case, elected?
I will conclude with a couple of posts I published to my personal page that outline my concerns.
…and this response to a reply to my post
Please consider this article when you vote May 8th. I will definitely be voting for Leigh Truelove and Todd Yates because I know without a shadow of a doubt from my experiences over the past few days that their opponents are in fact corrupt as the day is long and grossly unfit to hold any kind of public office.
Regards,
Steve Williams
Steve Williams
steve.williams7368@gmail.com
