An investigation into who put a copy of a Facebook post on the Marion County Board secretary’s desk that was later sent to all county board members has ended. The announcement came Wednesday morning from Board member and Centralia Police Lieutenant Steve Whritenour who headed the investigation.
“I spoke to the gentleman that requested the investigation and I also spoke to the gentleman that made the Facebook post,” Whritenour said. “Both were satisfied with the county board chair’s apology (and statement) on how she would handle those kinds of things in the future. I think everybody is now on the same page. If there is a news article or social media post that needs to be brought before the board, it should be brought up in a county board meeting and not disseminated through e-mail.”
A member of the taxpayers group whose name was on the post felt the distribution may have been making him a target of the county board. Board Chairman Debbie Smith said she passed on the post to the rest of the county board because she felt they might be interested in what was being said about them. But Tuesday night she said what she did was wrong and would not happen again.
State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth agreed with Whritenour that whoever left the post had not done anything that was a crime. The two agreed if the person was found their name should not be released publicly. Whritenour said at most if the post was placed there by a county employee, they may have used county resources in making the copy. That would have been reported to the employee’s supervisor for any disciplinary action they wished to take.
