- An overflow crowd at Tuesday’s Boone County Fiscal Court meeting forced people to watch from the hallway
- Many speakers were asking for an apology from Commissioner Chet Hand about recent social media posts
- Hand declined to apologize
An overflow crowd attended the Boone County Fiscal Court meeting Tuesday night, where Commissioner Chet Hand declined to apologize to those in the crowd gathered to request he do just that.
After a full agenda, more than a dozen people spoke about recent social media posts Hand had made, asking for updates to ethics policies for members of the fiscal court.
Hand’s comments troubled Boone County resident Teresa Taylor, who referenced some things he said in a recent post at Tuesday’s meeting.
“For him to say things like Democrats are the party of political violence, intolerance, hate, anger, and evil … that hurt,” Taylor told the commissioners. Taylor then asked that Hand publicly apologize or be removed from office.
After several speakers addressed the issue, Hand and Judge/Executive Gary Moore reminded attendants to make sure their comments are related to an agenda item.
Hand then addressed the elephant in the room.
“I have a feeling that most people are going to have similar comments along the same line,” Hand said. “Just to kind of put it at rest, I guess, for whatever requests they have, whether it’s regarding apology or resignation or anything else like that. The answer is emphatically no.”
Florence City Council member Lesley Chambers said Boone County is a caring community, and she asked county leaders to focus on moving Boone County forward and to solve problems that affect all its residents.
“I challenge residents watching at home to step up and help where you can, to help your neighbors,” Chambers said. “I challenge each of us to love and care for each other. Let’s prioritize making Boone County a place where individuals can achieve prosperity, be safe, healthy and happy.”
Boone County Board of Education member Carolyn Wolfe asked that elected leaders tone down their rhetoric.
“They do hold significant weight,” Wolfe said of elected officials’ words. She pleaded for moderation as a parent and as a public official.
“The worst thing about this rhetoric is when this stuff gets posted, it gets put out there in our classrooms, it’s heard in the playgrounds and it goes in the hallways in our schools,” Wolfe said. “Our children regurgitate this and it starts to really have a serious impact on mental health.”
Many of the speakers asked the Fiscal Court to adopt a new code of ethics and guidelines for social media posts.
Resident Jasmine Lewis said suggested changes to some fiscal court policies.
“I am asking this court to review and strengthen the code of ethics,” Lewis said. “We can look to other counties for examples of those things, but my request would be that prior to the end of the year, there is a conversation about changing the code of ethics.”
One of the speakers, Amber Hoffman, who has lived in Boone County for 20 years, held up an enlarged copy of Hand’s Facebook post for the audience to see.
“Our community deserves leadership that reflects integrity, accountability, and nothing less,” Hoffman said.
