Shelby Co. (ECWd) –
Once again Shelby County citizens are being fed propaganda on local social media in what appears to be a political hit job before the November election. We covered the local paper’s failure in reporting in this article and it seems some can’t accept the truth when it comes to certain legal matters in Shelby County.
During the last Shelby County Board meeting, candidate for county board Christine Matlock used her public comment time to focus on bashing the Chairman as can be seen in the video below. Most of what she said is nothing more than her misguided opinion that she never lets facts get in the way of.
About a week later the social media propaganda began its campaign in what appears to be fed from the false narrative presented in the meeting. One person made at least two false claims that generated over 100 comments, most in support of the person’s false information.
“I paid my real estate taxes Monday. If I paid them today, my name would be in the paper and there would be a penalty. Those are the consequences of not paying property taxes. What are the consequences for not handling my tax dollars properly?”
That was posted on September 18th, 2024. While there are late penalties for paying taxes beyond the past due date, their name would not be in the paper as claimed. The day overdue tax bills go to the paper is October 16, 2024. That fact indicates the claim the person’s name would be in the paper for filing on September 18th was totally false.
The person goes on to claim, “6k+ to our previous SA for representing our Board Chair”
After being asked to prove their claim, the following images were posted.
Neither of those images supports any claim that the Chairman submitted a claim for the former State’s Attorney representing him. In fact, every invoice submitted on the subject matter was from Benford Brown & Associates.
At no time has Chairman Orman submitted a claim for the taxpayers to pay for a legal bill for any legal representation he received. For anyone to claim otherwise is a total lie.
Another bit of misinformation that we will chalk it up to their failure to understand the County Government and the separation of powers.
“(seems like he could have just given the audit draft to the board…what’s the big deal with that?)”
Would it be too much for the State’s Attorney to pick up the phone and ask for a copy of the audit draft or drafts before opening a criminal case over draft records that would become public records the day of the meeting, which is the same day the subpoenas were issued? What’s the big deal with that? Isn’t communication a two-way street? The State’s Attorney is not part of the legislative body. Had the State’s Attorney actually read the engagement contract she would have seen her actions were going to cost the taxpayers more money which is exactly what happened. Rather than blame their candidate they blame the candidate they are trying to defeat.
The same person went on to complain about the audit being late. It would do people well to know, that late audits are not uncommon, and Shelby County is not the only public body in that situation. Reading the 136 pages of public body delinquency records from the Comptroller, it appears Shelby County is not as bad off as some want to make it sound. Of course, we all wish deadlines could be met but the fact they are late is not some wild conspiracy of wrongdoing.
Within the ramblings of false information was this statement.
“If I do something wrong, I expect consequences and accept them”
What are the consequences of spreading false information? Considering this person has direct ties to a Political Action Committee trying to defeat Bobby Orman this November, it appears the person’s agenda is not about truth but rather politics like so many other lies we have seen published in Shelby County.
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