Investigation into Facebook post closed after Marion County board chairman apologizes

An investigation into who placed a copy of a Facebook post on the desk of the Marion County Board clerk that was later sent to all county board members has been completed. The announcement came Wednesday morning from board member and Centralia police lieutenant Steve Whritenour, who led the investigation.

“I spoke with the gentleman who requested the investigation and also the gentleman who made the Facebook post,” Whritenour said. “Both were pleased with the apology (and explanation) from the County Board Chairwoman on how she would handle such things in the future. I think everyone is now on the same page. If there is a newspaper article or social media post that needs to be brought to the Board, it should be brought up in a County Board meeting and not circulated via email.”

One member of the ratepayers group whose name was on the poster felt that its distribution may have made him a target for the county council. County council chair Debbie Smith said she had forwarded the poster to the rest of the county council because she felt they might be interested in what was being said about her. But on Tuesday night she said what she had done was wrong and would not happen again.

District Attorney Tim Hudspeth agreed with Whritenour that whoever left the post had not done anything that constituted a crime. The two agreed that the person’s name should not be released publicly if found. Whritenour said that at most, if the post had been placed there by a county employee, they could have used county resources to make the copy. This would have been reported to the employee’s supervisor so that he could take disciplinary action.