Supervisor Delgaudio - and a few of his like-minded friends
Dear Chairman and Members of the Loudoun County
Board of Supervisors exclusive of Sterling Supervisor, Eugene Delgaudio,
It’s high time that this Board of Supervisors took a
long hard look at Mr. Delgaudio’s alleged misconduct.
The Southern Poverty Law Center charged recently that
Delgaudio headed a gay-bashing hate group called Public Advocate.
Last week, we read reports that Hannah Scoggins, of
Public Advocate, that same hate group, was telling Delgaudio’s County staffers
what to do, rather than another Senior County employee or the Supervisor
himself.
We also learned that Mr. Delgaudio had allegedly misappropriated
a private copyrighted wedding picture of a same sex marriage, altered the photo
and ridiculed the couple in an out of state political campaign.
More than that, we’re told that Delgaudio, after a
most inappropriate job interviewing process, made it a condition of employment for
his county staff, one worker in particular who came forward to talk about this
publicly, to raise money for Delgaudio’s political and “charitable” campaigns
while working on County time on our tax dime.
There are reportedly e-mails, contribution lists,
and documents, that support these charges, and I have filed a Freedom of
Information Act, to see these materials for myself; I understand other citizens
have and are doing the same because they’re not sure you’re going to do what’s
necessary.
I do not believe that this is a partisan issue.
I believe both parties and independents see this as
a good government issue – as the alleged misconduct violates ordinary standards
of decency and tolerance and the proper use of a public office.
While I may disagree with Board Members who oppose
same sex marriage, that is a different discussion than the gay bashing, and
hateful bigoted speech that Delgaudio spews relentlessly.
Each other Board member’s skin must crawl when
Delgaudio renders one of his indecent rants, and you’re associated because you
serve with this relic of Old South intolerance.
Bigotry is a category of free speech that should guarantee a seat in the
audience once spoken, rather than on the dais as an elected official.
Raising the necessary funds to run for office is an
onerous and complex undertaking. But
there are some bright lines when fund-raising is not allowed. No elected official may rely on his taxpayer
paid staffers to call for political or charitable contributions when the
staffer is on the county clock, on County time.
We presume, for this letter and for all time, that
no member of this Board supports bigotry, nor believes that an outside hate
group should direct campaign staff, or condones the use of public staff to
raise campaign or charitable funds, and the misappropriation of public resources.
Accordingly, I most respectfully insist that this
Board should ban hateful rhetoric from its chamber and by any elected official
who purports to represent the citizens of this County on the Board, not only
what Delgaudio has said and done in the past but what we can expect he will
continue to do.
Accordingly, this Board should also ban – at the
very least - outside hate groups from directing the conduct of our public
employees.
Accordingly, this Board should force Mr. Delgaudio to
refund every penny of taxpayer funds, if found to be misspent and misappropriated
for his fund-raising activities, and, if Delgaudio resists, then you should
take him to court and seek a money judgment against him, and deposit the
proceeds in the County Treasury.
Accordingly, this Board should refer any criminal
charges, should any be confirmed, to a special prosecutor appointed by the
Court.
This Board should establish the kind of machinery
that the Congress has on its ethics committee to handle such matters in the
future but, in the meantime, should these charges be found true, Mr. Delgaudio
should be disciplined including but not limited to removing him from any and
all leadership position(s) on the Board of Supervisors and on its various Committees.
The Board, like our community, has only just been
informed of the breadth of Mr. Delgaudio’s misconduct. If this Board doesn’t want to be tarred with
the same brush, by tolerating his misconduct, it must act firmly and
swiftly.
These recent published reports have prompted another
rash of head-slapping questions about what mind-altering substance could possibly
exist in Loudoun County’s drinking water that would permit a Delgaudio to be
elected to anything.
This Board of Supervisors must draw the line between
robust free speech and bigotry, also between legitimate fund-raising and the misappropriation
of public services.
This Board must do what’s necessary, hold hearings,
examine the evidence, take Delgaudio’s testimony in public, and act upon the findings.
Studied indifference is not an acceptable response.
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