VIDEO: Former supervisor, current candidate Tracy Pyles removed from Wednesday's Board of Supervisors meeting
VERONA — It was a tense night at the Augusta County Board of Supervisors meeting on Wednesday as former supervisor and current candidate for commissioner of revenue Tracy Pyles was removed from the dais by Augusta County Sheriff's Office deputies. Pyles is running in his race as a Democrat against Republican George Price.
Pyles stepped up to the podium saying that his remarks were going to be "kinder and gentler" than originally planned after speaking with a supervisor and a staffer at the county fair the night before.
In his remarks, Pyles cited James Madison's Federalist Paper #51 about the obligation of government to govern itself, and the Bill of Rights protection over free speech and freedom of the press.
"Recent events involving this governing board prove Madison’s assertion: Men are not angels. Not every person chosen to lead is fit to lead," Pyles said.
The subject of Pyles' ire was the three-minute and five-minute time limits on public comment set by the board last July. It was then ironic when partway through his remarks, the timer rang out signaling the end of his allotted time.
Transcript of when Pyles' time ran out
Board chairperson Michael Shull: Thank you, Mr. Pyles.
Pyles: I’m not going to stop. We’ll just keep going.
Shull: Mr. Pyles. Your time is up, Mr. Pyles.
Pyles: That this board should think no supervisor before you wanted to quiet unpleasantness, wanted to sho-
Sheriff’s deputy: I apologize, but you need to step down.
Pyles: No, I’m not going to stop. You’ll have to drag me out.
What happened after time ran out?
Pyles continued to refuse to leave the dais, saying that people had died for these rights and that he was not afraid to stand up for them. When reminded of the rules in place, he called them "arbitrary" and repeatedly referenced the Constitution's guarantee of free speech.
"We let people speak! You need to change your mind! This is not your little, uh, government, and your, we don’t answer to you! You’re supposed to answer to us!" Pyles exclaimed in a furor. Throughout his remarks, the assembled crowd applauded Pyles' efforts.
He asked the board who wanted him to leave, and Shull called for an impromptu hand-raise vote for supervisors who wished to abide by the three-minute rule. After at least five supervisors raised their hands, Pyles simply said the vote meant nothing to him.
When Pyles brought up the name of the late Bruce Cole, he incurred the ire of supervisor Butch Wells. Wells said he had worked with Cole in the past, and that Cole would be ashamed of the way Pyles was acting.
Shortly after, officers escorted Pyles away from the dais. In total, Pyles was at the dais for another four-and-a-half minutes before being removed from the room.
Chairperson Michael Shull's response after Pyles was removed
"Folks, I’m sorry that this came to this, but we live under a country under rules and laws. And we have rules here and laws, and it’s been put in effect here for a three minute and a five minute rule. If you go to the federal level, you have a set time to speak and the chairman of those committees cut you off. If you go to Richmond, you have a set time to speak and they cut you off. When FERC come in here and we were talking about the pipeline, we had a set time to speak and they cut us off."
"I’m just saying but we had a time to do what we were supposed to do and we are abiding by what this board has put in place here. And we got caught up in this in a few meetings ago when we let one go over, and we weren't abiding by the rules and we got called out on that and so we said, after that we were going to abide by the rules that we had set up. So, that’s all I’m going to say about that."
—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: VIDEO: Former supervisor, current candidate Tracy Pyles removed from Wednesday's Board of Supervisors meeting
