Disgraceful behavior by Franklin County, Richland School Board shames Tri-Cities

At this rate, the Tri-Cities will be known for the dysfunction of its elected officials rather than sunny days and fine wines.

Entrenched self-righteousness and political hostilities on both sides of the river have been a problem for a while, but this week was particularly disturbing.

In Franklin County, elected leaders couldn’t get through Tuesday’s commission meeting without shouting or making snide comments about each other.

It was a despicable display and an embarrassment.

Things started to fall apart early, when Commission Chairman Clint Didier accused Commissioner Brad Peck of interrupting him, and asked him to acknowledge the chairman when joining the conversation.

If the two men got along, we doubt something so petty would have turned into an ugly power struggle. But tempers went from simmer to blazing hot and an unfortunate exchange of heated words followed.

And it didn’t help that County Auditor Matt Beaton added fuel to the flames.

He showed up to dispute a $5,400 bill he received for hitting a county vehicle last September in the Franklin County Courthouse parking lot in his personal vehicle.

Beaton said he was given the impression early on that the county would cover it since he is an elected official and the accident happened on county property.

But instead, he was sent the entire repair bill.

During the meeting, Beaton went on about past wrongs and old disputes and claimed the bill was politically motivated by County Prosecutor Shawn Sant.

When Peck tried to cut Beaton off because he was disparaging Sant, Commissioner Didier began shouting over the two of them. The meeting turned into a verbal food fight.

The loss of control was absolutely shameful.

In the end, Didier and Commissioner Rocky Mullen, who attended the meeting by phone, decided to cover the repair costs from the general fund over Peck’s objection.

We don’t see why taxpayers should foot the bill. We also can’t understand why Mullen and Didier didn’t heed Sant’s warning that paying for the bill under the umbrella of indemnity could set the county up for conflict in the future.

What if, for example, an elected official gets into an accident while driving downtown on a weekend?

When elected officials don’t listen to the advice of their agency’s attorney, it can lead to all kinds of trouble.

Just look at what is happening in Richland.

School Board members Audra Byrd, Semi Bird and Kari Williams voted to defy the state indoor mask mandate for students in February.

The move forced Richland school administrators to close school for two days because state funding was at risk. Eventually, students returned to school wearing masks until the state requirement was lifted weeks later on March 11.

It would be wonderful if the school district could simply move on from this bad decision, but it appears that’s not going to happen.

This week a petition was filed to recall Byrd, Williams and Bird, who are accused not only of violating the mask mandate, but also of breaking state open meetings and public records laws and violating school district ethics policies.

The Herald received text messages from the three board members indicating they discussed the vote beforehand behind the scenes.

Audra Byrd, however, also had deleted many of her texts about that discussion, later claiming her phone didn’t have enough storage space for all of them. But the law requires such texts to be saved as public records.

She said she is trying to get them from her phone company.

In addition, when the three school board members voted to make masks optional, the topic was not listed properly on the agenda — and that’s a violation of the state open meetings law.

All these missteps have led to the recall petition, which will likely continue to divide the community. Many people in Richland support Byrd, Bird and Williams and believe they were looking out for the kids. Others want them held accountable for their impropriety.

If elected officials don’t follow the law, their actions are void and they accomplish nothing — except adding more turmoil to an already upsetting situation.

With all this discord in the Tri-Cities, we are wondering where civility has gone.

And more importantly, how do we get it back?

If readers have any suggestions, please respond on our Facebook page or write a letter to the editor and let us know.