As offensive as many found them, Supervisor Ally Millerβs Facebook comments expressing pride in her whiteness did not violate county policy and are not grounds for censure or any other discipline from the county board.
Thatβs according to several privileged legal opinions provided by Deputy County Attorney Andrew Flagg, which the supervisors voted to make public Tuesday.
Miller wrote from her personal Facebook account several hours after an apparent white supremacist drove a vehicle into a crowd of counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia in mid-August, killing a woman. Miller wrote, βIβm sick and tired of being hit for being white ... It is all about making us feel like we need to apologize. I am WHITE-and proud of it! No apologies necessary.β
Board of Supervisors policy requires all county employees to be βprofessional, respectful, fair, unbiased, honest, civic-minded, service-oriented, and fiscally responsible,β but only βwhile acting in their official capacities and in the discharge of their duties.β
In Flaggβs view, Millerβs weekend post from her private account βappears to be an expression of her personal opinion.β Additionally, the relevant county policy βapplies to workplace conduct, and Supervisor Millerβs comment was not workplace conduct,β Flagg wrote.
As to whether her colleagues on the board can nevertheless censure her for her βprivate speech,β it was Flaggβs opinion that they have βno clear authority to do so.β
βI think our First Amendment rights and our rights to free speech are alive and well,β Miller said after the meeting. βIβm very pleased with the county attorneyβs opinion.β
The board could adopt a resolution regarding the comments as long as it does not βpurport to discipline her in any way,β Flagg said.
While acknowledging there was little the board could do in response to the comments, Supervisor Sharon Bronson said Miller should still have apologized.
Though shielded from formal sanction, a number of people harshly criticized Miller during the call to the public Tuesday, including one who pledged $10,000 to an effort to unseat the District 1 supervisor.
βIt takes no courage to be white,β written comments from Darsha Stockton Doran, who said she previously voted for Miller, read. βLife hands out skin color.β
βYou can have German pride, you can have Irish pride, you can have Lithuanian pride,β said Najima Rainey, a member of the local Black Lives Matter chapter. βYou can have all kinds of pride, because those are cultures that have actual cultural traditions and rituals and identities. But when you say I am white and proud, what you are saying is I embrace a designation of superiority.β
But Miller was not without defenders. While not weighing in on the comments themselves, Christopher King said it was βreprehensibleβ that there was even consideration of censure for private comments.
βThe First Amendment protects everybodyβs right to free speech, regardless of whether you like the information,β he said.