Seneca resident urges council to remove conservation-board appointee after social-media post

During the public-comment period at the Nov. 18 Oconee County Council meeting, Lee Sheehan of Seneca urged council members to remove an appointed member of the Oconee County Conservation Board, Perry Smith, after Sheehan said the appointee posted on Facebook: "I hope the government stays shut down until the middle of next year. I'm prepared. The Democrats are not. They can starve." Sheehan said the post was taken down the next day.

Sheehan told council that while appointed commission members are unpaid, they are "official Oconee County representatives" and are held to state ethics standards; he characterized the post as "sick and intolerable" and "hate speech," and said by refusing to act the council would legitimize the rhetoric. He said he had raised the issue with County Administrator Durham and Vice Chairman Don Mize on Oct. 30 and Nov. 10 but had not received acknowledgment and therefore brought the concern to the public meeting.

Sheehan asked the council to remove Perry Smith from the Oconee County Conservation Bank Board and to bar him from future county appointments, including a position for which Sheehan said Smith had publicly expressed interest. He offered printed documentation of the remarks to the county clerk for verification. No response from the named appointee was recorded at the meeting and the council did not take an immediate removal action on the record during the session.

Council did not take a formal vote to remove or discipline the appointee during the meeting; Sheehan’s request remained an unresolved public complaint on the council’s record.