OZARK, Ala. (WDHN) — During a recent meeting this week, Ozark City Council members voted 3-2 in favor of censuring Mayor Mark Blankenship for his accused inappropriate and unprofessional behavior towards citizens as an elected official.
Groups like we the people of Dale County and some Ozark Dale County library supporters have been calling for him to be censured for about two months with a petition of over 100 signatures.
”It’s sad for Ozark that three council members sided with this group,” Mayor Blankenship said in a statement about the council voting to censure.
“We are incredibly pleased with the city council members that listened to us there was a lot of face-to-face time put into this not everybody voted to censure,” Adam Kamerer said.
Two of the council members who voted no were Stanley Enfinger and Leah Harlow.
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous you would do that to our mayor,” He said.
“I thought we had already taken care of this,” Harlow said.
The call for censuring the mayor started around the end of August when he blasted the library on social media about removing LGBTQ-themed books and sexually explicit materials from the young adult section in the library or else the city would pull its funding.
For citizens who disagreed with him, they claimed he harassed them and posted their private conversations so everyone could see.
“The mayor sent me harassing messages and public ones that were later deleted and primarily just for his call to defund the library,” Kamerer said.
The council also censured the mayor as they said he lied on their behalf about the city supporting defunding efforts and just his recent behavior towards some citizens through text messages.
“The last time I spoke which you mentioned sir, he texted me after I got home and said you made a fool out of yourself tonight,” Bryant Fontenot said after a meeting one month ago.
The mayor claimed during the meeting this week that citizens were leaving out key parts of the comments and not telling the whole story which made him look bad.
“You should get the rest of the messages, key parts are missing,” He said during the meeting. “You are only taking what is presented from this group.”
“This whole thing is fueled by people who wanted pornography in the library, people upset over a church split, and a group that has attacked me for three years,” Mayor Blankenship continued. “I want to focus on the positive things.”
Although the censure will not affect Blankenship’s ability to serve, Kamerer said there is a promising benefit to this situation.
“It was a good opportunity for the citizens to know where the five council members stand if they believe it should be governed by threats or intimidation or if public officials should be held to a higher standard,” Kamerer said.
Both the mayor and the citizens say they hope they can move on now and focus on positive things in the area.
