To The Editor,

The Warrenton Board of Aldermen continues to amaze, as Alderwoman Cheryl Dyer has dug herself in deeper with responses to controversy on county road Sunnyside that don’t add up. (“Warrenton Aldermen Answer to Facebook Controversy”)

In the Sept. 23 Record article, Dyer referenced her Facebook post — “Too bad” — prior to the public hearing about opposition to the housing development in an attempt at humor at the public meeting: “The last time I uttered two words that caused this much distress was when I said, ‘I do.’ ”

Humor at a hearing is a tricky thing, especially if it could be heard as minimizing audience sentiment, thus pouring fuel onto the fire. No one was laughing.

To his credit, Alderman Scott Schultz struck a more respectful and conciliatory tone in what seemed to be a sincere apology for “liking” Dyer’s post.

On the other hand, Dyer doubled down, first saying she didn’t/doesn’t remember posting her comment on the Record Facebook page, where an ad about the Sunnyside issue was featured, before saying during the meeting that she felt like she was being targeted for simply exercising her First Amendment rights through the post.

She later said that she should have elaborated to say it’s “too bad” that rezoning of Sunnyside had developed into “nastiness, name-calling, rumors and false information.” Which is it? You don’t remember a controversial post, or you do remember and wish you’d modified it to be more direct about how you were leaning on the proposition before it got a proper public hearing?

To my knowledge and that of my neighbors, those opposing the development plan to enter and exit off Sunnyside have not, as Dyer claims, resorted to name-calling, and her reference to “nastiness” appears an emotionally charged term to discredit our community’s rights to vocally oppose encroachment of our rural area by this housing development.

It also tries to shift responsibility away from city leaders to suggest residents in this case are just troublemakers. As to “rumors and false information,” again Dyer uses inflammatory language to characterize what those in our community would recast as very little information coming from city leaders on plans for county ag acreage they annexed into the city for rezoning and development.

In the absence of meaningful communications with Sunnyside residents in the months leading up to the Sept. 15 public hearing, people did what people usually do: fill in the gaps with speculation. Don’t blame us for rumors and false information that city leaders themselves lit with the match of non-inclusion of our community earlier on.

That is, until the public hearing mid-September when after nearly three hours of community input, aldermen in only a half-minute overrode this feedback that was supposed to help guide decision making. This followed numerous requests for Aldermen Dyer and Schultz to recuse themselves from the vote after the social media controversy. They did not, nor was there any discussion among aldermen about this request.

Sunnyside is known as a great community where neighbors respect each other and our neighbors in town. It’s beyond disappointing that on top of the issue at hand — development off Sunnyside Road — city leaders continue to rationalize decisions that affect our community by blaming the victims.

J. Pilla

Warrenton