BELLVILLE — Facebook drama became official business Tuesday night when Bellville’s village council voted 5-0 to approve a new social media policy.
The new policy clarified who can post on the village’s official social media pages, removing access from Mayor Teri Brenkus and other elected officials.
Per the ordinance, the village will use one centralized account per social media platform to communicate with residents.
Bellville’s fiscal officer, police chief and streets department superintendent will have access to village social media accounts. Management of the social media accounts and initiatives will primarily be the responsibility of the village administrator.
A copy of the village of Bellville’s new social media policy as obtained by the Mayor Brenkus Facebook page. 
A copy of the village of Bellville’s new social media policy as obtained by the Mayor Brenkus Facebook page. 
A copy of the village of Bellville’s new social media policy as obtained by the Mayor Brenkus Facebook page.
Brenkus has managed the Village of Bellville Facebook page since its inception in August 2020. It has approximately 2,100 followers.
After the legislation’s first reading last month, Brenkus called the then-proposed policy “a form of censorship.”
“I have enjoyed keeping you in-the-know (road closures, solicitors, mosquito spraying, updates on Village projects, water main breaks, etc),” Brenkus wrote on her Mayor Brenkus Facebook page.
“This is a social media policy that will severely diminish my communication/posts to our residents.”
Tuesday’s vote came after months of tension between the mayor and council members, who voted unanimously to request her resignation in March.
Nevertheless, council members denied allegations that the policy was a personal attack.
“It’s all elected officials,” said council member Jason Guilliams. “The mayor was not targeted.”
Guilliams said a Supreme Court ruling from March prompted conversations among council members on best practices for the village’s social media presence.
In Lindke v. Freed, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that if a public official posts deletes comments or blocking viewers or commenters — even on a personal social media page — it can be considered government action if the official has authority to speak on behalf of the government entity about the subject of the post and purports to exercise that authority through his or her social media activities, according to an analysis from law firm Lewis Rice.
The court has previously held that blocking or deleting comments on an official government social media page amounts to a First Amendment violation.
Guilliams said the policy is not in response to any wrongdoing by Brenkus or any other village employee, but a preventative measure.
“The government pages need to remain information-only and unbiased,” Guilliams said.
“By assigning (social media access) specifically to officers of the village, that ensures proper controls are in place to protect the village.”
Guilliams said restricting posting privileges to non-elected officials also ensures the policy can be enforced.
“Employees can be disciplined if they violate policy,” he said. “Elected officials cannot really be disciplined.”
The new policy takes effect at the end of July. Brenkus told council she intends to delete the Village of Bellville page rather than turn over administrator access.
Council members questioned that decision during a back-and-forth conversation that lasted nearly 20 minutes.
Brenkus told council that since she created the page and has operated it, it was her work and she wished to retain ownership of it.
“All the content that’s been added to that page, those are the pictures that I’ve taken on the weekends and the evenings,” she said.
“It’s my page. If you want a page, open it.”
Council member Deb Carver said that local citizens perceive the page as being the Village of Bellville’s. Guilliams argued that the page’s contents belong to the public.
Council president Justin Enix said Brenkus’ choice to remove the page felt like a way to “punish” village council.
“It was never your personal page. It was always the Village of Bellville’s page. I don’t understand what good that serves the residents by you deleting that,” he said.
“It’s hard for me not to take this as a way of trying to get even or trying to punish somebody for doing something you didn’t like.”
The new social media policy does not prohibit elected officials, other government employees or political candidates from operating personal or public social media pages.
Brenkus currently operates two other Facebook pages that share general information about the village of Bellville — Mayor Brenkus and Main Street Bellville.
Council asks for magistrate to preside over mayor’s court
Control of the village’s social media accounts wasn’t the only heated topic to emerge during Tuesday’s meeting.
Council also voted 5-0 to ask Brenkus to appoint a magistrate to preside over the Bellville Mayor’s Court.
A mayor’s court can only hear cases involving violations of local ordinances and state traffic laws, according to a 2019 report from the Ohio Supreme Court. It can be presided over either by the mayor or a mayor-appointed magistrate.
Brenkus has presided over the Bellville Mayor’s Court since she first took office in 2017.
Council’s vote to request a magistrate appointment aligned with the recommendation of village solicitors Sarah E. Exten and Robert J. Sharp III.
The pair issued a joint memorandum on June 30.
“Given the Mayor’s recent acts under the color of Executive Authority, it would not be proper for her to continue to preside as judicial officer over Bellville Mayor’s Court,” the memo stated.
“It is the joint recommendation of Civil and Criminal Solicitors that a Magistrate be appointed to the Mayor’s Court.”
Council member JJ Burkhart provided Richland Source with a list of concerns from council, which were emailed to Exten four days prior to the issuing of the memorandum.
They included:
- During a ride along with an officer, the mayor interfered with the officer’s business by asking him to turn on all his overhead lights rather than just the rear during a nighttime stop, causing the overhead lights to blind the oncoming car. The department’s standard operating procedure is to turn on just the rear overhead lights at night so as not to impair visibility for oncoming traffic.
- The mayor publicly stated that the Police Chief Jon Fletcher was behind the termination of the previous village administrator, Larry Weirich. (Brenkus denies this.)
- The mayor brought accusations and charges against Chief Fletcher regarding a cadet’s use of a Bellville Police cruiser while attending a police training academy outside village limits. Council dismissed the charged after a public hearing.
- The mayor contacted the cadet regarding the accusations and charges against the chief and conducted her own investigation.
- The mayor contacted an officer via text message and asked that they stop writing tickets for people driving on a closed road and that the tickets would all be dismissed. She then in turn dismissed all the tickets related to the road closure prior to the Mayor’s Court.
Brenkus said she dismissed about a dozen traffic tickets issued to drivers who drove past the road closure signs, positioned on the side of the road, while State Route 97 was closed for culvert replacements. She said she dismissed the tickets because motorists were inconsistently ticketed, with some drivers being penalized and others not.
Brenkus called council’s actions dirty politics” and said members are trying to diminish her authority.
“They’re using anything they possibly can to oust me from this position,” she said. “They can strip everything they want, but I’ll still be the mayor for the next three years.”
Enix will preside over Wednesday’s mayor’s court as Mayor Pro Tem. After that, the village police department will file citations with the Mansfield Municipal Court until a magistrate is appointed.
Until then, the village will lose out on revenue from mayor’s court. Fiscal Officer Amanda Perry estimated that the court generates between $56,000 and $58,000 in income for the village each year.
