Transcription (edited for clarity):
Good evening. My name is Josh Shields.
I’m a town resident, local co- business owner, keeper of inflatable minions, community advocate, volunteer, legitimate veteran, and also the named Director of the Citizens of Purcellville political action committee, which was recently featured in an opposition op-ed in the Blue Ridge Leader.
Apparently, we’ve made some waves because we’ve now been targeted. We did respond with a formal statement on Friday which can be found on our own website, but I wanted to make that available to any public that may be watching.
For the past 18 months, I and many other residents have become more and more engaged in town politics as we watch this mayor and allied members of this town council continually take actions which hurt our town, breach the trust of citizens, demoralize our staff, and set our town on a course off of a financial cliff. last week’s Blue Ridge Leader article and several of their supporters online have called into question my own personal motives and bias as well as that of Citizens for Purcellville efforts.
I will make no effort to hide my disdain for the actions that this council has taken over the past 18 months. However, I and those who have
joined our coalition of citizens as well as our donors feel that we don’t need to spin any information to justify our cause. Nor do I need to create
falsehoods and other misinformation to convince voters towards one candidate or another.
Rather, we can let the facts stand alone. To that end, we are working hard to bring digestible information to the public.
Our statements and posts will ALWAYS be backed up with evidence, supporting documents, straightforward claims, video that supports what we publish. We have posted over 500 pages worth of legal documents obtained from the county court, the federal court, and FOIA requests through the town at CitizensForPurcellville.org.
On Thursday at 7 p.m., we will be hosting a candidate forum at Purcellville Baptist Church.
Because we immediately expected opposition and claims of bias, we took great care at in the planning stage to create a forum that is neutral and fair. We have invited all candidates and hope that you will show up, mayor, along with your slate.
No candidate is given an unfair advantage. A highly respected, award-winning teacher is serving as the moderator. We have offered the opportunity for local high school students to be involved in writing the questions. And we have offered with every candidate the opportunity to address any concerns or issues they may have.
Despite numerous attempts to contact candidates, four of them have failed to do so.
Thank you.
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