By Ava Tallat-Kelpsa
A Glasgow resident who waged an unsuccessful attempt to oust the mayor is now running as a write-in candidate for town council.
In August, Mary Beth Reynolds, 42, the owner of Color by Mary hair salon, created a petition to oust Glasgow Mayor Paul Williams, citing concerns about how meetings are run. However, the petition failed.
Now, she’s trying to join town council and make change herself.
“I’ve been to every citizen’s house more than once and I’m getting ready to double back,” Reynolds said. “They see me fighting for them and I kind of feel confident.”
Since July, Reynolds and her friend Cynthia “Sissy” Steelman, a Natural Bridge resident and past employee of Glasgow, have expressed concerns about the way Glasgow Town Council meetings are run. They have also questioned the government’s priorities.
They said they were upset the council was removing community events such as Toys 4 Tots and Trunk-or-Treat. They said the council also stopped giving donations to the Concerned Citizens of Glasgow, a community group. They also expressed frustration over a reduced number of music concerts in town, saying they had been cut from four a year to two.
In addition, they said they are concerned about several financial issues. They say there hasn’t been an audit since 2019, that residents’ water bills are inconsistent, and that the officials are trying to remove the town charter from 1892.
Glasgow Town Council member Brandall Branch said there are no actual plans to remove the town charter.
Branch said that the water bill they are referring to was based on the bill from an individual who had an unexpected leak in their house, causing their water bill to be too high. Regarding the removal of funding for multiple community events, he said: “We’re working with no money. We’re not trying to hurt our citizens.”
At town meetings, Reynolds said, community members are often silenced and have not been able to get answers. Reynolds and her supporters have expressed concerns about the defunding of community events and questions about the audits and budgets during meetings; but they said they haven’t been given responses.
Williams said Reynolds’ concerns don’t provide the full picture. Reynolds and other concerned residents had questions about the budget, he said, but only raised them at a meeting after it had already been approved. Williams said he added a public comment period at town council meetings because of the tension, as well as the increased number of attendees.
“People get up now and say what they want, but they got mad because I didn’t let them talk at that one meeting,” Williams said.
Looking for an alternate way to address her concerns, Reynolds and Steelman chose to create the petition.
“He fails to run a meeting properly, he violates our First Amendment right by not letting us speak he just interrupts,” said Steelman.
The petition failed after Rockbridge County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jared Moon recommended to the county circuit court that reasons behind it were insufficient.
Williams said that he wasn’t nervous about this petition.
“I had done nothing criminally wrong and that’s what it takes to be removed,” he said. “Just because you don’t like me doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to want to get rid of me.”
Williams and Branch said they think the petition and uproar over how town council meetings are run is the result of a vendetta held by Steelman, who previously worked as Glasgow’s director of finance.
“Once I left the town, I left the town,” Steelman said. “This is in no way a vendetta. This is helping out Mary, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”
Reynolds said she decided to run for council so she can address issues that weren’t being discussed enough at council. She said she didn’t want to run for mayor because he is not up for re-election until next year – and the mayor only votes on issues in a tiebreaker.
Reynolds has a criminal record and has faced criminal charges in the past, including identity fraud, receiving stolen goods, and drug charges, according to online court records.
In 2007, she was sentenced to five years in prison. She ultimately served five months, with the rest of the sentence suspended. She was placed on supervised probation for four years. Her probation was later reduced by a year and eight months.
She said these moments are in the past and she has moved forward.
“I’ve had eight kids since and I’ve been down to all kinds of roads since that,” Reynolds said. “And I had to go to Richmond and explain these charges and tell them how I’m a different person. I’m not ashamed of it.”