ABINGDON, Va. – A Glade Spring, Va., man filed a petition in Washington County Circuit Court Friday seeking to remove from office the member of the county Board of Supervisors who represents his district.
Bill Roop, whose construction of billboards in the county sparked a major controversy last year, says Supervisor Tom Taylor misused his office when he criticized the signs during a board meeting.
“As an elected official … he can’t disparage me, he can’t disparage businesses and people [in his district],” said Roop.
Taylor said Friday evening that he hadn’t seen the petition and he’d have to direct the issue to the county attorney before commenting.
“I guess it’ll go through the process,” he said.
Taylor’s billboard comments, made during a Jan. 8, 2008, board meeting, referenced the signs Roop installed along highways in the county and suggested a moratorium be placed on construction of billboards.
Discussion of proposed billboard ordinances was placed on a future meeting agenda, according to minutes from the meeting.
“Thank you, Mr. Roop, for all the ugly signs,” Taylor said at the meeting, according to a tape recording. “I don’t plan on doing business with anyone who has one of the signs on their property, and I may not do business with anybody that purchases advertising spots on the signs.”
Roop said it was inappropriate for Taylor to make the remarks in his official capacity as a board member. If he made them, it should have been as a private citizen, he said.
The document he filed, submitted with a petition he says was signed by 10 percent of the Monroe District’s registered voters, said Taylor made statements “facetious and derogatory in regards to Mr. Roop, his business and his personal property” and “condemning statements directed at business and property owners of Washington County for participating in the advancement of his legitimate business.”
Taylor said he hasn’t kept up with who has advertised on the signs to boycott them – but “in the heat of a moment people say things.”
Roop said as far as he knows such a removal from office has never been accomplished in Virginia, but his hope is that if Taylor is not removed from office by the court, it will be done by voters in the next election.
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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