Gibson clerk said she’ll quit, claims harassment from a commissioner

GIBSON — A town clerk at Gibson threatened to resign and accused a sitting commissioner of sexual misconduct Thursday amid a chaotic monthly board meeting.

Peggy Smith, who works part-time in the role of clerk, made the accusation while commissioners discussed whether to give Elizabeth Anderson, who has been assisting Smith in clerk duties, a raise. At the previous meeting, commissioners considered having Anderson work on the days Smith was not present but both clerks said they felt “unsafe” working in the building alone.

“I really don’t think it’s safe for one person to be working there if I’m honest with you,” commissioner Adam Liles agreed. “I think there needs to be two people at all times.”

Throughout the discussion, Commissioner Ronnie Hudson asked Smith why the town did not have the funds to pay a maintenance worker yet had the funds to give Anderson a raise. He also said the town does not need “two clerks.”

During a heated exchange between Hudson and Smith, Smith accused Hudson of asking her to “lift up that shirt and let me see them puppies.”

Hudson then proceeded to lift his shirt and say, “There’s mine.”

“You think that’s appropriate behavior?” Smith asked Hudson.

Mayor Archie Herring called the act “inappropriate.”

“Ronnie, Peggy, please,” Herring said in a quest to bring order back to the meeting.

The exchange prompted Mayor Pro Tempore Eric Stubbs to call out the behavior of fellow commissioners at board meetings.

“Fussing at each other’s throats is not going to get anything done,” Stubbs said. “Either we can be a council that are at each other’s heads the whole time or we can get something done. But this back-and-forth crap, it’s going to stop.”

Commissioner Adam Liles said how the meetings in Gibson are conducted is something he does not see in other municipal boards throughout the county.

“It seems like Gibson just, we can’t have a meeting without crying or fussing or arguing about this and that and other whichever stuff, something our kids wouldn’t even do and if it doesn’t stop, I will — and I say this publically — I will resign off the board whether the council members like it or not,” Liles said.

Stubbs also encouraged Smith to report her claims formally.

“Peggy if you feel like you have been harrassed sexually then … We need to contact the state and see what we can get done about it. If you feel like that then I want you to be taken care of,” Stubbs said.

Hudson toward the end of the meeting partially denied the claims, saying it was a “lie.”

“That’s an outright lie. What I said to you before I got in there (in office) ain’t got nothing to do with now. I’m more than willing to take a lie detector test that I have never said nothing out the way to her since the day I was elected to office,” Hudson said.

Just a month ago, Hudson was stripped of his title of mayor pro tem by fellow board members after unilaterally directing town maintenance to remove benches from gravesites at Pinecrest Cemetary without permission from the board.

On Thursday, commissioners ultimately decided to give Anderson and the town’s maintenance worker a raise to $13 per hour.

Despite her threats, Smith remained present for the entire meeting.