Smithsburg Ethics Complaint is Why I Prefer Reporting on Issues not People, and an Apology to Mayor Souders (Opinion)

I’d like to clear the air here a little. I never wanted to report on the Mayor of Smithsburg and the Flying Boxcars game tickets issue. The only reason I did so is because I feel, as a news outlet, it is our duty to keep government accountable and ensure that any actions which could potentially be influential of an elected official’s duties as a public servant be properly examined. This is in fact the same reason I have reported on incidents such as Commissioner Barr suing an activist for $10 million. And while I did write a factual article regarding this matter, clarifying that Mayor Souders has been cleared of all wrongdoing, I felt it important to further address this specific issue, which has quite honestly bothered me ever since I wrote the article.

I was skeptical when I was approached with the story in the first place, as I am typically skeptical any time someone comes to us with a story like this. In fact, we for every story like this one we publish, we’ve probably turned away ten more due to lack of verifiable information. The only reason we ran this story at all, is because the initial facts checked out.

After reading the Smithsburg ethics code, and looking at the social media posts showing the Mayor and a Council Member had been to the Antietam Broadband suite at the Boxcars game, I knew I had to run it, because the facts of the matter are true and already available to the public – the Mayor did accept tickets from an employee of Antietam Broadband, and they were in the process of renewing Antietam Broadband’s franchise agreement, as well as considering the agreement for a competitor, Comcast. And while this raised potential ethical questions, fortunately the Ethics Commission ruled this was not a violation as the Commission ruled that they do not believe the tickets were viewed by Mayor Souders as intended to influence business between Smithsburg and Antietam, and that they do not believe the value of the tickets exceeded $20.00. Because fortunately, the context is that Mayor Souders did not solicit the tickets from Antietam Broadband, and viewed the tickets as coming from a personal friend, and not as coming from Antietam Broadband. Therefore, there was no violation.

So why did we run the story? Because it’s a matter several community members approached us about, and we verified based upon available information. Had the matter not already been made available to the community through posts by Mayor Souders and Susan Grimes from Antietam Broadband, we would not have ran the story at all. However, as members of the community were already asking the questions as to why an Account Executive with Antietam Broadband was giving private suite tickets to the Mayor and a Council Member, which were posted publicly on the Mayor’s official town social media account, it was our duty to properly cover them. Flying Boxcars general admission tickets only cost $8.00 each – far below the minimum, and had the Antietam suite not been mentioned, the tone of our story would likely have been much different, pointing out that Boxcars general admission tickets were far below the $20.00 permissible gift threshold. Yes, the inclusion of that one word, “suite”, in fact dictated the entire tone and course of that article.

Now, many outlets would simply write an updated article, make a note on the original as a correction, and move on. However, not only did I want to take this time to apologize to Mayor Souders, but I think it’s absolutely serendipitous that this announcement coincides with our announcement to provide hyper-focused news for Smithsburg, focusing on community news and events. And I’m very happy to see that this issue closes as a new opportunity to help provide better community growth for Smithsburg opens, and honestly I couldn’t think of a better outcome.

But as I stated, I also want to apologize to Mayor Souders and Councilmember Fritsch, because I absolutely hated writing that article in the first place. While it kept the community informed and helped answer the questions we were being asked, it really didn’t help move things forward in the town. The facts of the matter were accurately reported, but lacked key context. I have never had anything against Mayor Souders, nor any local elected officials for that matter. So why did we only report on the incident but not file the ethics complaint ourselves? Because it’s our job to report the story, not be part of the story. I do regret that we didn’t insist the person reporting the story to us file an ethics complaint before we reported it, and that has been set as new policy for future stories of this nature. Simply put, our standing policy was wrong, and it is now being corrected. I also regret that this story was likely in part due to our standing policy not to reach out regarding matters like this, because of past incident in November of 2022 where doing so with Washington County Public Schools resulted in the inadvertent termination of our email provider. Prior to this policy, we had previously reached out to the Town of Smithsburg regarding other matters of concern – concerns they quickly addressed for the betterment of the community. That policy is now under reconsideration for better execution.

Did you know Radio Free Hub City currently has an Open Meeting Act complaint and a Public Information Act request with the Ombudsman for mediation regarding another local government? No? Do you know why you haven’t heard about that? Because it’s an action we’re involved in, and therefore not our place to report on. Now, should that complaint and mediation request come back with information that is newsworthy, we’ll report that information.

Honestly, I hate writing about people, because I find it’s counterproductive, just like the current drama between Shaun Porter, Justin Holder, and the County Commissioners is counterproductive. To illustrate how counterproductive this drama is, simply watch the last few County Commissioner meetings and note how there has been no allowed public comment. We need to focus more on policies and events, and less on the elected officials.

At the end of the day, I think we all want what’s best for our communities. The difficulty is finding a path we can all agree on, and finding a way to work together to do it. I absolutely admire Mayor Souders’ attitude in this matter, and it’s the attitude of a true leader in the face of adversity.

I sincerely do apologize to Mayor Souders and Councilmember Fritsch if either believed that our previous coverage was anything personal against them. It wasn’t, and I’m glad to see it came to the resolution it did. Furthermore, I look forward to working with Mayor Souders and the rest of Smithsburg to enhance their local news coverage and build a better community. We are investing significantly into Smithsburg, and are looking forward to working with elected officials willing to do the same.

I think it’s important to note that recently we were under attack by a political activist questioning our “journalistic standards”. I want to be clear, if we find out we didn’t cover a story properly, or there’s an important update to a story, we’ll fix it and make it right, and I hope that this proves how committed we are to that.

So in closing, Mayor Souders and Councilmember Fritsch, I do apologize if any of our previous coverage came across as a personal attack against you, and I look forward to working with you to keep Smithsburg residents informed and help build more positive coverage for the town and its events.

You name the place and time, and your drinks are on me. Up to $20.00 worth of course.

Article by Ken Buckler, President and Editor of Radio Free Hub City. All opinions are his own, and do not reflect those of our clients or sponsors.

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