This letter is in regards to the article regarding Buckley’s Council member Ron Smith and his appalling social media posts (“Buckley city counselor, retired SPD officer responds to report over his social media posts,” published Nov. 3).

Not only is Mr. Smith less than contrite over these racist toned posts, he excuses them by such answers as “this was late at night after a few drinks,” and “I was just pissed off.” He also claims that these posts “have no bearing on my ability to represent” — I guess if you are Caucasian and Christian, you may agree with that statement. I doubt that people of color would be quite so forgiving.

Mr. Smith also claims that he has “represented each and every person in this town equally.” Many people didn’t feel that way after his long anti-vaccination/mask mandate rant at the Sept. 14 Buckley City Council meeting. One of his quotes was he was “sitting here in a mask for no reason.” Nor was his “Hell Yeah!” response to a photo of an illegal campaign banner on City property this year. It seems that he just can’t control himself from making less than inflammatory remarks about groups of people that he just doesn’t agree with.

What Mr. Smith neglects to mention when he is claiming this was all in the past during his time with the SPD is that many incidents took place in 2019 when he was also on the Buckley City Council. We elect people to be our community representative. These posts have no place in an elected official’s resumé.

Mr. Smith has embarrassed our town and has directly fanned the flames of racist rhetoric to the point where the only reasonable thing to do is to immediately resign his post as City Councilor. We deserve better from our elected officials.

Richard O’Neill

Buckley