On April 6, the same day three lawmakers were threatened with expulsion from Tennessee’s state legislature for their comments on the House floor denouncing gun violence, which followed a mass shooting in a Nashville elementary school, Seaside City Council considered whether to censure Councilmember Alex Miller regarding comments he made on social media regarding the vibrancy of Seaside’s downtown – or lack thereof.
At the center of both disputes was the constitutional right to free speech, and Miller’s post was far from incendiary. Miller posted a story about Maligne, a fine dining restaurant on Broadway that shut down but has since reopened with a more affordable menu. With the story, Miller wrote, in part: “It’s unfortunate the City Council is unwilling to hire a professional to allow one of our city commissions help with the revitalization. It appears our council is OK with businesses leaving, vacant buildings sitting and allowing boarded up buildings to sit untouched.”
Had it not been brought to the attention of the public, outside of Miller’s Facebook audience, it may have gone largely unnoticed. But instead, Seaside Mayor Ian Oglesby put on the agenda a discussion to potentially censure Miller – a formal reprimand, essentially, with no penalty.
“If we allow ourselves to keep talking about each other, where does it end?” Oglesby said.
“I’m talking about going forward,” he later continued. “Somebody could say something that’s really offensive, and then the wheels are off the bus, and I don’t want us to get there.”
And after two hours of discussion, where it quickly became clear a censure had no support, there was no motion made to censure Miller, so no vote was ever taken.
Miller says the whole thing was a waste of time, but is glad that during the back and forth, he was able to extract a promise from Oglesby to put a discussion about downtown on the next agenda.