On Aug. 3, Red Bank Commissioner Floy Pierce drove to City Hall, grabbed her mail and opened a thin envelope with no return address.
She found a one-page news article about Steven Brackett, a Chattanooga man investigated by the Secretary of State for taking donations for veterans.
According to the article, Brackett’s donations never actually were spent for food baskets or other promised support for veterans and he faces $140,000 in civil penalties. The words “Your Next” were scrawled underneath the article sent to Pierce, who is running for re-election.
It was one of two incidents that have made election season a little more stressful for Pierce, one of three city commissioners facing a $1.5 million “political conspiracy” lawsuit filed by ousted Red Bank police chief Larry Sneed.
Pierce declined to comment on the suit, but said the threats don’t scare her.
“Both incidents were scare tactics for me to not run again,” the two-term commissioner said. “I know what goes on behind the scenes. I’m fighting to keep taxes down and all that. It makes me feel I should run more than ever.”
Pierce’s challengers are Robert L. Perry and David Smith, according to the Hamilton County Election Commission website.
She also serves on several community boards in Red Bank, and some residents have questioned during commission meetings how she handles donated money.
“I could not make a decision to do whatever I wanted to do with the money,” she said. “That’s the board’s vote.”
Pierce said that a few hours after she received the letter, she had a strange encounter at a Red Bank commission meeting that also made her feel threatened.
As Pierce spoke with her opponent Smith, Red Bank resident Royce Burrage approached her and said several times that “it wasn’t over,” according to a Red Bank Police Department complaint. Burrage was “smiling while saying these things and stood extremely close,” the complaint states, but does not describe what “it” might be.
Mrs. Pierce said she felt “very threatened and intimidated, worried that this man might find her and hurt her.”
Burrage said he never violated Pierce’s personal space and denied sending the threatening letter, which is mentioned in the same complaint.
“I’m aware of the singular possessive ‘your’ and the contracted ‘you are, you’re,'” Burrage said Thursday. “I also know she’ll lose at the polls. I don’t feel like I need to scare her.”
At an Aug. 17 commission meeting, Pierce mentioned the threatening letter and the incident with Burrage. Mayor Joe Glasscock laughed before saying, “I’ve gotten about 10 of those in the last year.”
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