Pencille has proven to be a fighter for the community, showing great integrity

Posted 5 November 2017 at 7:27 am

Editor:

I just finished reading the letter written by Andina Barone in which she attacked Shelby Supervisor Write-In Candidate Wendi Pencille. I am literally dumbfounded and angry on so many levels with Ms. Barone’s letter.

That she calls someone like Wendi Pencille a liar and pathological? On the very eve of an election? It is morally reprehensible. And whether you support Houseknecht for Supervisor, or plan to write in Wendi Pencille’s name for Supervisor, you too should be angry. How dare someone malign and mischaracterize a person so many of us know and respect as someone of great integrity?

Maybe you got to know Wendi when you found a bird with a broken wing, and someone told you she was the person to call, because she was a trained wildlife rehabilitator. Maybe you’ve seen her at Board of Education meetings as one of our elected members. Maybe your kids marched together at the Carrier Dome last weekend.

As for Pencille supposedly being a liar for calling herself President of Citizens for Shelby Preservation? And saying it wasn’t a properly registered corporate entity? Hate to break it to you, Ms Barone, but in Shelby, we don’t set up duly registered corporate entities when we do things as a community. In our part of the world, we meet up in places like fire halls and living rooms to brainstorm ways to fight things like 300-plus truck traffic daily on Fletcher Chapel and Route 63 through the swamps.

Here we are, days before an election, and such a letter is published…everyone should be outraged. How dare Ms. Barone?

I know that my neighbors respect both candidates. And they are both respectable, offering differing perspectives. Yet the Supervisor race is an important one, right now in time, because of the very real threat that Frontier Stone poses to our community. Just two weeks ago, they filed in court against Shelby because we dared to pass the Wildlife Overlay District and they think we should not be allowed to do so. In Wendi Pencille, we know for a fact where she stands: ready to fight.

Barone pens a letter that attacks Pencille up one side and down the other, and then ends by asking if she is morally fit for office…it begs the question: Is Barone angrily defending her own quack letter about how great Frontier Stone is? Or is she trying her darnest to swing an election?

Ms. Barone cited her workplace, Mindful Media Group, a couple times in her letter. So I looked it up. Right on the homepage, after the section about developing and enhancing the careers of Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award members? Here’s what it says:

“Time and again, we have shaped public perception to align with our clients’ strategic plans.”

Shaped public perception? Like we’re going to toss everything we know firsthand about our friend and neighbor because some glitzy PR firm told us to? I think not.

Hey Shelby. Let’s send a great big NOT THIS TIME message to Frontier Stone. Write in Wendi Pencille for Shelby Supervisor. And do so knowing that we have a David in her, and Goliath may as well pack his bags. No matter how much money he throws around, and no matter how many slick lawyers he hires, no matter how dirty he plays.

Sincerely,

Karen L. Jones

Shelby