Campbell County Commission chairman claims group conspired to take him down

GILLETTE —Campbell County Commission Chairman Del Shelstad claimed that a fellow commissioner and a county resident are conspiring to take him down.

“Cancel culture has infiltrated this board, and that’s sad,” he said. “I’ve seen it in the last four and five years.”

Earlier this month, Commissioner Rusty Bell sent out an email with screenshots showing Shelstad and Commissioner Colleen Faber, along with two library board members, as members of the Wyoming MassResistance Facebook group.

Shelstad claimed he received threatening text messages from Tex McBride in late November.

He added that there was a meeting at a local restaurant where the “topic of discussion was taking Del and Colleen down,” and that Commissioner Rusty Bell was there.

“A woman who didn’t identify herself who was in that meeting told me about it,” he said Wednesday.

Shelstad said “it was very unethical” that Bell was there and that he feels he’s been “stabbed in the back.”

“I never would’ve done that to him in a million years,” Shelstad said.

McBride said he did send messages to Shelstad, but that there weren’t any threats made.

“There weren’t any physical threats,” McBride said. “I told him he was going to be held accountable for his actions.”

He said there were 11 people in that meeting Shelstad was referring to, and Bell was there for 10 minutes.

Shelstad said Bell told him he was there but that he was not part of that group. Shelstad said he found this similar to the situation where Bell outed him as a member of the Wyoming MassResistance Facebook group.

“He didn’t give me that benefit of the doubt. I won’t give him the benefit of the doubt,” Shelstad said.

Shelstad brought up that McBride has legally had his name changed.

“I find it unfortunate that the commissioner would rather make a personal attack rather than argue on the issues,” McBride said.

He added that Shelstad is “embellishing” the story and “playing the victim” because he doesn’t have a good position to defend” himself.

“It sounds like he’s opposed to anyone who stands up against his clamoring for more control and authority in Campbell County,” McBride said.

The commission went into executive session to talk about the two board members. Shelstad said they were in there for five minutes, and no action was taken afterward.

Bonita Perrson said she was the one who sent the screenshots to Bell. She did this because she was “disturbed” that two commissioners and two library board members were part of a Facebook group “that is distasteful and does not represent Campbell County.”

She said Gillette doesn’t need a group like MassResistance.

“Many parents in this community who do not want the books moved,” she said. “I don’t want my children censored in any way.”

She said she’s “completely open about this stuff,” but added that “when we go into the library, I hold my child’s hand.”

For a solution, Perrson cited Wyoming law on parental rights, which states that “the liberty of a parent to the care, custody and control of their child is a fundamental right that resides first in the parent.”

“The state, or any agency or political subdivision of the state, shall not infringe the

parental right as provided under this section without demonstrating that the interest of the government as applied to the parent or child is a compelling state interest addressed by the least restrictive means,” state statute reads.

“Can’t we all stand behind that?” Perrson asked.

Retired librarian Sue Knesel said the current library board “seems to be on a witch hunt to straighten out the library.”

“I feel that you believe it’s an indoctrination association and against whatever community standards we’re under right now,” she said.

Sisti said there is “a huge difference” between MassResistance and Wyoming MassResistance, and attempts to connect the two are a “sleight of hand” trick meant to confuse people.

“Wyoming MassResistance is a local grassroots group made up of many constituents of the county commissioners, which gives both Faber and Shelstad the right to communicate with any members of Wyoming MassResistance, and by doing so, are fulfilling their due diligence,” he said. “Anything else would be dereliction of their duties.”

He pointed out that the screenshots were taken from the Wyoming MassResistance group, not MassResistance.

“How about that?” he asked.

Ben Decker said he is the administrator of the Wyoming MassResistance Facebook group. When someone joins a group, he does not know that person’s motivation for doing so. He called Bell’s actions “pathetic.”

Knesel said whether someone is part of the national group or the local group, it’s “embarrassing … to know that Campbell County is seen as the poster child for the national MassResistance.”

She said the group is trying to keep Gillette from moving forward.

“This whole issue about moving the books, I feel like I’m going back to the 1960s, when [these types of] books were in public libraries locked up,” she said.

“Maybe some things were better in the 60s,” Decker said.

Mark Junek said he wouldn’t allow his young grandson to go in the library alone. And his wife, Patty Junek, said that this movement is not coming from a silent minority.

“Sometimes the silent majority finds their voice, and it’s creating havoc in the status quo,” she said.

Some library board members have said they don’t feel respected by library staff and certain members of the community.

Dallas Remy said it’s easy to see why, based on the board’s actions in the past several months, from voting to have no connection with the ALA to changing the library’s mission statement to include the phrase “community standards.”

“You’ve belittled their education and devotion to serving this community by spreading the lie that the library is involved in a nefarious plot of abuse and indoctrination,” Remy said.

“This board will need to change course or at some point, this community may not have a library,” he added.

Hannah VanHoff said she trusts the librarians to not put pornography in places where children can reach it, and that books with sexual education materials are not the problem.

“These books are not going to turn children gay; they’re not going to give children perversions,” she said.