He Said, We Checked: 10 Lies in 25 Minutes

To the citizens of Warren County,

Rich Jamieson sat from the dais and read from a prepared statement for almost 25 minutes—a statement packed with lies.

He said Samuels Library is already privatized. Lie.
He said all the assets inside the library belong to the County. Lie.
He said Samuels took COVID relief money they didn’t need. Lie, and an insult.
He said Samuels mismanaged the construction funds and lied about the numbers to cover it up. Lie.
He said Samuels refused to be transparent, even though they’ve been submitting reports for over a year. Lie.
He said the nonprofit changed its legal documents just to block public oversight. Lie.
He said the County already owns everything because of a charitable trust. Lie.
He said federal law requires Samuels to hand over control. Lie.
He said the County has no choice but to take the money and walk away. Lie.
And his appointed Library Board Chair said nonprofit libraries are illegal under the Dillon Rule. Also a lie.

So we’re going to set the record straight, one lie at a time.

LIE #1: “Samuels Library is already privatized.”

That’s not how words work. Samuels is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a public mission, a volunteer board, and oversight already built in. Just not the kind Jamieson personally controls. Being a nonprofit isn’t the same as being private. And running a public library under contract, with public access, in a public building, doesn’t make it a private library. That’s like saying the volunteer fire department is a for-profit business because they’re not County employees. It’s nonsense.

Jamieson is trying to confuse people into thinking Samuels is some rogue corporation. But if he really believed that, he wouldn’t be offering them a contract and negotiating terms. You don’t negotiate with rogue actors. You call the police. Samuels is exactly what it’s always been: a public-private partnership the County now wants to control.

LIE #2: “All the assets inside the library belong to the County.”

Wrong. The 2008 Lease Agreement spells it out: “All furniture, furnishings, equipment, and other items of personal property placed in or upon the premises by the Lessee shall remain the property of the Lessee and may be removed by the Lessee at any time.”

That means the books, furniture, computers, and supplies all belong to Samuels Library Inc., not the County. That’s not just a lease term. It’s standard nonprofit law. The library raised those funds from the community, wrote the grants, and bought those materials legally under its own 501(c)(3) status. If the County wanted ownership, they should have written it into the lease 17 years ago. They didn’t. Now they’re trying to rewrite history and the law.

LIE #3: “Samuels took COVID relief money they didn’t need.”

Jamieson is referring to the $138,700 PPP loan Samuels received in 2020 to keep staff employed during the pandemic. These loans were legal, documented, and forgiven under federal rules. And Samuels wasn’t alone. Libraries, fire departments, food banks, and schools across the country used PPP to survive.

At the time, people were being laid off, unemployment was soaring, and donations to nonprofits had nearly dried up. The PPP money helped cover payroll, which freed up the library’s limited operational funds to pay for emergency expenses the County didn’t cover, like masks, sanitizer, air filters, cleaning supplies, and digital services. That’s what the program was designed for, and it worked.

Calling it fraud is reckless. If disaster aid disqualifies you from future funding, then every agency that got emergency relief should be defunded next.

LIE #4: “Samuels mismanaged the construction funds, and lied about the numbers to cover it.”

Between 2009 and 2012, the County transferred $6.4 million to Samuels to help build the new library. It wasn’t hidden. It was approved by the Board and documented in County records.

Jamieson says there was a 28 percent overrun. What he leaves out is that the base construction bid was just over $5 million. The rest covered architecture, engineering, site prep, permits, and inspections. That’s standard for public construction, and Samuels submitted audits and IRS filings every year showing where the money went.

He’s cherry-picking numbers to stir up outrage. But the County approved the project, reviewed the numbers, and renewed the partnership. Samuels has served this County for 225 years, over 70 as a nonprofit, and 25 under a lease-based agreement. There’s no scandal here. Just lies.

LIE #5: “Samuels refused to be transparent.”
False. The County and Samuels signed a new MOA in 2023 requiring monthly budget reports and full financial transparency. Samuels has complied, submitting reports since late 2024 and holding their FY25 request flat at $1.024 million.
Jamieson also claimed Samuels “accepted” the legitimacy of the Warren County Library Board by dropping their lawsuit. That is false. The suit was withdrawn to conserve resources, not because the Library Board was valid. Samuels’ legal counsel made clear from the start that the WCLB ordinance violated nonprofit law and tried to rewrite the lease, which is why they refused to meet with them.
The issue isn’t transparency. It is control. What Jamieson resents is that Samuels didn’t submit to a Library Board packed with book-banning appointees, a board the nonprofit never agreed to be governed by.
Transparency means sharing information, not surrendering independence.

LIE #6: “Samuels changed its documents to block public oversight.”

What actually happened is this. In early 2025, Samuels amended its Articles of Incorporation to remove “Warren County” as the named beneficiary in its dissolution clause. That change came after the County formed the Warren County Library Board, demanded asset transfers, and began laying the groundwork to seize the nonprofit’s collection and governance.

That’s not blocking oversight. That’s defending against a hostile takeover.

The rest of the Articles didn’t change. The purpose of the organization is still to serve the people of Warren County. That’s why it exists. Samuels didn’t violate the law. They protected their charter, their mission, and the people who rely on them.

LIE #7: “The County owns everything anyway because of charitable trust law.”

This one is the biggest lie of them all.

Jamieson says that because public money went into the library, the County owns the assets under Virginia’s charitable trust doctrine. That’s not how any of this works.

Samuels Library Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and it holds title to its own assets. That includes donations, books, computers, grants, and even its endowment. The charitable trust doctrine doesn’t mean the government owns it if it helped fund it. It means the nonprofit has to use those funds for the charitable purpose they were given for. Samuels has done exactly that, with audits to prove it.

LIE #8: “Federal law requires Samuels to submit to government control.”

That’s not true. And it’s not what the IRS says either.

Jamieson quotes IRS Publication 557 and Section 501(c)(3) to claim that public charities must submit to public governance. But the law says the opposite. A nonprofit must be free from private control. Public oversight is allowed, but not required. And certainly not through a board the nonprofit didn’t create or agree to be governed by.

There is no law that says a 501(c)(3) library must hand over its board, assets, or operations to a local government. In fact, doing so could violate nonprofit law, especially when it conflicts with the organization’s charter and independence. Samuels has legal counsel for a reason. And they’ve been advised this move by the County would breach federal standards, not reinforce them.

LIE #9: “The County has no legal choice but to walk away.”

Jamieson claimed the law is clear, said the County need not waste taxpayer money on litigation, and declared there’s no legal requirement to keep working with the library. Then he issued a list of demands: full financial control, total asset ownership, and expanded government governance. He gave Samuels an ultimatum. Agree, or lose funding entirely. He even proposed where to send the library’s budget if they refuse.

That’s coercion.

The truth is, the County could still negotiate. They could rescind the ordinance, dissolve the book-banning Library Board they created, and sit down with Samuels in good faith. They chose not to. And instead of admitting that, Jamieson sat up there and pretended the law forced his hand.

LIE #10: “The Dillon Rule means Samuels has to be government-run.”

This claim is being pushed by Eric Belk, Chair of the Warren County Library Board.

Belk has publicly argued that under the Dillon Rule, libraries must be government-run and that nonprofit models like Samuels are illegal. That’s false. And it’s not how the law works.

The Dillon Rule limits what local governments can do. It doesn’t give them the power to seize or control independent nonprofits. It says counties can only act when the state expressly allows it. It restricts government overreach. It doesn’t force it.

Virginia has over two dozen nonprofit-run public libraries just like Samuels, operating legally with public funding under long-term leases. Samuels has followed that model for 25 years. It’s legal. It’s transparent. And it saves taxpayers money. Belk’s claim that this setup is unlawful is completely ridiculous.

His logic would make every one of those libraries, in cities and counties across Virginia, illegal. So why is he only coming after ours?

Because this was never about the Dillon Rule. It was about control.

Belk wants you to believe the only way to protect taxpayer dollars is to let government boards like his take over your community institutions. But that’s not conservative. That’s government bloat dressed up as accountability.

Real conservatives don’t expand government just to get their way. They believe in small government, private solutions, and local control. Not political appointees censoring books, micromanaging nonprofits, and calling it oversight.

And Warren County voters agree.

The Bottom Line

The voters saw through it and overwhelmingly rejected the candidates who pushed this agenda. In the June primary, it wasn’t Democrats who delivered that message. It was Republicans. Loud and clear.

If you believe in small government, this should bother you.
If you believe in contracts that mean something, in nonprofits serving the public without being bullied into submission, this should infuriate you.

Because this was never about the library doing something wrong.
It was about the County demanding more power than the law gives them.
And they still haven’t stopped.

Warren County deserves better.

Kris Nelson
Warren County, VA

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