Ozark Mayor Mark Blankenship, who in 2023 faced censure from his city council, lost Tuesday to challenger Charles Ward, director of public safety.
Blankenship got just 30 percent of the vote after a term marked by his continued turbulent exchanges with citizens, particularly Bryant Fontenot, that led to his 2023 censure.
The 2023 censure vote was 3-2 and the two council members who voted against censure, Leah Harlow and Stanley Emfinger, were also defeated at the polls on Tuesday in favor of Caitlyn Cummings and Bryan Macario.
Blankenship’s troubles began in 2023 after he threatened to defund the Ozark-Dale County Public Library if it did not remove all LGBTQ+ books from the teen section, leading resident Adam Kamerer to initiate a public records request of the mayor and library board’s text messages to library director Karen Speck. Blankenship threatened to sue Kamerer over the public records request.
Bryant Fontenot and other citizens took issue with Blankenship’s threats against a citizen and a months-long feud between Fontenot and Blankenship led to Blankenship ultimately publishing a text message between Fontenot and another individual on city letterhead and distributing it at a council meeting.
That was the final straw for the city council members, who answered the calls of citizens to censure Blankenship with Council President Brenda Simechak casting the tie-breaking vote.
