Former Purcellville Town Council Member Susan Khalil, who abruptly resigned from the council on Aug. 5, has provided the following statement explaining her decision to step down. Because of the circumstances surrounding her resignation and the issues she raises, the Blue Ridge Leader is publishing her statement in its entirety:

“On August 5, I made the painful decision to resign my seat on the Purcellville Town Council. Before I explain why, there is something I need to say first.

Thank you.

Thank you to the residents who placed their confidence in me and gave me the extraordinary privilege of representing you. I have never forgotten that my seat on the Town Council belonged not to me, but to you.

For the past year and a half, I have poured my heart and soul into that responsibility.

I did not run for office because I wanted to be a politician. I ran because I have loved Purcellville for the 26 years I have lived here. I care deeply about the people who live here because I know, like me, most of them moved here to raise their families in what appeared to be a safe and affordable option to other areas of Loudoun County.  Our town appeared to be at risk of losing its small-town charm and it was rapidly becoming more expensive to live here.  I believed residents deserved someone at the table who would ask hard questions, study the details and remember whose money we were spending.

I took that responsibility especially seriously during the budget process. 

I spent months going through the budget—line by line, expense by expense—because every dollar the Town spends ultimately comes from someone who worked for it. A family paying a mortgage. A senior citizen living on a fixed income. A small-business owner trying to keep the doors open. A parent wondering how much more expensive life can become.

Those numbers were never just numbers to me. They represented you.

I worked hard to keep our budget aligned with our priorities and to prevent spending from ballooning beyond what I believed our residents could reasonably afford. I questioned expenditures. I read. I researched. I listened. I sometimes agonized over individual words because I understood that decisions made at Town Hall have consequences outside its walls.

I tried with everything I had to do this job well. But there is another side of public service that most residents never see.

Like most parents, I have taught my children that you do not back down from bullies. You stand up for what you believe is right. You do not surrender simply because someone shouts louder, becomes more aggressive, threatens or tries to intimidate you. But there is a difference between standing strong and allowing yourself to be destroyed by bullies.

Over time, the political environment surrounding the Town Council became something I no longer recognized as healthy disagreement.

I expected disagreement. I expected criticism. What I never expected was the relentless personal hostility—the ridicule, the intimidation, the yelling, the screaming, the obscenities and the calculated effort to tear my colleagues and me down simply because we stood in the way of the minority’s political agenda.

And what the public has witnessed is only part of what I experienced.

I have had a view of this Council that very few people have had because some of the most disturbing moments occurred when the cameras were not rolling and the public was not watching. Behind closed doors, I experienced conduct from members of the Council minority that I found bullying, threatening and unconscionable.

There were moments when I walked away shaken and fearful. It was difficult to shield the people closest to me from also carrying the weight of this chaos.  All attempts I made to shield my loved ones were counteracted by the relentless, numerous social media sites with their continuous distortion campaigns. 

I kept telling myself that I had been elected to do a job and that I owed it to our residents who trusted me not to quit when things became difficult.

So I showed up. I prepared. I read the documents. I cast the votes. I kept trying.

But somewhere along the way, public service stopped being about honest disagreements over budgets, growth, utilities and the future of Purcellville. It became consumed by a political struggle in which power seemed to matter more than governing and in which virtually every effort became another battlefield.

I have also watched disputes involving this Town repeatedly move into the courts. It is my personal belief that the criminal justice system and the threat of litigation have been used by political opponents and their allies in ways that have frustrated and obstructed the work this Council majority was elected to accomplish. 

Through it all, I kept trying to do the job I was elected to do. But eventually, I had to acknowledge what this was doing to me and to the people I love.

There have been too many tears behind closed doors. Too many nights carrying home the ugliness of Town politics. Too many moments wondering how something that began with a sincere desire to serve my neighbors could become so painful.

I never entered public service seeking political power or a political future. I am a mother, a neighbor and a resident of this town who stepped forward because I believed I could make a difference.

I believed public service could be difficult without being cruel. I believed Council meetings could be about governing, not opportunities for ridicule and mockery. I believed people could disagree passionately without trying to tear one another down or spreading things that simply were not true. 

I believed we could fight over ideas without destroying people and their livelihoods through relentless litigation. 

To those who supported me, encouraged me, prayed for me, sent me a kind word or simply stopped me somewhere in town and told me to keep going, thank you.

You will never know how much those moments meant, particularly on the days when I wondered whether I had anything left to give.

I studied the issues. I guarded our tax dollars. I asked difficult questions. I stood for what I believed was right. When I cast a vote, I did so with the residents of Purcellville in my heart.

It saddens me greatly that I could not finish the term you entrusted to me. For that, I am deeply sorry to our community and to Mayor Chris Bertaut, Vice Mayor Ben Nett and Council Member Carol Luke.

Walking away does not mean the bullies won. It means I decided that no elected office is worth what this one had come to cost me and the people I love.

Whatever pain came with serving, nothing will ever diminish my gratitude for the trust you placed in me or the privilege of serving this community.”