The former Martinsville city manager logged more than $15,000 on a city-issued credit card for which forensic auditors could find no business purpose, among the many findings in a review that has spurred sweeping changes. Aretha Ferrell-Benavides was fired from her city manager’s job in August 2025 for alleged violations of various policies and unsatisfactory job performance. In return, she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defending her performance and charging discrimination. The forensic audit from Brown Edwards in Roanoke examined credit card purchases from Ferrell-Benavides and city employees, the city’s budget amendment process and hiring practices. The 46-page document is available on the city’s website. The manager’s credit card charges cover expenses ranging from hotel rooms to Uber rides. The audit says it shows “inadequate or non-existent internal controls as there are transactions that are in direct violation of the City’s purchasing card policy.”

A pending trial to remove Martinsville’s mayor from office represents a rarity in Virginia. The complex case, which court documents label as “quasi-criminal” in character, could be the first time in decades that a jury in the commonwealth has decided a city mayor’s fate. Coincidentally, the vice mayor in Purcellville faces a similar hearing this week. A judge in Martinsville will hear motions Tuesday, including one from suspended Mayor L.C. Jones, asking to dismiss the case with prejudice and order that any related criminal investigation be terminated. Virginia has a law that centers on removing elected and some appointed officials from their offices through public petitions to civil courts. Many petitions have circulated, but few have led to trial. The last time was 1953, in a case that pitted Virginia Beach petitioners against their sheriff. The last mayor to be ousted via jury was Roanoke’s, in 1911.

The three-day trial to determine whether Purcellville Vice Mayor Carl “Ben” Nett should be removed from office began Monday in Loudoun County Circuit Court with three hours of jury selection, an hour of opening arguments and one and a half hours of witness testimony. The petition to remove Nett from office was submitted last April by Purcellville residents amid concerns that Nett had violated Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, acted incompetently misused his office, neglected his duty, and violated conflict of interest laws.

Mickey Barker, a blogger with a small following on Facebook, went to the Oceanfront on Saturday night to document the city’s curfew. The 41-year-old Hampton man walked slowly down Atlantic Avenue, recording with his iPhone and looking for people to interview. Though he knew the Virginia Beach City Council exempted “members of the press” from the curfew, Barker wanted to see if police would grant free rein to a self-described “independent journalist.”