The Facebook Files: “Neighbors First” Is Blocking the Neighbors

How Platte County officeholders running as the listen-to-your-neighbors slate handle neighbors who ask questions — General Election, November 3, 2026

#Unbothered#PeaceOverDrama#MovingOn#benice#BoundariesMatter

Four candidates are on Platte County’s November ballot as the “Neighbors First” slate — their brand, in their own words, is “neighbors before political parties.” On their own Facebook pages, the record shows something different: a sitting county officeholder publicly announcing that he blocks constituents from the page he uses to talk to voters — and closing the announcement with “#Unbothered.” The post is reproduced below, unedited.

The Post

In August 2026, sitting Platte County Treasurer Chris Kendall — running for re-election on the Neighbors First slate — posted the following on his campaign page, “Chris Kendall for Platte County Treasurer”:

Exhibit A — Kendall campaign page, August 2026

Facebook post by Chris Kendall for Platte County Treasurer announcing he has blocked users from the page, with hashtags #benice #BoundariesMatter #PeaceOverDrama #Unbothered #MovingOn

“Unfortunately I have had to block a couple of users from this page. While I am completely open to answering questions asked in good faith and love having civil discussions, I will not tolerate users who are simply using the platform to harass myself and others. Again, I encourage good faith questions and will gladly engage in correspondence with anyone! #benice #BoundariesMatter #PeaceOverDrama #Unbothered #MovingOn”

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Why a Facebook Block by an Officeholder Is Different

When a private citizen blocks someone on Facebook, that’s their business. When a sitting elected official does it on the page he uses to discuss his office, his record, and his candidacy, something else happens: a resident of the county loses the ability to see, question, or respond to anything that official posts there — not just the exchange that prompted the block, but everything after it.

Kendall is not a private citizen. He is the sitting Platte County Treasurer, asking voters this November to return him to an office responsible for the county’s money.
The block, by his own description, was his response to users whose conduct he characterizes as harassment — a characterization the blocked residents have no way to answer on the page, because they can no longer post there.
The hashtags he attached — “#PeaceOverDrama #Unbothered #MovingOn” — are his own framing of the decision, in his own words.

The legal backdrop

In Lindke v. Freed (2024), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public official who blocks a critic on social media can violate the First Amendment where the official has authority to speak for the government and is purporting to exercise it in the page’s posts. Whether that test reaches any particular page is a question for the courts — but it is exactly the kind of question a sitting officeholder invites when he blocks constituents and posts about it.

Source: Lindke v. Freed, 601 U.S. 187 (2024) — opinion, supremecourt.gov

Not an Isolated Account

Kendall’s post is simply the one member of the slate saying it out loud. Residents report the same practice across the rest of the “Neighbors First” ticket: blocking by the pages of Dale Brouk (candidate for Presiding Commissioner), sitting Auditor Kevin Robinson, and Collector candidate Holly Cayer has been reported as well — accounts that now span all four members of the slate. Those accounts are being documented; as verified screenshots are preserved, they will be added to this page as further exhibits.

The bottom line

A slate that named itself “Neighbors First” has a sitting officeholder publicly announcing — with an “#Unbothered” hashtag — that he’s blocking the neighbors. Whatever the merits of any individual block, the posture is the tell: officials who respond to hard questions by removing the people asking them, then congratulating themselves for it. That isn’t “neighbors before political parties.” It’s insiders before critics.

Have You Been Blocked?

If you are a Platte County resident and have been blocked by the page of any sitting officeholder or candidate — Neighbors First or otherwise:

Preserve the evidence first. Screenshot the block itself (the “you can’t reply to this conversation” or hidden-comments state), the post or comment that preceded it, and the page name and date. Do this before anything else — posts get deleted.
Note what you asked. A record of the question that got you blocked is often the most telling document of all.
Share it. Provide your documentation to any of the candidates running against the officials involved, to local press, or — if you believe your rights were violated — to an attorney familiar with Lindke v. Freed.

Who Are “Neighbors First”?

“Neighbors First” is a four-candidate slate on Platte County’s November 2026 ballot: Dale Brouk (Presiding Commissioner), Kevin Robinson (Auditor, incumbent), Chris Kendall (Treasurer, incumbent), and Holly Cayer (Collector). Their pitch, in their own press release: a break from “party leadership influence… and wealthy donors from out of state,” putting “neighbors before political parties.” Line their words up against the record:

Their claim: a break from “party leadership influence… and wealthy donors from out of state.” The record: Brouk’s donor base is 44% real estate/development and banking money, with 21% from Kansas residents, plus a direct $350 payment to the PACE chamber itself.
Their claim: “neighbors before political parties.” The record: all four failed the basic due diligence of filing their own financial disclosures, then withdrew from the primary moments before a commission vote that would have disqualified them — dodging both that vote and a primary they were unlikely to win. The party’s censure came after, as a consequence of the dodge, not the reason for it.
Their claim: broad support across “Republicans, Democrats, and independents.” The record: Brouk and Robinson met privately with Democratic candidate Mary McKenna and a state legislator on June 11 — cross-party insider coordination, not organic grassroots support.
Their claim: fresh faces walking the walk. The record: two of the four are sitting county officeholders, one is a two-decade chamber/developer-board insider, and the fourth is a 15-year staffer in the very office she wants to run.
And the raise they voted themselves: on November 6, 2025, Platte County’s salary commission voted 6–4 to raise elected-official base pay roughly 30%, to $100,305 for most positions — the same budget cycle county employees received 2.5%. Robinson and Kendall both voted yes on their own raise, and both begin collecting it only if voters re-elect them this November.

Key takeaway

Neighbors First isn’t four outsiders who found each other. It’s the same insider institution — elected-official insiders, developer-network insiders, and office-staff insiders — that couldn’t handle the basic due diligence of its own paperwork, ran from a primary it was set to lose, got censured by its own party for the dodge, and voted itself a 30% raise while county employees got 2.5%. And when neighbors ask about any of it on Facebook, the reports say the same thing happens on every one of their pages: block, and move on. #Unbothered.

More on This Site

The post reproduced above is Chris Kendall’s own public statement, published on his public campaign page and quoted verbatim; the screenshot is unaltered. Reports of blocking by other pages are resident accounts under documentation, identified as such, and will be published here only as they are verified. Nothing on this page alleges that any block was unlawful; whether any particular block violates the First Amendment is a determination only a court can make. This page is informational.