Biloxi gets surprise ‘audit’ from a controversial YouTube group. Here’s what happened.

A Biloxi City Hall staffer has found herself the city’s ambassador to an unlikely audience: thousands of libertarians on YouTube.

On March 3, Cecilia Dobbs Walton, a public affairs specialist for the city and Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich, was in her office when she saw a man roaming the hallways of the City Hall building with a camera in hand. Assuming he was a tourist, Dobbs Walton offered him a tour of the building.

What she didn’t know was that the visitor, George Metz, was a YouTube star with 77,000 subscribers — and he was there to see whether Dobbs Walton and the rest of the City Hall staff would object to his activities.

Metz runs Rogue Nation and belongs to a growing online subculture devoted to testing officials’ respect for the First Amendment by visiting public buildings to film government employees at work — and often end up harassed or even arrested.

These visits are called “audits,” and Metz says there are hundreds of “First Amendment auditors” on YouTube. Metz told the Sun Herald he has been “tossed out of buildings physically” and “arrested twice in Florida, once in Georgia, and once in Alabama” while conducting audits.

Biloxi passes online test

In the parlance of the online community, an audit that is met with no such resistance is called a “pass.” Metz’s 38-minute video is titled “Epic Pass!!” — and the 262 commenters seemed to agree with the title’s verdict.

“This should be the template for all government agencies for how to behave when being audited,” wrote one commenter.

One commenter called Dobbs Walton “a completely helpful angel” and another described her as “a delightful woman, and a shining example to public servants.”

“This was one of the best audits I’ve ever seen. It makes me want to visit Biloxi,” wrote another.

Metz, for his part, told the Sun Herald the welcome he got from Dobbs Walton was refreshing and “a total 180 from what I’m used to seeing.”

“She took the time to show me around and give me a little history about what the building was about,” he said.

Dobbs Walton said she gave Metz the same tour she gives any visitor to the building. Since taking the public relations job in the mayor’s office, Dobbs Walton has boned up on Biloxi history by talking to local historians and studied the history of the building.

On the tour, she took Metz to the City Council’s meeting room on the third floor, described the histories behind paintings by Coast artists — including an original George Ohr she said Gilich discovered in storage — and let him out through a window onto a balcony still strewn with Mardi Gras beads.

Construction on City Hall was completed in 1908, and the building has survived the intervening century almost exactly intact. Dobbs Walton told the Sun Herald she finds it “pretty cool and pretty remarkable for a building as old as it is and located on the Gulf Coast, a block or two from the Gulf, to be able to still be here and still be in that basic layout.”

Metz, a self-described history buff, said he enjoyed the architectural history Dobbs Walton sprinkled into the tour.

Positive remarks about the Coast city

After the video was published on March 11, the city started hearing about the reception her tour had gotten from callers and emails and on social media.

The news even reached the mayor, earning Dobbs Walton a note of praise from her boss.

“The mayor did watch it and the mayor said that he’s pleased with the video,” she said.

Dobbs Walton said her job is to promote Biloxi rather than occupy the spotlight herself.

“I am proud of how the public viewed it and the positive comments that were made regarding the city of Biloxi. That was great to hear,” she said.

Metz was so impressed that he had a suggestion for his tour guide.

“If the mayor ever retires, she should run for his seat,” he told the Sun Herald.

What does Dobbs Walton think of this idea? “Mayor Gilich does an amazing job and I am happy to working for him,” she responded in a text.