A pastor in Oneida County is asking Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente to apologize for comments he made in a press briefing, but the county executive says he has nothing to apologize for.

Bethel Baptist Church Pastor Cecil Morris says his church has taken many pandemic precautions; from knocking down walls to make classrooms larger for social distancing to designating door holders.

Morris was shocked when he realized Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente was referring to him in a September press briefing.

"Numerous exposures and quarantines throughout a community because of the branches that this one individual has led to. It's that type of carelessness, it's that type of negligence that we have to avoid," Picente said in the briefing.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I remember thinking, 'How do I recover from this?'," Morris said.

Picente said an individual was to blame for exposing and infecting multiple people including children after the person ignored symptoms, was active in the community, and refused to provide names for contact tracing.

Picente said the person was with Bethel Baptist Church, a father, and an assistant football coach.

"It was more shaming of me so that was the biggest concern, the fact that he pointed in so many directions without saying my name and then when one of the reporters asked if he was talking about Bethel Baptist Church, he said, 'Yes.' Well, when you take all the things that he put in place, there was nobody else but me to be," said Morris.

Morris has since identified himself as the individual.

Picente says sharing the information was appropriate as the county has been naming places of potential exposures.

"That one had the potential, it closed the school for a week which really probably didn't have to take place but because we didn't know the names of the students, and because it kept trickling in after," Picente said.

Morris says he initially thought his symptoms were allergies, and the symptoms had gone away but came back after a few days.

He says his family did give names for contact tracing until it involved church members.

"Whether you're in a synogue or you're in a mosque, you have that right to worship without people knowing where you're at, especially the government, and so that's why we didn't do it. It's not like we're anti-government. It's there for a reason," said Morris.

Morris says his family told church members about the exposure, and shared the county's contact information.

Since the press briefing, he says his family has been threatened, and church members have been denied business at some places.

Morris wants Picente to apologize for the comments he made in the press briefing.

"I'm not sure what I have to apologize for. I've done my job. My job is to protect this community in a state of emergency," Picente said.

"I would just like to see us get past this and embrace each other, love each other, and realize people that are getting sick aren't doing it on purpose," Morris said.

Morris says he's retained an attorney, but would rather not pursue litigation.