Comments for Political Sausage | Eastern NC Now

Washington has a brazen liar for a city manager, who wantonly lied to the citizens when he claimed that the city had not imposed a tax increase this year. In truth, the manager's budget, adopted by a rubber stamp city council, gave city taxpayers a whopping 28% tax increase.

In revaluation years like this one, state law calculates a "revenue neutral" rate, one that would produce the same amount of revenue as the old tax rate based on the increased value of property. Any tax rate above that revenue neutral rate is, by state law as well as by the reality of what taxpayers have to pay, a tax increase.

The county adopted the revenue neutral rate for this year's taxes based on the rate calculated by state law. The City of Washington adopted a rate 28% above the revenue neutral rate. That is a massive tax increase.

Washington's city government is in a sad state of affairs. Not only does the city manager exercise way too much power for a bureaucrat, but the city council is a patheric joke. They are nothing but rubber stamps for Mayor Sadler, nothing but weak "yes men". Between the manager and the mayor, Washington has a Tammany Hall style government.

But the city manager had better watch out. Sadler would love to get rid of him so he can hire the city's first black city manager. With Sadler, it is as much about race as it is about power.

Commented: Sunday, August 3rd, 2025 @ 8:35 am By: Concerned Taxpayer

Why isnt this widely advertised?

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Commented: Friday, July 25th, 2025 @ 1:28 pm By: Washingtonian

Everyone, I had no idea this level of malfeasance existed in the Beaufort County Schools.

Commented: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 @ 4:44 pm By: Richard Marvin Butkus

Yes Bubba,
As you correctly wrote: "Too many of our school board members seem to be little more than rubber stamps / puppets for our very liberal superintendent Cheeseman. That is pathetic."

This puppet/rubber stamp scenario exist for the City of Washington as well. Our entire City Council & the bureaucrats that work for them are mere mindless puppets doing the bidding of the City Manager.

When Hood wrote: "Sometimes, with zoning, there comes corruption, favoritism and huge expensive bureaucracies to administer the favoritism and corruption." I thought he must be talking about the City of Washington. No, they wont see the error of their ways because they are too ignorant & lazy to understand their own responsibilities to the public. I'll bet you not one of them have read the zoning rules posted on their own City website.

Vote wisely.

Commented: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 @ 2:00 pm By: Washingtonian

Didn't Carolyn Walker and Daniel Hudson both give Cheeseman the votes he needed to close the school in Aurora? Seems like that bought a promotion for one’s daughter and a better report card for the other’s. Cronyism, nepotism, corruption much? Maybe the coincidental timing just make the optics look bad. It really does stink to high heaven…better watch your step and lift your trouser legs if you walk near the BCS bunch.

Commented: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 @ 1:40 pm By: Nelson Lambert

I find it hard to believe that the members of the School Board didn’t realize filling the District Six seat was a partisan issue. The School Board elections have been partisan races for the past two election cycles and all current members have had to run in a partisan election to win their current seat. An outdated policy, whether they read it or not, would not have been a reasonable excuse to anyone with common sense to not understand how the process worked. This is especially true considering some of the board serve on the county Republican Executive Committee or attend the meetings.

What is more concerning is the lack of ethics or outright corruption. The example mentioned at the end of the article seems to be a violation of the NC Open Meetings Law (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-318.11) which covers what can and can’t be discussed in closed sessions by the board. Furthermore, cronyism and nepotism are forms of corruption. North Carolina has regulations and policies in place to prevent abuses associated with nepotism and cronyism which are designed to ensure fairness and prevent abuses of public trust. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any higher-level oversight of what is transpiring in Beaufort County. The only recourse left to the people is to vote out the guilty parties in the next election.

Commented: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 @ 12:33 pm By: David Hudson

Game....set....match!

Following this most recent professional wrestling event, the public trust in any of these a**hats should be abysmal. This is some rinky dink Mickey Mouse crap here, folks. You can't make it up!

I bet Cheeseman's hindparts tightened up when heard three words: 1. Rader 2. School 3. Board

Maybe Rader will help bring more charter schools into the county and stimulate involvement with surrounding counties to make this a "win win" for everybody?

Commented: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 @ 5:05 pm By: John Valley

I'm hoping the people that go to church with some of these politicians & govt people, are seeing how dishonest they are, and are learning not to vote for them.

Commented: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 @ 3:56 pm By: Washingtonian

The superintendent and his handpicked out of town leftwing school board attorney, who is chairman of the Durham County Democrat Party, seems to have left this policy totally out of date where it left a Republican seat potentially vulnerable. Both of them have some responsibility for this situation. Someone needs to be held accountable. Whether this was intentional or just incompetence, someone needs to pay the price.

The superintendent also seems to have sat on the resignation letter for an inordinate amount of time. Why did he do that?

Commented: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 @ 12:28 pm By: Conservative Voter

I did not realize that this level of subterfuge existed in doing what needed to be done - the rightful selection of a school board member. It was an absolute oddity that we (I was a voting member) had to meet on a Sunday afternoon, being told "time was running out."

Additionally, what I find odd from Commissioner Richardson's report here is this: If the BCS administration was too afraid to pass on a letter of resignation without the the vacationing Superintendent's consent: Why did they not just call him for that consent?

Furthermore, that these bureaucrats, not on vacation, did not act as is the dictates of the NC general statutes, call the Superintendent to acquire the affirmation to act is troubling, which suggests a staggering level of incapability.

Is it any wonder that this same bureaucracy did not order a very necessary title search on a specific property before beginning a $52,000,000.00 construction project on said property?

Commented: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 @ 7:06 am By: Stan Deatherage