They should be ashamed | Eastern North Carolina Now

For Immediate release:

    Our County Commissioners have decided to move forward with spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars without a referendum on the issue. The reason they give is that ‘the voters won’t vote to approve a jail”. I have said before, I am not for or against the building of a jail, I am against the path they are taking, they have failed to do the research and planning that would be standard when building even the smallest project. Several of the commissioners spent hours reading about the companies bidding on the design and risk management of the jail, without a fraction of that amount of time being spent on asking the court system, sheriff’s office and gettig taxpayers’ opinion. They’re going to build a jail, just for the sake of saying they built one. Two things I would like to bring to their attention while they consider spending all of this money. Number one, the NC Constitution says in “Article V, Section 4 "Limitations upon the increase of local government debt, paragraph 2 Authorized purposes; two-thirds limitation. The General Assembly shall have no power to authorize any county, city or town, special district, or other unit of local government to contract debts secured by a pledge of its faith and credit unless approved by a majority of the qualified voters of the unit who vote thereon," Number two, the oath of office commissioners take reads: "I, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States; that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the State of North Carolina, and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof; and that I will endeavor to support, maintain and defend the Constitution of said State, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of my knowledge and ability; so help me God." The commissioner’s total disregard for both of these is astonishing. Another problem with this process is that this project should be a thirty year or more plan. By failing to properly evaluate the actual need the commissioners are leaving open the very likely possibility that they will either over or under build. Either way it will cost the taxpayers more. Now if we over build and at some point in the future if they under build.

    Just this Christmas I built a doghouse for my granddaughters little boarder terrier. My wife and I along with my son and granddaughter spent several days deciding what would be the right material, type of roofing, looked on the internet for what would be right for a dog that size, took into consideration the local temperature, evaluated the location that it would be placed on and considered what the final elevation should be so the house would stay dry and rot free. In the end we have a very nice little doghouse that will serve its occupant well for his lifetime. My total cost was less than $300.00. The point here is we spent less than .001% of what the commissioners are thinking about spending on the jail, but we spent more time on the design and construction process then the commissioners have on the jail requirements.

    They should be embarrassed and ashamed. The county commissioners should become familiar with the words of Calvin Coolidge who said “A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.”