Gang of Four ignores appeal that they determine the legality of their jail funding plan | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Beaufort County Commissioners were put on notice Monday night: "Proceed as you're going and there will be a law suit..."

    Buzz Cayton, Chair of the Beaufort Patriot Tea Party, challenged the legality of the way the BOC majority is proceeding on the jail issue. He told them that there are serious legal issues about taking on debt that would have to be paid for from taxes without vote of the people and that the process used thus far has raised significant issues with regard to the Open Meetings Law. Cayton asked the board to get legal advice before spending any money on architects and construction manager. The board disregarded the appeal and voted later in the meeting along the same 4-3 split that has become routine on the issue to proceed as they had planned to do. We have more on that decision in a future report.

    Keith Kidwell, Chair of the Beaufort County Republican Party, also told the board that there are serious legal issues about how they are making decisions on the jail and appealed to them to back up and follow a systematic planning process based on solid data.

    You can hear both presentations in the video clip below of the Public Comment section of the meeting.

    Those voting to ignore the appeals and proceed were: Jerry Langley, Ed Booth, Robert Belcher, the Democrats on the board and nominal Republican Al Klemm, who has consistently voted with the Democrats on the issue. The three Republicans voting in opposition to negotiating a contract with an architect were: Gary Brinn, Stan Deatherage and Hood Richardson.