Boldly Committed to Truth Telling in the False Face of Fakery
Ever had a jail crammed down your throat before?
Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer, as well as the print version of The County Compass. It is an older article (over 30 days), but it is so relative to the topic of the day, and it is so hugely popular in terms of views that I just had to move it to the top of the heap.
While most Beaufort County voters are concerned about the way the new 20 million dollar jail experience has unfolded, I am not sure they know what the plan is. This jail will be constructed using the same blunt instrument that was used to cram the 40 million dollar school bond, the 200 million dollar road to no where (US 17 Bypass), the $267,000 gift to Agape Health, and the pay out for lawsuit settlement with the school board that kept some of our sitting commissioners from being prosecuted. And the same cram that gave away a fifty million dollar hospital for a promise that has already been broken. The Gang of Four believes this process will work again because it worked so well in the examples mentioned in the preceding sentence. Beaufort County citizens have big throats and they have taken it before with no immediate consequences. All of the culprits who ran were re-elected..
The cram down works like this. The Gang of Four approved the hand-picked architect at the January commissioners meeting. The site has already been selected. The architect prepares the plans and bids the job. The contract is awarded before the November 2014 elections. They must get this done before the November 2014 elections because Al Klemm, the RINO (Republican In Name Only) has promised not to run for re-election. I hope he keeps his promise. The other three members of the Gang of Four are Democrats: Jerry Langley, Robert Belcher and Ed Booth. Belcher and Langley do not run again until 2016. Ed Booth runs in 2014. His seat is considered safe because of the black block vote. Because there are likely less than ten votes in Beaufort County, outside of Al's Lemmings, to build a new jail, the odds are certain who ever replaces RINO Klemm will not be willing to vote to build a new jail.
Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson speaking to many of his constituents at the Candidates Forum, help on April 2, 2012 at Beaufort CountyCommunity College: Above. photo by Stan Deatherage
There is the possibility the new commissioner who replaces Al Klemm could be asked to vote to stop the new jail construction entirely. If that were to happen we would pay off the contractors and mark the whole idea of a jail at Chocowinity up to some really bad government.
Why would the majority of the commissioners consider doing something that appears to be so stupid as to stop building a new jail? There are a lot of good reasons. Three million six hundred thousand of them. We would immediately save 3.6 million dollars each year. We can keep our surplus prisoners in the Pitt County Jail for $400,000 per year and the new jail will cost us four million dollars each year in INCREASED operating expenses. So we save the 3.6 million.
The order signed by Judge Sermons does not require the building of a new jail. That idea was dreamed up by the Gang of Four. The court order requires that we provide a jail that meets the statutory requirements set out in the North Carolina General Statutes. Judges cannot order the building of anything. They can only require that we follow the law. A case was appealed within the past few years in which a Superior Court Judge ordered Alamance County to build him a new court house. The judge lost. The courts ruled that Alamance County only had to provide facilities to meet court room standards and they could do it any way they wanted to.
The jail we are using today meets the standards required by the law. Beaufort County has never had an order given by the State Jail Inspectors saying the jail was unfit for prisoners. When inspectors come two times each year they give us a list of deficiencies. What was discovered this year was the Sheriff had not been making repairs and keeping the jail in good condition. The jail inspectors knew this. Sheriff Jordan got caught with the two power outages. He had not been testing the back up system to make sure it would work. The system had been disconnected for more than one year without Sheriff Jordan even knowing it. During other jail inspections by commissioners we discovered the plumbing was not being repaired. Other deficiencies then began to surface. So the commissioners completely overhauled the jail during the time the electrical system was being repaired so there would be no question as to whether or not the jail is up to standard.
Alan Jordan, illegally kept commissioners and the public from inspecting the jail during the time the jail was not occupied because he did not want the public to see that he had not been doing his job. More importantly he did not want the public to see the excellent condition the jail was in after repairs were complete. Any reasonable person who saw the jail would question the need for a new jail.
Beaufort County citizens can expect a lot of the decision-making about the jail construction to be done behind closed doors. We've already seen that, in violation of the law. Already Commissioners Booth and Langley have strong objections to paying $250 each month to have the jail committee meeting filmed so the public can know what is going on. They fail to appreciate they are proposing to spend $20,000,000 for a jail south of Chocowinity and an additional $4,000,000 each year to operate it. All of this is taxpayer money. This amounts to a 15 percent tax increase. The issue is not the measly $250 when compared to millions they are spending. It is secrecy they covet. The new jail is so unpopular they simply do not want people to know how much of the public's money they are wasting.
In spite of the fact that the North Carolina Constitution says no county may borrow money that has to be paid back by the taxing authority of the county without a vote of the people, the current cram-down in proceeding without following Article V, Section 4 of the Constitution. Expect a law suit on that one.
Go Back
While most Beaufort County voters are concerned about the way the new 20 million dollar jail experience has unfolded, I am not sure they know what the plan is. This jail will be constructed using the same blunt instrument that was used to cram the 40 million dollar school bond, the 200 million dollar road to no where (US 17 Bypass), the $267,000 gift to Agape Health, and the pay out for lawsuit settlement with the school board that kept some of our sitting commissioners from being prosecuted. And the same cram that gave away a fifty million dollar hospital for a promise that has already been broken. The Gang of Four believes this process will work again because it worked so well in the examples mentioned in the preceding sentence. Beaufort County citizens have big throats and they have taken it before with no immediate consequences. All of the culprits who ran were re-elected..
The cram down works like this. The Gang of Four approved the hand-picked architect at the January commissioners meeting. The site has already been selected. The architect prepares the plans and bids the job. The contract is awarded before the November 2014 elections. They must get this done before the November 2014 elections because Al Klemm, the RINO (Republican In Name Only) has promised not to run for re-election. I hope he keeps his promise. The other three members of the Gang of Four are Democrats: Jerry Langley, Robert Belcher and Ed Booth. Belcher and Langley do not run again until 2016. Ed Booth runs in 2014. His seat is considered safe because of the black block vote. Because there are likely less than ten votes in Beaufort County, outside of Al's Lemmings, to build a new jail, the odds are certain who ever replaces RINO Klemm will not be willing to vote to build a new jail.
There is the possibility the new commissioner who replaces Al Klemm could be asked to vote to stop the new jail construction entirely. If that were to happen we would pay off the contractors and mark the whole idea of a jail at Chocowinity up to some really bad government.
Why would the majority of the commissioners consider doing something that appears to be so stupid as to stop building a new jail? There are a lot of good reasons. Three million six hundred thousand of them. We would immediately save 3.6 million dollars each year. We can keep our surplus prisoners in the Pitt County Jail for $400,000 per year and the new jail will cost us four million dollars each year in INCREASED operating expenses. So we save the 3.6 million.
The order signed by Judge Sermons does not require the building of a new jail. That idea was dreamed up by the Gang of Four. The court order requires that we provide a jail that meets the statutory requirements set out in the North Carolina General Statutes. Judges cannot order the building of anything. They can only require that we follow the law. A case was appealed within the past few years in which a Superior Court Judge ordered Alamance County to build him a new court house. The judge lost. The courts ruled that Alamance County only had to provide facilities to meet court room standards and they could do it any way they wanted to.
The jail we are using today meets the standards required by the law. Beaufort County has never had an order given by the State Jail Inspectors saying the jail was unfit for prisoners. When inspectors come two times each year they give us a list of deficiencies. What was discovered this year was the Sheriff had not been making repairs and keeping the jail in good condition. The jail inspectors knew this. Sheriff Jordan got caught with the two power outages. He had not been testing the back up system to make sure it would work. The system had been disconnected for more than one year without Sheriff Jordan even knowing it. During other jail inspections by commissioners we discovered the plumbing was not being repaired. Other deficiencies then began to surface. So the commissioners completely overhauled the jail during the time the electrical system was being repaired so there would be no question as to whether or not the jail is up to standard.
Alan Jordan, illegally kept commissioners and the public from inspecting the jail during the time the jail was not occupied because he did not want the public to see that he had not been doing his job. More importantly he did not want the public to see the excellent condition the jail was in after repairs were complete. Any reasonable person who saw the jail would question the need for a new jail.
Beaufort County citizens can expect a lot of the decision-making about the jail construction to be done behind closed doors. We've already seen that, in violation of the law. Already Commissioners Booth and Langley have strong objections to paying $250 each month to have the jail committee meeting filmed so the public can know what is going on. They fail to appreciate they are proposing to spend $20,000,000 for a jail south of Chocowinity and an additional $4,000,000 each year to operate it. All of this is taxpayer money. This amounts to a 15 percent tax increase. The issue is not the measly $250 when compared to millions they are spending. It is secrecy they covet. The new jail is so unpopular they simply do not want people to know how much of the public's money they are wasting.
In spite of the fact that the North Carolina Constitution says no county may borrow money that has to be paid back by the taxing authority of the county without a vote of the people, the current cram-down in proceeding without following Article V, Section 4 of the Constitution. Expect a law suit on that one.
Considering that Beaufort County may build a new jail /sheriff's office: What should be the best course?
7.51% Build a modern jail/S.O. in the southwest corner of the county
43.3% Build a modern jail/S.O. behind the courthouse in the county seat
49.2% Do not build a jail/S.O. anywhere
746 total vote(s) Voting has Ended!
Comments
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Must the lawsuit wait until the contract has been entered, or is that something that can be persued now? Also, if the BCSD was negligent with the maintenance of the jail, what consequences do the individuals responsible face? Surely the department answers to some authority capable of judgement. Who is that authority? An officer in our Military would be burned at the stake for an embarrassment like that. I'm not trying to deride our Sheriff's department. They seem to be competent enough given the articles about drug busts and violent offender arrests I've read, but to be ignorant of the sorry state of their own facilities, or worse, unwilling to remedy those facilities by way of regular inspections and maintenance speaks of either incompetence or outright malfeasance by way of negligence. In other words: someone should have been fired.
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If the sheriff is at fault only, then the voters are the truest, best firing mechanism.
Remember, the commissioners, and some of them drug kicking and screaming, began interjecting their slight authority to represent the taxpayer's interest in that jail when the prisoners were evacuated, and Hood has the political scares to prove it.
And then again, the Gang of Four may only be motivated only by the vision of building a new industrial jail 6 miles south of the county seat.