Public Speaking, Be Careful, it Shows What You Don't Know | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post appears courtest of both Hood Richardson and the County Compass.

    Three people showed up at the March Beaufort County Commissioners meeting to show us how brilliant they are. I once heard a man say "My mother always told my sibling to keep its mouth shut so people would not know how little she actually knew". I am giving that advice to Kathy Vasquez, Larry Britt and Helen Eckman. It is not enough to bray about an issue or, in this case, a couple of County Commissioners. You have to know something. Your uninformed opinion and dislike for Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage is not enough to sway the public. Liberal Larry Britt should have learned this two years ago when his opinions brought him in dead last in the Commissioner primary. Larry, like Eckman and Vasuquez, has never let the facts get in the way of his emotions.

    You probably have observed that I do not intend to be nice to the three stooges in this article. I have tried nice with them in the past. It has not worked. They were so wrong at the March Commissioner's meeting that the commissioners should pass an ordinance requiring them never to speak in public again or to at least have a knowledgeable person to edit their presentation.

    Kathy Vasquez spoke first. She spoke from her emotional inter self. Had she have done some research into the facts she would never have embarrassed herself. She presented more than three minutes of false information. She criticized the petition for a referendum on the jail as being un-audited and then admitted she signed the petition even though she is for building a new jail. She claimed she signed because of free speech. The petition had nothing to do with free speech. The petition was to have an issue put on the ballot. However, there is no provision in North Carolina law for any issue to go on the ballot based on petition. Every person in Beaufort County or the State of North Carolina could sign a petition and the issue would not go on the ballot unless either the legislature or the county commissioners voted to put it on the ballot. We are not California where citizen petitions can get some really weird issues on the ballot if enough people sign. The petition was asking commissioners by a majority vote to put the jail issue on the ballot. Commissioner Al Klem, in his infinite wisdom, has already said the jail issue will not go on the ballot because the voters will never pass it. Commissioner Klem voted to build a new jail.

    Kathy Vasquez goes on to show us how knowledgeable she is by saying only the legislature could put it on the ballot and that would cost hundreds of thousand if not millions of dollars. Kathy, the simple truth is the county commissioners by a simple majority vote can put any issue we want on the ballot. The cost is almost nothing because we already have a fixed cost doing the November election. She goes on to mis-inform the public by saying there was no time remaining to get the issue on this years ballot. Kathy, I am sorry to have to fill your head with factual information but the jail can be placed on the ballot right up until the ballots are printed which will be August or September of this year.

    Vasquez tells us the jail is unsafe and if anything happens it will cost us millions. She gives no specifics. She does not say whether it is unsafe for jailers, inmates or both. The jail has been there for about 40 years and we have had no eye popping law suits based on hurt inmates or jailers. Kathy, we have insurance policies to cover our loss should there be damage claims. Those insurance companies would not insure us if we had risky unsafe conditions. Kathy let me help your thinking just a little. Jails are full of criminals. There are no safe jails.

    Vasquez makes, yet another outlandish statement. She talks about deaths in the jail from a fire. The floor is concrete, the ceiling is steel, all walls are concrete, the bars are steel. Only the fire resistant mattresses can burn. The recent electrical fire produced smoke and we handled the situation. Smoke inhalation usually kills people when there is a lot of available fuel and a limited effort at rescue. There is very little to burn and the fire department is two blocks away.

    Next we get Helen Eckman, a resident of Cypress Landing, Helen Eckman is a member of the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee. She is opposed to anything Republican Hood Richardson is supporting. She is a member of the liberal Republican Club headed by Larry Britt and the ultimate RINO (Republican In Name Only) Al Klemm. Helen Eckman clearly says she supports the building of a new jail and sheriff's offices. She tells us her reasons are that both the jail and sheriff's offices are inadequate and have poor conditions. Eckman has no facts to support these statements. I guess everyone has at least one opinion. Some people have more than one ----opinion. She implies both the jail and sheriff's office will continue to nickel and dime us to death. Again she has no examples or facts to support her opinion. Her statement about bricks falling off the building is false.

    Eckman, like Vasquez never bothered to get the facts. Her giant opinion ego is dominant. The nickel and dimeing thing . The $700,000 the county spent puts the jail in good condition for another five years. The only reason we had a problem to begin with was Sheriff Alan Jordan was not maintaining the jail, was not having plumbing repaired and had not tested the emergency power generator for more than a year. It was disconnected and he did not know it. I found, yes Helen, I, Hood Richardson found a company to sell us those $1,200 valves for less than 50 dollars. Helen did you ever stop to consider all those stories you are being told are not true. I guess, living in your simple ego driven world, no one ever lies.

    Let us talk about those leaking windows in the sheriff's building. Those people who want a new sheriff's office are praying for another hurricane like Irene so the building will flood again. Then they can tell us how bad it is. I, on the other hand, have put and will keep this issue on the agenda until the windows are repaired. Gosh, this sounds like Alan Jordan not making repairs in the jail so he can get a new jail. Does anyone see a pattern of deceit.

    Eckman is blinded to the facts. Her liberal Republican values are close to liberal Democrat values, just raise taxes and throw some money at it. We sure solved our poverty, education and drug problems that way, didn't we?

    The last speaker, the cleanup hitter, the equal to the ultimate RINO Al Klem, then came to the podium, liberal Larry Britt. When liberal Larry was chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party, he spent most of his time writing letters about Republican Commissioners Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage being bad commissioners. He used the party machinery to support liberal Republicans and maintain the split in the party. He supported the background that led to Ashley Woolard, Bill Tarpenning and Greg Dority trying to install the Democrat Arthur Williams as the new Republican leader not just in Beaufort County but in several counties in eastern North Carolina. RINO Larry invited Democrat Sheriff Alan Jordan to speak at the liberal Republican Club. That is how liberal Larry and Al Klemm and Eckman knew we need a new jail.
Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson making himself perfectly clear: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage

    Liberal Larry tried to use that old saw "He was for it before he was against it" argument against me. Liberal Larry opened the door for the truth to come out. I was appointed to serve on the jail committee. The purpose of this committee was to determine whether or not we needed a new jail. Early on, during the very first committee meeting , Jerry Langley stated we need to find a suitable site to build a new court house at the same place we built the new jail. No studies had bee done to determine whether or not we even needed a new jail but we were going to also build a new court house. I strenuously objected. No other members of the committee objected. All those judges and lawyers just sat there.

    I knew I had a serious fight on my hands. A jail, court house, magistrates offices, sheriff's offices and court house could cost as much as 40 or 50 million dollars. It all came down to where the jail, if needed, would be built. Bear in mind that Beaufort County has never, to this day, had a study done by a disinterested third party to determine whether or not we need a new jail. During the past one and one half years enough information has been extracted (mostly by force) to determine that we do not need a new jail. I knew that if the jail were built behind the court house, we would not be moving government out of the City Washington.

    I also knew the same people who would design the new jail were providing all the information to justify the need for a new jail. I determined there were a lot of holes in that information. There was no fairness in this situation.

    Liberal Larry, you have never heard me say we need a new jail. You have heard me say if a new jail were built, it should be behind the court house. Because we are dealing with three spend thrift Democrats and the ultimate RINO Al Klem to whom facts mean nothing., I broke the jail into a two part problem. Larry, I know you are terrified of two part problems. The two parts are the location of any jail to be built, and the need for a new jail.

    Liberal Larry, since moving to Beaufort County you have done a good job of being on the liberal side of every Republican issue and of keeping a fight going among the members of the Republican Executive Committee. Your legacy is that you have totally failed to make a positive contribution to anything in Beaufort County. I suspect you have a long history of being unhappy with any one who can do a better job at anything than you can do.

    My advice to the three stooges is to be careful of what you say in public because you are showing just how smart your really are. If you look presentable, are polite and never say anything, no one will know how bad your ability to reason really is. If you take this advice, you can fool new comers to Beaufort County.

poll#49
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!

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