Chocowinity board votes to allow a new jail in the industrial park | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

Shuns calls for meeting school needs before jail needs

    Fifty-five minutes before the scheduled start of the Chocowinity Town Board meeting Tuesday (6-3-14) night an early arrival who planned to speak at the public hearing on a change in the zoning ordinance to allow for a new jail being built in the Industrial Park said: "This is going to be a railroad job. The usual Beaufort County backroom deal's already been cut." And sure enough, that's how it developed.

    It began with restricting the number of people allowed to be in the meeting room to the number usually allowed, in spite of the fact that many more showed up to listen and/or speak than has been true in recent memory. More than were allowed in the meeting room had to stand in a hallway without being able to see the speakers or board members and as many were corralled outside unable to even hear, much less see what was going on. So the board's method of accommodating the overflow crowd was simply to keep many from getting into the meeting room.

    State law requires local governing board to "take reasonable measures to provide for public access to its meetings..." (Garlock vs. Wake Bd. of Education) The Court of Appeals in that case said that the intent of the law is for those who show up at a required public hearing to be able to see their business being transacted and to have a chance to address the public officials. In the Wake case the room was over capacity so the board set up audio/video facilities for the overflow crowd to be able to know what went on. The court ruled that this was a reasonable attempt to insure the public's right of access. The Chocowinity Town Board did nothing out of the ordinary to accommodate the overflow crowd. One citizen even ask them to move the meeting to another location to accommodate the crowd and Mayor Jimmy Mobley brushed the request aside without allowing the board to consider the suggestion. It went downhill from there.

    Several residents arrived an hour early to sign up to speak so they could be among the early speakers. A signup sheet was circulated but a number of those who arrived early were among the last to speak and some who arrived after the meeting room was closed did not get a chance to sign up to speak. More spoke against the ordinance change but that had no impact on the decision that many present felt had already been made before the meeting ever convened.

    Citizens were limited to a strict three minute time limit. But when the time came for board members to speak Mayor Pro Tem Billy Albritton rambled on for fifteen minutes in an incoherent rant that led to him being laughed at and interrupted. The laugh came when he pronounced that he had been told by the County Finance Officer that "hopefully there won't be any tax increase..." We could not find anyone at the hearing who believes the County can borrow $20 million without raising taxes to pay off such debt. He contended that a jail/sheriff's office would bring an economic boom to the area. He, and Mayor Jimmy Mobley prior to the meeting, contended that consultants doing a study to develop a plan for the park said that a jail would not only not hinder industrial development but would in fact enhance it.

    However, Keith Kidwell spoke of having talked with the Project Manager of the project with Duke Energy who said that "a jail will not increase the appeal," and that "having the jail there would likely limit businesses that would consider the park..." A formal request to Mayor Mobley to furnish the names of the consultants and their contact information who he said he had talked to was shunned by the Mayor, who refused to answer questions about the source of his and Mr. Albritton assertions. At this writing Mr. Mobley has not provided the names of who told him a jail would help development of the park. When asked verbally at the conclusion of the meeting about the names, he simply turned and walked away without answering the question. We offered to Mayor Mobley to give him as much time as he wanted in a video interview to explain his position. He declined to explain his comments.

    One speaker, Helen Eckmon, spoke in favor of the jail and in support of the one-vote majority on the County Commission contending that the four commissioner who voted for building the jail truly represented the "people of Beaufort County." Yet this was rebutted by Steve Rader who pointed out that if the four county commissioners felt the people supported the jail that they would not have voted four times to deny them the right to vote for increased debt as is required by Article V, Section IV of the N. C. Constitution.

    Shellie Ingalls, President of the Chocowinity Middle School PTO appealed to the board to deny the request to build a new jail/office complex before the needs of the schools are met. Albritton scoffed at that appeal in his pontifications. Ingalls pointed out that both Chocowinity Primary and Chocowinity Middle are at or near capacity and future growth would likely cause Chocowinity students to be bussed into less crowded Washington schools if Chocowinity schools are overcrowded. She argued that schools promote residential growth and development more than a jail or office complex would and that "those needs should therefore be addressed before the needs of criminals."

    Likewise, Cindy Baldwin, a local developer and real estate agent told the board that good schools enhance residential and commercial development while a jail does not. "I urge you to consider what the 'highest and best use' of this property is."

    Ingalls reminded the Board that Chocowinity had been promised that Chocowinity Middle School's needs would be addressed in "Phase II" of the last school bond issue but that those promises had not been kept. She appealed to the Chocowinity board to provide the leadership to get the county to consider the school needs before the needs of prisoners.

    In fact, the Chocowinity board over the recent past has pushed the school system to remove temporary classroom at Chocowinity Middle School. They have now be removed, but no new permanent classrooms added, thus the effect of the board's action was to increase overcrowding at the school. The School Board recently closed Chocowinity Middle from accepting transfers into the school.

    Several speakers pointed out that taking on 20-30 million dollars in new debt would delay further meeting the needs of both Chocowinity Middle and Chocowinity Primary schools.

    All of those appeals fell on deaf ears as did the recommendation of the Town's Planning Board.

    The Beaufort Observer will post the video of the entire meeting on line in the near future. But in the end the early arrival told us: "You see, I told you so." They had already made up their minds before we ever got here tonight. The so called 'public hearing' was nothing but a sham."

    Watch the video and decide for yourself whether you agree with that observation or not.

    The battle is far from over. Those opposed to the jail tell us that they will oppose the actual special use permit application although they hold little hope of getting a fair decision, but rather will turn to the courts if the board continues to violate the law as they perceive was done in the "railroad job" they called a public hearing. The Stop The Jail Committee is now raising money to file a lawsuit seeking to, among other things, force a referendum on the issue, as they contend the state Constitution requires.

    And the County Commission does not have financing arranged for the project and has not included anything in the budget to pay for the debt service or operating expenses of the project. Check the Beaufort Observer Online for that story.

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