Citizens group files lawsuit on Chocowinity jail | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    A group of citizens has filed a lawsuit against the Town of Chocowinity in an attempt to correct what the suit alleges was a violation of the law in the June 3, 2014 decision of the Town Board to amend the town's zoning ordinance to permit a jail being built in the county-owned Chocowinity Industrial Park. The suit asks the court to nullify the board's action on June 3 and to compel them to follow the law in future decisions they may make.

    Click here to review the press release.

    The suit says that the way the board conducted the meeting deprived a number of Chocowinity residents and citizens from Beaufort County their right to attend the meeting and address the board in the public hearing. The state's Open Meetings law requires that people wishing to do so have a right to attend a public meeting and express their opinions in a public hearing. The problem in Chocowinity was that they held the meeting in a room too small for some of those who wanted to attend to be able to do so and/or speak.

    The meeting was held in the regular Town Board meeting room in the Town Hall. As you can see in the video at the link below a number of people were forced to stand in a hallway outside the meeting room and others had to hang out outside.

    A recent Court of Appeals decision said that such governing bodies must make "reasonable accommodations" when larger than usual crowds wish to attend a meeting. Chocowinity made no special accommodations even though it was obvious they expected a larger than normal crowd. Essentially, their response to the public's interest was to try to limit the number of people who could participate in the meeting rather than make arrangements to accommodate.

    The remedy for violating the Open Meetings law is that the action taken is null and void. The court can also order specific actions for future meetings to avoid a repeat violation. And the law allows the court to award attorney's fee to the plaintiffs. Thus, it is expected that the Chocowinity Town Board will have to re-do the meeting all over again.

    Here's an article we published on the June 4 meeting which contains video of the entire meeting:

    Click here review that article.

    Harold Smith, Chocowinity resident and chairman of the Stop The Jail Committee, told the Observer:

    Our group took this action because we feel the Chocowinity Town Board violated the law. They held a required public hearing but did not conduct the meeting in such a manner that anyone who wanted to see what went on could do so and the way they operated denied some the right to speak. Both of those are violations of the law.

    But there is a bigger issue involved here than the meeting on June 3. It is the right of the people to know how their public business is conducted. If you watch the video of the meeting I think you will agree with some of us that the decision had already been made before the meeting ever started. And that typifies how many of the decisions about this jail have been made. Both the County Commissioners and Chocowinity Town Board have pretty much excluded the public from participating in the process. That is just not right. It's the public's business they are doing and the public should be involved if they wish to be involved by watching what is going on and to offer comments if anyone wishes to do so.

    I just think it is a sad day when ordinary citizens have to raise money and hire lawyers to make our public officials do the right thing and abide by the law. There are a number of other issues involved with this jail issue which we will be addressing as they move forward. But on this issue we felt we simply could not sit by and watch them violate the law and exclude the public from the decision-making process.

    We call upon the Chocowinity Town Board and Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to represent the people who elected them. The Commissioners should have put this issue to the people for a vote and the Chocowinity Town Board should honor the position of an overwhelming portion of the citizens of Chocowinity. It's time for the representatives on both of these boards to truly represent the beliefs of the people that elected them to office. It should be noted that the Chocowinity Planning Board voted unanimously to oppose building the jail in the Industrial Park. It's not right for the Town Board to simply steamroll it's on advisory board responsible for such matters.

    Click here to download a copy of the law suit.

    Commentary

    We trust our readers see the real issue here: The way our government does the public's business. Both the Chocowinity Town Board and the one-vote majority on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners have demonstrated that hey are afflicted with the same disease that prevails in Raleigh and Washington—the abuse of power.

    The arrogance and elitism (we know what's best for you) demonstrated by both of these groups of elected "representatives" is appalling. They are not put I these positions to make decisions based on what they want or think but rather they are elected to represents the people.

    We'll save for another day a lecture on how a republic is supposed operate but suffice it to say here that the members of the Chocowinity Town Board (all of them) and the majority on the Board of Commissioners (Langley, Booth, Belcher and Klemm) should be ashamed of themselves. Just listen to the Chocowinity Commissioners who spoke and you'll see what we're talking about. Both Billy Albritton and Arlene Jones clearly demonstrated the worst of public service when they in effect said: "we sit in these chairs and we know what's best for you people." That is deplorable.

    We think it very instructive that none of this would be going on if North Carolina had the recall of public officials. There is no doubt that enough people would petition to recall all nine of these "officials" and then, put to a vote the people, would remove them from office. We need such a process to deal with arrogant people who view themselves not as representatives but omnipotent potentates who are willing to impose their ideas on the rest of us whether we like it or not.

    The reason the Gang of Four who are railroading this jail will not submit it for a referendum of the people is that they know the people would vote it down. But they apparently think the public will forget about it before the next election.

    We commend Harold Smith and those citizens who have worked to research and study the issues involved in this jail mess. We commend them for providing the leadership to allow people to express themselves by donating to the fund to take these elitists to court. This should be done more often and maybe the autocrats will eventually realize they are not omnipotent. We have had enough of such arrogance. It is high time We The People stood up for our God-given rights. We commend these fine citizens for doing just that. Thank you.

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