County Government and Ethics | Eastern North Carolina Now

    One does not examine Beaufort County Cartel Politics without stumbling head long into ethics. Maybe the stumble is into the black hole of the lack of ethics. Secret deals, back room decisions, managers who like the position of power player without having to sit through those debates about issues and what is the best for the county. The issues presented in this article apply to all counties, maybe your county has some of this rot.

    What is ethics? Webster's Dictionary defines ethics; (1) A set of moral issues or values and (2) The principles of conduct governing and individual or a group.

    Philosophers usually agree ethics is hard to define. I believe it is some what like pornography "I cannot define what it is but I know it when I see it". Perhaps the golden rule comes close "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

    I placed the word "ethics" on the Beaufort County Commissioners agenda and submitted a copy of the International County and City Managers Association (ICMA) code of ethics. The purpose of this organization is to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional local government management worldwide.

    There was one statement within he code of ethics that I was interested in discussing. It was identified as follows "Members should maintain a reputation for serving equally and impartially all members of he governing body of the Local government they serve, (regardless of party)."

    Commissioner Buzzeo made the motion to remove this item from the agenda. It was removed. Buzzeo was clueless as to what I wanted to discuss. Having knowledge about the promised he made when he was running for commissioner and seeing how he votes, I can understand why he is afraid of the word "ethics".

    I am constantly observing that secrecy is important to the majority maintaining control of our board. Recently we have had the attempted jail cram down, the flim-flam contract with Chocowintiy EMS, what appears to be a coveting by the commissioners of the money that may be left over in the Beaufort County Hospital trust fund, the on going unbudgeted expense of the VOA site, on an on it goes. Only one thing makes these unpopular adventures work. That thing is secrecy.

    During the 18 years I have been a board member, the County Manager has never accounted to the full board for his activities. This means informing all members equally abut his meetings, dealings, lobby efforts for a few members of the board or his own personal agenda. Yes managers have personal projects they support which they get accomplished with only a nod from the chairman or even without the board's knowledge. This is a serious problem when the chairman of the board and his majority have low ethical standards.

    The jail situation was made particularly bad because the board was not fully informed as to what the manager was doing. He was taking orders from the chairman. There was at least one secret meeting with Judge Sermons. The same thing happened with the Chocowinity EMS situation. There were secret meeting with people attended by only Gary "Stop the Nonsense" Brinn and the manager, Ken Windley. These are secret meetings because only a few commissioners knew about them. All commissioners were not equally informed. In almost all cases this is done deliberately so deals can be cut without commissioners who disagree having a say. After all Gary "Stop the Nonsense" Brinn and is buddies will tell you they can do anything they want because they have a minimum of four votes.

    The chairman of any board of county commissioners in North Carolina is empowered only to conduct the meetings and declare a state of emergency. He can do the state of emergency only because it may be impossible to assemble commissioners rapidly during the actual emergency, such as a hurricane.

    There is no question that any county board chairman who can have the cooperation of a county manager can manipulate any situation into the outcome they desire. We have had too much of that in Beaufort County.

    This is where ethics, fair play, and the golden rule come into play. Believe it or not, County Managers are just as political as anyone else. True, they walk a tight rope to stay out of the political side of issues, but I have seen them manipulate many situations into what they want. This is almost impossible if each and every commissioner has to be equally informed about the managers activities relating to issues that are in font of or that are destined to come before the board.

    Considering how unethically the board has operated in the past, do you believe Jerry Langley, Gary "Stop the Nonsense" Brinn, Ed Booth, Al Klemm, Robert Belcher or Ron Buzzeo would want to have to participate in a discussion about ethics and keeping all board members equally informed. If they had to support this kind of ethical behavior it would destroy their way of life. With ethics in play, Beaufort County tax payers would be treated more fairly and we would save a lot more money. Back room deals and managers who answer only to the Chairman are the source of most of our local government evil.