Hood Richardson Presents the Case for Three Issues | Eastern North Carolina Now

The most important of which is the reduction of the county property footprint of Gun Free Zones.

    Shortly after Commissioner Richardson's bold move to make Democrat Jerry Langley chairman of the Beaufort County Board of County Commissioners, he discussed three agenda items; all topical, two most important, one very important ... at least for this writer.

    So the commissioner had three items to discuss, which is about 8 shy of the number that he spoke extemporaneously of years ago, when I served with the commissioner, but what makes this special is two fold: This meeting lasted about two hours (extremely short for my days serving, when there was a greater deliberative process), plus Hood was the only commissioner to present any issues; and Hood presented the issue of beginning the process of removing "Gun Free Zones".

    All three issues failed by, and, remarkably,by wide margins. First, let's deal with the issues below:

         •  Recall Elections, where the vote was 1 (Hood Richardson) to 6 against (Ron Buzeo, who for some reason seconded the motion then immediately voted against the measure, Frankie Waters, Ed Booth, Jerry Langley, Robert Belcher, Gary Brinn). Commissioner Richardson made the argument that Recall Elections were good tool to correct unpopular election results, once the public discovers that the elected representative either was incompetent or mislead the electorate to get elected. Furthermore, all representatives were elected by limited voting, since Beaufort County is under DOJ edict to elect by a method prescribed by the Untied States Department of Justice. No substantial argument was given to the contrary, but the vote was a route in opposition.

         •  Filling Positions with commissioner consultation, when the vacant position is primarily due to retirement failed by a vote of 2 in favor (Hood Richardson, Robert Belcher) to 5 against (Ron Buzeo, Frankie Waters, Ed Booth, Jerry Langley, Gary Brinn). The argument for the measure was voiced by Richardson, who reminded the commissioners that they had made many hires in the last year, many of them unnecessary, and, in the interest of commissioner oversight, these sitting to commissioners should advise the manager in a manner to keep the workforce as low as can be achieved. The commissioners in the majority, literary, argued against commissioner oversight as they believed that this was managers job, and they could make corrections at budget time. Good luck with that Commissioners.

         •  Reduction of the county property footprint of Gun Free Zone also failed by a vote of 2 in favor (Hood Richardson, Frankie Waters) to 5 against (Ron Buzeo, Ed Booth, Jerry Langley, Gary Brinn, Robert Belcher). This issue is not only a 2nd Amendment issue, it is a protection issue as well as a liability issue. The liability issue, could be argued to now have swung in favor of 2nd Amendment advocates, where the county could be perceived to have liability should there be a mass shooting on county property, and with the proclivity for mass shootings (including that of terrorists), as advocated by Richardson, the county would remiss to not allow for the possibility of protection from the public or county employees, who may be packing. Commissioners in the negative majority argued that they did not trust the public or county employees to carry protective firearms on county property, but Commissioner Ron Buzeo did remark that he, himself, was in the process of buying a permitted firearm now that he lived in North Carolina.

    Remarkably, the two county commissioners, Ron Buzeo and Gary Brinn, who argued for, and voted in the negative against limiting the county footprint of Gun Free Zones both agreed that they were staunch advocates for the Second Amendment, but believed that they possess the representative right as an Authoritarian to limit the 2nd Amendment rights of others, even though mass shootings and terrorist attacks are on the rise here within our shores.

         •  Commissioner Richardson put forth an associative motion to limit Gun Free Zones on county property to Survey county employees' position on the Gun Free Zone, which failed 2 (Hood Richardson, Gary Brinn) to 5 (Ron Buzeo, Ed Booth, Jerry Langley, Gary Brinn, Robert Belcher).