Sheriff Coleman Sticks his Finger in Your Eye Again! | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: This post appears courtesy of the Beaufort Observer.

    Why would any politician make irresponsible decisions at critical times during elections. Answer: He is either not very smart or he is extremely confident that he will be re elected. In Coleman's case, I do not know which one of these applies.

    Sheriff Coleman demonstrated either his confidence or his smartness when he came before the Beaufort County Commission about three weeks before candidates register to run for office and made a big stink by telling us off. Really. he told me off because I was complaining about his bad judgment and use of county property. So far he thinks that has worked well. He won his primary. In Coleman's world every thing is just fine.

    This is Coleman's latest fiasco. Coleman has now, one month before the November election, purchased new pistols for all his deputies, new tasers, new belts and new gold badges. The bill on this comes to about $50,000.

    I did not see these items listed separately in the budget this Spring. One may ask how long it takes to wear out a pistol? How many times do you have to fire it? How does a gold badge make an officer more effective than any other badge? What does the color of the pants have to do with officer effectiveness? When was the last time the County purchased new pistols? What are the used pistols worth and how are they disposed of?

    Coleman spends a lot of time telling us how much money he has saved us. This is smoke and mirrors. Coleman has spent more than any other sheriff. Jail medical costs are a good example. We are only required to provide emergency services to inmates. That should cost about $200,000 each year. Coleman goes far beyond. He is approaching one m million dollars during the past 12 months.

    Other extravagances include allowing deputies to use county equipment such as cars for their personal benefit, allowing abuse of overtime by those who helped him in his 2014 campaign for sheriff. Some employees have been paid as much as $280,000 during the past four years.

    Then there is Joseph Knox, Coleman's finance treasure during the past the 2014 campaign. Knox is now 22 years old. He has been on Coleman's payroll for almost four years. So, you know how much law enforcement experience and training he had when Coleman hired him. Coleman gave him a job at $47,000 per year and a recent raise of $4,000 bringing him to $51,000 per year. Knox got a car to drive while he attended East Carolina university. He spent so little time in the office that very few people knew he worked for the County.

    By contrast a trained road deputy makes about $32,000 per year. Back to the new guns and badges at $100 each just before election. A lot of Coleman's confidence comes from Fake Frankie Waters. Fake Frankie has backed Coleman thru all of the above described bad judgments. Coleman and Fake Frankie make a good team. They both think they will be re elected and they can keep the spending racket going.

    Fake Frankie has already made the boast to the Beaufort County Republican Club when he said: "Whatever you got during the past four years you will get during the next four". That statement should terrify tax payers. Do you want another 22 percent tax increase during the next four years in addition to further spending down of the county savings.

    Coleman doesn't have anything to worry about as long as Fake Frankie is around. Fake Frankie will continue to cover for Coleman.s bad behavior and allow him to continue to spend, spend, spend and give away your property.

    The Board of Commissioners are supposed to provide oversight to all departments and insure that there is no thievery of county property or abusive use of payroll and spending. This board, under Fake Frankie Waters, has announced that they intend to set major policy and use county employees and consultants to do the rest. That is precisely why we have spent so much money during the past few years.

    You have an opportunity to save yourself from huge tax increases and bring honesty to Beaufort County by not voting for these two big spenders on November 6th.