Mud on Everybody's Face, More on the Jail Fiasco | Eastern North Carolina Now

    This government disaster is not costing what the all knowing, all seeing, Beaufort County master manipulators thought. A bid came in on April 25th to repair the jail cells. The amount including the two options maxed out at $338,800 dollars. That is a huge difference from what the all knowing all seeing crowd thought it would be.

    They pumped it for all it was worth. On several occasions they had to be returned to earth from the hail bop comet. That is, conversations escalated from simple repairs and replacement of the computer system to major rebuilds including the need for architects and engineers. Several of the all knowing, all seeing officials were visibly irritated with me but we kept the project on target to only repair and not re design and replace. It is strange to me that many of these people wanted to see how much they could spend. They were sure it was impossible to repair these cells.

    This jail situation started in January of this year when Sheriff Coleman decided to shut down about half of the jail and pay at least $2,500 per day in un budgeted expense to house prisoners out of county. To date that cost of about $225,000. He cannot do that without the permission of the board or a back room deal.

    The entire sitting board of county commissioners has not been consulted as of this date. As nearly as I can determine The County Manager, Brian Alligood, along with the Chairman, Jerry Evans and Frankie Waters and the Sheriff made the decision not to even make a call for repairs. I do not know what they wanted to fix this invented problem but the whisper word was it cost 1.5 million dollars and would take about a year to do. The total bill including housing prisoners out of county would have been at least $2.5 million. Now we may get out for about 1.2 million dollars.

    I am gratified by this outcome because Brian Alligood accused me of trying to do something illegal when I insisted that we call repair people for temporary repairs. Alligood was sure the cost would be more than $500,000. If he had only called for repairs he would not have been embarrassed by his bad decision.

    This is a great example of back room dealing. These guys just got lucky and won the Leary law suit on back room dealing. I do not think they understand that it is unethical and dishonest to not inform the entire board of these situations or for one or two privileged commissioners to secretly make decisions that the entire board should make. Jerry Evans is following in the foot steps of King Frankie Waters. Jerry, the chairman is empowered only to conduct meetings, nothing else.

    At any rate shining a light on this situation has helped a lot. I insisted in participating in the meetings with vendors and I still insist in participating in vendor meetings . The public has a right to know about these things and a right to expect commissioners to always act in their best interest. Secrecy is always evil. When I say commissioners , I am also talking about our employees. .

    The fact that the jail cells are going to be fixed does not solve our real problem. In this case "our" collectively includes the commissioners, the manager, and the Sheriff. Our jail is not efficiently managed from the stand point of what a jail is supposed to do. That is, only to keep dangerous people away from us, or to either serve a maximum six months sentence or be held for trial if they cannot make bond. Sentences of more than six months go to the state prison system.

    We do not have an effective program to reduce the jail population. We have 18 prisoners who have been held for between six month and two years with out a trial. There is simply no reason for anyone to he held one year without a trial even if the charge is murder. I realize that we need the cooperation of the District Attorney and the judges to get prisoners released and that not all prisoners can be released for a variety for reasons. The jail population can be reduced by increased use of ankle bracelets, mental health services, church involvement, bond management, etc. Our situation is a disgrace.

    No one is responsible for anything. The manager says it is the sheriff's responsibility, the commissioners write checks for really bad management (like the $602,000 medical bill for one prisoner) and do not ask questions. Some commissioners are clueless about what to do and some say tell me what to do and I will do it, then refuse to do anything.

    Until tax payers demand action, we will continue to spend a lot of money and elect individuals who prove daily that they are incompetent. A new jail is not the solution, good management is.

    Allowing commissioners Evans and Waters to make these back room decisions and run cover ups is also a disgrace. Our monthly commissioner meetings get shorter and shorter. Is it because we are so good at what we do or is it because a couple of the boys are in the back room with the manager and the sheriff making deals?

    Any person mentioned in this article is welcome to submit their article refuting my accusations.