Is it Micro Manage Or No Management? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    One of the terms that frequently comes up at Beaufort County Commissioners meetings is "micro manage". It is used by the five "Demopublicans". Demopublicans are a mixture of Democrats and Republicans who have the same political philosophy That is pacifists, liberals, big spenders. Progressives is another identifying term. We have five on our board.

    They will attest that "we do not want to micromanage" when either Commissioner Stan Deatherage, or I are zeroing in on some form of over spending or bad behavior in county government. One example is asking why we need to set a transport rate for EMS when we do not do transports. However, Chocowinity does do transports. Several people are asking about where the money goes and who does it go to. The Gang of Five refuses to even talk about an audit.

    I am frequently accused of trying to micro manage. Simply asking an embarrassing question causes that accusation to be made. The public should know that commissioners have been elected to manage the Business of Beaufort County, to decide how much we are going to spend and to set a tax rate to pay for spending. The Board, during the past five years has deliberately not asked enough questions of our employees. The gang of five does not want to discuss our duty to oversee and keep our employees honest. This is one reason taxes have gone up. The gang of five will vote for any increase in new employeesl or spending an employee asks for. Spending, during the past five years, has been driven by a continuation budget that is rubberstamped by the Gang of Five.

    They have said their intent is to take the advice of employees and consultants. Their stated reason is that the employees know what they need. I can hire a consultant to say anything I tell him to say. County employees are very unreliable sources of information needed to make management and policy decisions. Today there are very few consultants who will not feather their own nests. Look at the money made by consultants for the outrageously expensive communications system and the water meter system. Neither of these projects were ever represented to produce a savings for the public. But both consultants hired by the county to represent the tax payers got the contracts for the projects. Stan Deatherage was not on the board when we spent this seven million dollars. Five million for the water system and two million for the communications system. I was the only commissioner who raised an issue of ethics or public need for these systems.

    Expect this to continue with this Board we presently have. The only way to change the way Beaufort County does business is to change commissioners. You will have that opportunity in the 2020 elections.

    The public should be aware when they hear "micro manage" what the board is saying. They do not want to know the facts, They are content to do nothing other than go along with what the employee or the consultant wants.

    The only protection the public has from government abuse is our elected officials. If elected officials refuse to do their job we have unbridled and un controlled government, wild spending and corrupt government. This is what is going on in a lot of government today. Look at what has gone on in the Beaufort County government during the past 6 or 7 years. Taxes continue to go up with no increase of benefit to the public. Overtime is not controlled, our property is used by our employees for their personal gain and the gang of five votes for anything the employees want.

    Some of the issues elected county commissioners have refused to investigate much less control, even with restrictions placed in the annual budget ordinance are: employees who make $25,000 per year in overtime, repeated complaints about the use of tax money by Chocowinity EMS and Fire Department, creating high paying jobs that require no formal skills, 4.7 million dollars for radio controlled water meters that do not produce a cost savings, hundreds o thousands of dollars for consulting and studies that produce no cost savings, failure to adjust annual budgets when items that last several years are purchased, a million dollar medical care program for a jail with only 40 prisoners, spending 1.5 million dollars to do a $200,000.00 repair job on jail locks, etc., etc.

    When you hear micro-manage just substitute "no management" and you know exactly what the Democrats and RINO's (Republicans In Name Only) are talking about.

    Five Demopublicans want zero management from the board. Could it be these five commissioners have no experience in management and are clueless about what their duty is to the public.

    If you want taxes to go down, or level out, we have to start replacing commissioners. In the 2020 commissioner's primary election, it is more important "who you do not vote for" than "who you do vote for".