Beaufort County Commissioners Approve Limited Negotiation to Relocate Inmates | Eastern NC Now

If you are observant and pay close attention to Beaufort County's government, I still bet you did not see this coming ... I did not.

    On Monday, June 15, 2020, Beaufort County's commissioners were called into action to approve negotiations between the Beaufort County Sheriff and Pitt County Sheriff on relocating inmates to Pitt County, where the rates negotiated were 66% to double what were being paid 18 months earlier for basically the same service. Additionally, certain minimum occupancy provisions were negotiated that would cost Beaufort County tax payers over $200,000.00 per month, a significant increase from $45,000.00 per month (for the same number of prisoners) back in January, 2019, when Commissioners Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage discovered that the Sheriff of Beaufort County had begun relocating prisoners due to jail door malfunctions.

    From that point forward until now, Beaufort County's government has moved to elaborately repair a large number of jail doors that were functioning poorly due to mechanism fatigue and failure. Paying roughly $200,000.00 per month to Pitt County for inmate relocation since, incredibly, the jail doors are still not fixed as opposed to paying $45,000.00 for roughly the same number of prisoners to be relocated is an increase of about 444%. Considering this drastic increase, one would think all of Beaufort County's commissioners would have been involved in these negotiations rather than to courteously inform those commissioners; who, coincidentally, are responsible for making a budget of county expenses and taxing county property owners. Instead these commissioners, especially the two Conservatives, were kept in the dark, and then given the motioned directive to make a decision, to vote, with no explanation from the Beaufort County Sheriff, who elected to forgo his invitation to attend.

    To that end, the vote to spend an additional $400,000.00 minimum of the public's money just one week after the 2020 /2021 budget ordinance was ratified, without any input from, or discussion with the Beaufort County Commissioners was a walk down the dirt path of bad governing. The vote to acquiesce to the combined fiscal wishes of the Beaufort County Sheriff, Ernie Coleman, and the other Pitt County officials in attendance was 4 to 3, with Commissioners Jerry Evans, Jerry Langley, Frankie Waters, and Ed Booth voting in the affirmative, while Commissioners Hood Richardson, Stan Deatherage and John Rebholz voted against the motion.

The Beaufort County Commissioner meeting, in its entirety, regarding this one issue of relocating inmates, and its massive current cost, negotiated by Sheriff Ernoe Coleman: Below.


The Beaufort County Commissioners' final discussions and then the vote in this segmented video: Below.


    Publisher's note: If you are interested in our Archive of the Beaufort County Commissioners' General Meetings can be found here in this aforementioned enhanced format.

    Additionally, if you wish to catch up on some of the most important Beaufort County Commissioners meeting of 2019 through 2022, click here.

    If you are interested in our archived selection of the Beaufort County Commissioners' General Meetings, some other non general meetings videographed, and segmented videos of meetings, they can be found here in this aforementioned enhanced format.