Filming of Commissioner Meetings: The Quality of the Product Determines Whether Folks Take the Time to Watch - December 6, 2021 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    January 12, 2022 - Publisher's note: Due to a publishing SNAFU, I have been remiss in my duties, here at BCN, regarding the proper categorization of county government publications; in particular, the Enhanced County Government Videos, begun August 1, 2019.

    Therefore, to thoroughly correct this miscue, I will make the proper categorical correction, and bring these archives forward beginning on January 12, 2022; mixing these historical patterns of fact in with the current news of our day. Some posts brought forward will not be video broadcasts, but most informative posts as to who and what you Beaufort County Commissioners are, and how they govern.

On major issues, such as local governing transparency, among many others, "bipartisan" "Republicans" Frankie Waters and John Rebholz join the Democratic Socialists.

    Over the years, discussions on whether to film the Beaufort County Commissioners or not; who then pays for production; whether the filming should continue, then what quality should it be filmed has been an on going argument. The argument began as a question of transparency, where the Democrats preferred the political anonymity of remaining opaque, while the Republicans of that board of Beaufort County commissioners prepared for the uphill battle to bring the sunshine of full transparency to the People's government.

    In those earliest days of the fight for government transparency, there were few Republicans serving - two (Commissioners Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherge) - who took that initial stand on the Beaufort County's governing board. It is a long arduous story as to how we whipped up the support, and the money to begin filming the Commissioners' meetings, but with the hybrid Republicans (Frankie Waters and John Rebholz) of today, who are as recalcitrant as the former Democrat commissioners of yesteryear to full transparency, the fight continues.

    When Republican Commissioners Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage began this fight in early 1997 to film these meetings, Commissioner Rebolz was the resident of a state far to Beaufort County's north, and Commissioner Waters was an active local Democrat, supporting the likes of Bill and Hilary Clinton, Jim Hunt, Mike Easley, and the Barrack Hussein Obama /Joe Biden administration. He then joined the GOP to cloak his Liberal aspirations to govern as a Nominal Republican ... as he inarguably does currently.

    When Frankie Waters, well in his sixties as years of age, decided to seek a seat on the county commission, he counted on his knowledge that his chances would be greater as a Republican, so months before he became a political interloper, Frankie switched to the GOP to cloak his Liberal aspirations to govern as a Nominal /Democrat Republican; caucusing with the Democratic Socialists to govern as one of their kind ad nauseum ... when it suits his personal political needs. In Beaufort County government over the last three decades, there exists no issue that devises the ideals of the two parties more than the transparency of governing; in that one issue, as a symbol of all others, Frankie Waters and his new colleague, John Rebholz, exhibit a strong kindred brand of bipartisanship with Democratic Socialists of today.

Watch this video segment with a keen eye and ear to hear strains of what it means to be a real Republican, and, wrongly, what it also means to be the other: Below.


    If you are interested in our archived selection of the Beaufort County Commissioners' General Meetings, whether segmented by subject or full in scope, they can be found here in BCN's enhanced format.


    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.