I have held back on this issue for some time.  I have not been opening these letters for several years.  I decided to open the one this week.  I saw red right away.

I am talking about letters sent for Sheriff Ernie Coleman by the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association begging for money.  The first sentence a big lie. It says; “As your sheriff of Beaufort County, I need your immediate support to provide needed resources to continue education and training programs for all our sheriffs and deputies as well as to fight for strong laws in the General Assembly to keep you and your family safe.”  None of this is true.

Beaufort County taxpayers provide all of the funding for everything mentioned in this statement.  Coleman has wasted millions during the past seven years.  Taxpayers paid for that too.  Look at the surplus automobiles parked behind the courthouse.  The millions to replace the communications system and the overtime and raises given to special employees of the Sheriff.  This Republican Sheriff had the support of the two Democrats on the Board of County Commissioners (Booth and Langley) along with nominal Republicans Frankie Waters and John Rebholz.

As for education and training, look at how the Brenda Hamilton death was handled.  With all that “training,” the investigation was handed like a grade school hot dog cook out.  The Sheriff failed to provide any site security or investigative skills.  Because of this incompetence, we will never know what killed Brenda Hamilton. What training?

As for lobbying the legislature, the only lobbying I have seen the Sheriff’s Association do is to further remove the Sheriff from accountability to the public.  County commissioners do not pay for lobbying to enhance the already oppressive powers of Sheriffs.  The Sheriff’s Association pays for that with your contribution.

Notice they ask for your check to be made out to the “Sheriffs Association”.  The Sheriffs Association is registered under the tax laws as a “charity.”  There is no effective accounting for how this money is spent.  My friends tell me the director of the Sheriffs Association makes an annual salary of more than a quarter of a million dollars each year.  When you give them money, that is one of the things you are paying for.

Go to the Sheriffs Association web site and see what you can find out about them.  They look like a great charity.  Underneath they are using your money to get more power to separate themselves from you.

I suspect the Sheriff’s Association is no different from other trade groups.  They have their hand out to everyone.   I also suspect they shake down suppliers which means the cost of supplies go up.  You pay for that.  I once worked for a company and was asked to authorize payment of what I thought was a large amount of money to a trade group.  I was told that if we did not send the check, we would be selling no more product in that state. 

I am guilty of giving to the Sheriff’s Association too.  I believed all that propaganda before I became a Commissioner.  I have not given one penny since becoming a commissioner in 1996.  It took only one budget year for me to see how phony this outfit is.

Anything you spend this money for is better than donating it to the Sheriff’s Association.

Be aware that all spending is approved by the Beaufort County Board of County Commissioners.  Commissioners have no say in how donations to the Sheriff’s Association are spent.

The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners is controlled by two Democrats (Jerry Langley and Ed Booth) along with two nominal Republicans (Frankie Waters and John Rebholz).  RINO Frankie Waters has approved all of the millions of waste by Sheriff Ernie Coleman. That waste includes excessive overtime, special raises for his favorite employees, the new communications system and the underhanded closing of the jail which cost us several million dollars

This is an election year.  Time for a change.  Frankie Waters and Ernie Coleman need to go.