Toward a common sense city council majority in Washington | Eastern North Carolina Now

The Donald Sadler regime in Washington has given us a huge tax increase and very questionable spending including some insider dealing.  While we need to change who sits in the mayor's chair to someone with more transparency and proper management ability, we also need to get away from the type of city council that has fueled the Sadler circus.

"Boss Hogg" Sadler has one of his most notorious "yes men", Richard Brooks running for reelection, but the second one, Renn, is not running again.  To get him a knee jerk majority, Sadler has recruited two new "yes men", Antwon Horton and Anthony Tyre.  That threesome would give Sadler anything he wants and would be a roadblock for a mayor other than Sadler.

On the present council, two members have regularly stood up to Sadler and worked for the citizens interests, William Pitt and Bobby Roberson.  Roberson is running against Sadler for mayor and Pitt is seeking another term on the city council.  Pitt was endorsed by Sadler last election, but showed clearly that his allegiance is to the citizens instead of personally to Sadler, so Sadler is opposing him this time.  Pitt and Roberson were the two council members who voted against Sadler's 12% tax increase.

William Pitt is a solid defender of our citizens and deserves reelection.  But where do we find two others to make a majority.

One place to start is the two registered Republicans running, both standing tall for the taxpayers, Andrew "Tex" Melton and Gary Ceres.  Pitt, Melton, and Ceres would form a council majority.  That would drive a stake through the heart of the Tammany Hall type regime Washington has had for the last two years.

Are there others worth considering for a fourth and fifth vote?  Some will want to stop with those three, while others will want to exercise all five of their votes.

The two other Unaffiliated candidates are worth a look, A.J. Congleton and Ellen Brabo.  Congleton has not been running a very active campaign, but at least is not in Sadler's pocket.  Brabo is running an active race with the support of the washington Chamber of Commerce.  She runs her own small business that should give her the sort of business sense the Sadler group has lacked.  The red flag, however, is that while she put in an appearance at a Sadler event, she has not done so after being invited to a Roberson event.  What makes that more sticky is that the Sadler event was a campaign fundraiser while the Roberson event was a candidate forum where all the council candidates in attendance were given time to promote their own campaigns.

One of the Democrats may also be worth considering, Leesa Peyton Jones. She is a well spoken black lady who has been instrumental in the Underground Railroad museum, but is not in Sadler's pocket.  She has called for greater transparency in city government and pledged not to vote for a tax increase.

The other incumbent Democrat running is Lou Hodges who is personally a nice lady who won election last time on a strong sympathy vote for her husband who had recently died of Covid.  On the council, however, she has been weak and vacillating.  Although she initially said she opposed Sadler's tax increase, she ultimately allowed herself to be pressed into being the deciding vote to pass it.

The Sadler machine operates through the mayor calling in council members one or two at a time on Friday before Monday's council meeting to press them to vote for his positions.  Roberson has pledged not to play that game with the council.  But each council candidate should be asked if they are elected and so is Sadler, whether they would participate in this underhanded scheme that undermines open and transparent government..