In Difficult Times Good People gravitate towards Absolute Truth
County Commissioners' Duties: My View
The present controversy between Sheriff Alan Jordan and this county commissioner has breathed new life into the question: What do county commissioner do? To put it another way what are the duties and responsibilities the public should expect from county commissioners.
I have been a county commissioner for 17 years. Consequently, I have seen almost all of it. There are some commissioners who take the job seriously, there are those do not care; there are some on an ego trip, having been elected to a royal position; some who just want to be liked and are there to deliver to the public whatever the certain special interests want, some are there to thwart the political beliefs of other commissioners, and this list goes on to include any motive you can imagine. Take a look at the behavior of various public officials; from senators, house members, dog catchers, school board members, soil conservation board members, sheriffs, registers of deeds, clerks of court and judges. The entire rainbow of political beliefs and motives are there. Motive runs from people who cannot make a living any other way, to those who want to force their distorted political beliefs on the public.
But fortunately, some elected officials serve out of a sense of public service. The trick, for the voters, is to know what motivates a public official.
There are not enough elected officials who have read and understand the Constitution of the United States and the State of North Carolina. Yes, even the dog catcher should have read and understand these documents. These documents are the foundation on which all man-made law is laid. Observe the behavior of elected officials and you will know who understands our form of government and who is phony.
But to understand the behavior of public officials you must also have a basic understanding of government - the framework in which they operate. The basic principle of county government in North Carolina is that counties are geographic divisions of state government. Counties have those power, duties and responsibility that are prescribed by law for them. Counties do not have plenary power. That is, they have only that power which is enumerated for them. And example of an enumerated power is the power to assess and collect property taxes. But that power may be exercised only in accord with the statutes adopted by the state legislature. County and city governments decide how much to spend and then set the tax rate. The rules as to how property values are assessed and who gets exemptions are the same state wide. There are other responsibilities that are shared between the State and counties. An example is that county governments provide the funding for public school buildings and their maintenance. There is nothing in the law that says how big the central office staff has to be, nor is there anything that requires teacher supplements. The State pays the base teacher salary. But counties may provide supplements if they choose to do so. Counties can have as much additional fat in school budgets as they are willing to pay for.
The fundamental nature of county government is that it, as is municipal governments, is the closest to the people. While specific powers and duties are prescribed, and others prohibited or restricted by the state to county government it is also true that county officials, because they are so close to the people have significant influence on other levels of government all the way to the White House. Many things that are done in Washington and Raleigh have an impact of counties and on the people country commissioners represent. For that reason it is entirely appropriate for county commissions to take positions of issue that impact either the operation of county government or the people commissioners represent. Indeed, I believe county commissioners have a duty to take positions on state and national issues.
Once you understand what the powers, duties, and restrictions on county government are the next consideration is how does the individual commissioner fit in? Boards of county commissioners by state law are a "body politic and corporate". A "body politic" means counties are civil divisions of the state for governmental administration. "Corporate" means county governments are a legal entity and can act as a singular body. That means the majority must vote in order for any action to happen. Individual members of a county commission possess almost no power on their own. While I've seen some act otherwise the simple fact is that an individual commissioner has no individual power except when acting as a part of the board. That includes the chairman. The chairman may act only as an agent of the board and as authorized by the board.
Some may believe that individual county commissioners do not have much influence. That is true up to a point. Boards of commissioners are political bodies having been elected by the citizens of the county. There have been many political opinions and promises presented by members of boards of county commissions. Because of the potential turmoil and so meetings can be conducted in an orderly fashion, there are rules of procedure. Any commissioner may place any issue on the regularly scheduled meeting agenda. However, in order to have consideration and debate the item, at some point, requires a second from another commissioner. The only power the chairman has is to conduct the meeting according to the rules. At the end of discussion or debate the majority vote of the board determines whether there is action, no action or continuation of debate at a later date.
Before the limited voting system was installed by court order, Beaufort County had five conservative Democrat commissioners. Today, these commissioners would be Republicans or certainly vote Republican even if their conscience would not allow them to abandon the Democrat Party. With limited voting the number of commissioners was increased to seven to achieve racial demographic goals. These changes of voting methods opened the door for Republicans. These changes quickly allowed conservative (normal) Republicans to get elected. This is true because in the limited voting system a candidate who can gain the support of enough like-minded voters can be elected regardless of geography. I've often said "we represent beliefs, not land area." In the limited voting system it is paramount that a candidate tell the voters what their belief system is. The problem is that all too often we have candidates who say they believe one thing and then vote differently when it comes times to cast their votes.
We have had those who hold beliefs of Democrats but represent themselves as Republicans because Republicans could easily get elected. To the casual political eye the board looked Republican. The simple truth is that a conservative Republican has never served as chairman. All chairmen have been Democrats and Republicans In Name Only commonly called RINO's. Therefore, conservative government has not been present in Beaufort County leadership since about 1992 when the old line conservative Democrats filled all five seats. Beaufort County has had a liberal Democrat rule since 1992. RINO's Al Klemm and Jay McRoy have voted more than 80 percent of the time with Democrats and key issues, such as spending, taxes and major policies.
One cannot honestly understand Beaufort County government unless one realizes that liberal Democrats have controlled county government with the help of Republicans who ran on a conservative platform but then cut deals with Democrats to give the liberals control of county government. Many casual observers don't realize that the real dichotomy in county government is between liberal and conservative and conservatives have never had a chance to govern because the RINO's cut deals and traded their votes contrary to the beliefs they espoused when campaigning.
Stan Deatherage and I have always known that we as conservative Republicans did not have the votes to make policy change by the board. We have been whistle blowers on the terrible behavior of the liberal Democrats and RINO's. We have marched together toward honest government. We have insisted that meetings be open and broadcast on cable television so the public can be informed. We have exposed over-staffing, inefficient operations, and the lack of oversight by the board. These liberals are perfectly willing to make bad decisions with no supervision of the spending of millions of dollars or tax money. Some examples are: the overbuilding and over runs in school construction, the construction of the US 17 bypass also known as the road to no where, the failure to manage the county hospital, and the disaster in economic development.
These liberal Democrats, Langley, Booth, Klemm and Belcher, are in the process of delivering another severe economic blow to Beaufort County and especially the City of Washington, in locating a jail, that we do not need, south of Chocowinity in the industrial park. Yes, I said Klemm is a Democrat. If it walks like a Democrat, talks like a Democrat and votes like a Democrat, it must be a Democrat. In addition to wasting 20 million dollars and increasing the county expense by three million dollars per year they will destroy the future prospects of the industrial park. Companies do not want their plants in sight of jails. The sad thing is that we do not need to build a jail. The present jail has not been condemned. And, we can house surplus prisoners in Pitt County for $400,000 per year while a new jail will cost $3,000,000 per year.
In our position as whistle blowers, Stan and I have caught Sheriff Allan Jordan red handed in his failure to have repairs made to the plumbing in the jail and his dereliction of duty in failing to know that emergency power to the jail has been disconnected for almost one year. Jordan was making sure he would get a new jail by failing to maintain the existing jail.
On three occasions within the last four months Sheriff Jordan has had me removed from the jail. The most recent resulted in his calling me foul names and ordering his deputies to forcibly eject me. That action was illegal. His real reason is that every time I visit the jail I find more examples of his inability to manage the jail. As a law enforcement officer Jordan understands evidence. He is afraid I will discover more evidence of his inability to do his job. Big Al just does not like to hear that whistle blow.
Although Jordan has a huge ego that he works constantly at feeding, many of his problems come from a lack of oversight by the county commissioners. Jordan tries to claim that because he is a Constitutional officer he has a lot more power than other elected officials. Our most important principle of government is checks and balances. The only thing being a constitutional officer means is the county commissioners cannot eliminate the office of Sheriff. However, the state constitution provides that we can remove the individual serving as the sheriff. The process starts with the filing of a suit with the Superior court judge. Three sheriffs have been removed from office during the past few years by county commissioners. The sheriff's budget is appropriated by the county commissioners and it is entirely a negotiated budget. One good example is when I made the motion to double the size of the narcotics squad with the condition that those assigned to the squad could only work narcotics. This did a lot of good for a while but we still have not got any Mr. Bigs. They are mostly arresting users, street dealers and "mules." The board of county commissioners is not doing its job in providing oversight and supervising the sheriff.
Alan Jordan whines that Richardson seems to think he's in charge of everything. Think about what he is saying: To him it is about power. To me it is about shining the light on incompetence and blowing the whistle on corrupt government. I have one vote out of seven. Even if he is not too good with math, I suggest he should explain how a person can be in charge with only one vote. Could it be the sheriff has been caught doing things that are illegal? That is what my last confrontation with him was about. Alan Jordan wants total power and is not willing to be transparent and accountable for what he does. When he is put in the light of justice he pitches a temper tantrum. To him the issue is not about keeping the County from getting into trouble with the state, it is about power...HIS power. I will continue to blow the whistle on him.
Go Back
I have been a county commissioner for 17 years. Consequently, I have seen almost all of it. There are some commissioners who take the job seriously, there are those do not care; there are some on an ego trip, having been elected to a royal position; some who just want to be liked and are there to deliver to the public whatever the certain special interests want, some are there to thwart the political beliefs of other commissioners, and this list goes on to include any motive you can imagine. Take a look at the behavior of various public officials; from senators, house members, dog catchers, school board members, soil conservation board members, sheriffs, registers of deeds, clerks of court and judges. The entire rainbow of political beliefs and motives are there. Motive runs from people who cannot make a living any other way, to those who want to force their distorted political beliefs on the public.
But fortunately, some elected officials serve out of a sense of public service. The trick, for the voters, is to know what motivates a public official.
There are not enough elected officials who have read and understand the Constitution of the United States and the State of North Carolina. Yes, even the dog catcher should have read and understand these documents. These documents are the foundation on which all man-made law is laid. Observe the behavior of elected officials and you will know who understands our form of government and who is phony.
But to understand the behavior of public officials you must also have a basic understanding of government - the framework in which they operate. The basic principle of county government in North Carolina is that counties are geographic divisions of state government. Counties have those power, duties and responsibility that are prescribed by law for them. Counties do not have plenary power. That is, they have only that power which is enumerated for them. And example of an enumerated power is the power to assess and collect property taxes. But that power may be exercised only in accord with the statutes adopted by the state legislature. County and city governments decide how much to spend and then set the tax rate. The rules as to how property values are assessed and who gets exemptions are the same state wide. There are other responsibilities that are shared between the State and counties. An example is that county governments provide the funding for public school buildings and their maintenance. There is nothing in the law that says how big the central office staff has to be, nor is there anything that requires teacher supplements. The State pays the base teacher salary. But counties may provide supplements if they choose to do so. Counties can have as much additional fat in school budgets as they are willing to pay for.
The fundamental nature of county government is that it, as is municipal governments, is the closest to the people. While specific powers and duties are prescribed, and others prohibited or restricted by the state to county government it is also true that county officials, because they are so close to the people have significant influence on other levels of government all the way to the White House. Many things that are done in Washington and Raleigh have an impact of counties and on the people country commissioners represent. For that reason it is entirely appropriate for county commissions to take positions of issue that impact either the operation of county government or the people commissioners represent. Indeed, I believe county commissioners have a duty to take positions on state and national issues.
Once you understand what the powers, duties, and restrictions on county government are the next consideration is how does the individual commissioner fit in? Boards of county commissioners by state law are a "body politic and corporate". A "body politic" means counties are civil divisions of the state for governmental administration. "Corporate" means county governments are a legal entity and can act as a singular body. That means the majority must vote in order for any action to happen. Individual members of a county commission possess almost no power on their own. While I've seen some act otherwise the simple fact is that an individual commissioner has no individual power except when acting as a part of the board. That includes the chairman. The chairman may act only as an agent of the board and as authorized by the board.
Some may believe that individual county commissioners do not have much influence. That is true up to a point. Boards of commissioners are political bodies having been elected by the citizens of the county. There have been many political opinions and promises presented by members of boards of county commissions. Because of the potential turmoil and so meetings can be conducted in an orderly fashion, there are rules of procedure. Any commissioner may place any issue on the regularly scheduled meeting agenda. However, in order to have consideration and debate the item, at some point, requires a second from another commissioner. The only power the chairman has is to conduct the meeting according to the rules. At the end of discussion or debate the majority vote of the board determines whether there is action, no action or continuation of debate at a later date.
Before the limited voting system was installed by court order, Beaufort County had five conservative Democrat commissioners. Today, these commissioners would be Republicans or certainly vote Republican even if their conscience would not allow them to abandon the Democrat Party. With limited voting the number of commissioners was increased to seven to achieve racial demographic goals. These changes of voting methods opened the door for Republicans. These changes quickly allowed conservative (normal) Republicans to get elected. This is true because in the limited voting system a candidate who can gain the support of enough like-minded voters can be elected regardless of geography. I've often said "we represent beliefs, not land area." In the limited voting system it is paramount that a candidate tell the voters what their belief system is. The problem is that all too often we have candidates who say they believe one thing and then vote differently when it comes times to cast their votes.
We have had those who hold beliefs of Democrats but represent themselves as Republicans because Republicans could easily get elected. To the casual political eye the board looked Republican. The simple truth is that a conservative Republican has never served as chairman. All chairmen have been Democrats and Republicans In Name Only commonly called RINO's. Therefore, conservative government has not been present in Beaufort County leadership since about 1992 when the old line conservative Democrats filled all five seats. Beaufort County has had a liberal Democrat rule since 1992. RINO's Al Klemm and Jay McRoy have voted more than 80 percent of the time with Democrats and key issues, such as spending, taxes and major policies.
One cannot honestly understand Beaufort County government unless one realizes that liberal Democrats have controlled county government with the help of Republicans who ran on a conservative platform but then cut deals with Democrats to give the liberals control of county government. Many casual observers don't realize that the real dichotomy in county government is between liberal and conservative and conservatives have never had a chance to govern because the RINO's cut deals and traded their votes contrary to the beliefs they espoused when campaigning.
Stan Deatherage and I have always known that we as conservative Republicans did not have the votes to make policy change by the board. We have been whistle blowers on the terrible behavior of the liberal Democrats and RINO's. We have marched together toward honest government. We have insisted that meetings be open and broadcast on cable television so the public can be informed. We have exposed over-staffing, inefficient operations, and the lack of oversight by the board. These liberals are perfectly willing to make bad decisions with no supervision of the spending of millions of dollars or tax money. Some examples are: the overbuilding and over runs in school construction, the construction of the US 17 bypass also known as the road to no where, the failure to manage the county hospital, and the disaster in economic development.
These liberal Democrats, Langley, Booth, Klemm and Belcher, are in the process of delivering another severe economic blow to Beaufort County and especially the City of Washington, in locating a jail, that we do not need, south of Chocowinity in the industrial park. Yes, I said Klemm is a Democrat. If it walks like a Democrat, talks like a Democrat and votes like a Democrat, it must be a Democrat. In addition to wasting 20 million dollars and increasing the county expense by three million dollars per year they will destroy the future prospects of the industrial park. Companies do not want their plants in sight of jails. The sad thing is that we do not need to build a jail. The present jail has not been condemned. And, we can house surplus prisoners in Pitt County for $400,000 per year while a new jail will cost $3,000,000 per year.
In our position as whistle blowers, Stan and I have caught Sheriff Allan Jordan red handed in his failure to have repairs made to the plumbing in the jail and his dereliction of duty in failing to know that emergency power to the jail has been disconnected for almost one year. Jordan was making sure he would get a new jail by failing to maintain the existing jail.
On three occasions within the last four months Sheriff Jordan has had me removed from the jail. The most recent resulted in his calling me foul names and ordering his deputies to forcibly eject me. That action was illegal. His real reason is that every time I visit the jail I find more examples of his inability to manage the jail. As a law enforcement officer Jordan understands evidence. He is afraid I will discover more evidence of his inability to do his job. Big Al just does not like to hear that whistle blow.
Although Jordan has a huge ego that he works constantly at feeding, many of his problems come from a lack of oversight by the county commissioners. Jordan tries to claim that because he is a Constitutional officer he has a lot more power than other elected officials. Our most important principle of government is checks and balances. The only thing being a constitutional officer means is the county commissioners cannot eliminate the office of Sheriff. However, the state constitution provides that we can remove the individual serving as the sheriff. The process starts with the filing of a suit with the Superior court judge. Three sheriffs have been removed from office during the past few years by county commissioners. The sheriff's budget is appropriated by the county commissioners and it is entirely a negotiated budget. One good example is when I made the motion to double the size of the narcotics squad with the condition that those assigned to the squad could only work narcotics. This did a lot of good for a while but we still have not got any Mr. Bigs. They are mostly arresting users, street dealers and "mules." The board of county commissioners is not doing its job in providing oversight and supervising the sheriff.
Alan Jordan whines that Richardson seems to think he's in charge of everything. Think about what he is saying: To him it is about power. To me it is about shining the light on incompetence and blowing the whistle on corrupt government. I have one vote out of seven. Even if he is not too good with math, I suggest he should explain how a person can be in charge with only one vote. Could it be the sheriff has been caught doing things that are illegal? That is what my last confrontation with him was about. Alan Jordan wants total power and is not willing to be transparent and accountable for what he does. When he is put in the light of justice he pitches a temper tantrum. To him the issue is not about keeping the County from getting into trouble with the state, it is about power...HIS power. I will continue to blow the whistle on him.
| Revised, Expanded JLF Report Tackles Key Common Core Questions | The Hood Territory, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics | WWLD: Do Facebook and forget Benghazi |
Home
Contact
About
Service Rates
Privacy Policy
Follow on Facebook
Subscribe to Newsletters
Rss Feed
Keywords
Eastern NC Now & ENC NOW © Copyright 1998-2024 All Rights Reserved.
