Political Sausage | Eastern North Carolina Now
The attempt to corrupt the process to choose the newest School Board member - Steve Rader
Political Sausage
BY: HOOD RICHARDSON
That old saying about watching sausage being made would make one not want to eat it can be applied to a lot of politics. There was a lot of conniving going on about the replacement of one of our favorite RINOs on the Beaufort County School Board.
This has nothing to do with the person who was selected to finish the term of Gary Carlton. I am delighted Steve Rader, a Republican, was selected by the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee. Steven Rader is extremely well qualified to fill this position.
It is the RINOs (Republican In Name Only) and their liberal traveling companions who made this sausage.
Gary Carlton’s escape from School District Six was well planned. He took a deed for a house on Stewart Drive, just outside District Six on June 12, 2025, and handed in his notice to the School Superintendent stating that he was no longer a resident of District Six effective June 13th. I say well planned because it normally takes two or three months to shop for a house, make an offer, do the title work and close the deal, and move. Carlton did it in a day.
Then the sausage making started. The School Board insiders tried to arrange for them to pick Carlton’s replacement. At first, they thought the pick was entirely up to them. Then they became aware this is a partisan seat, and they only have a chance to make the pick if the Republican Party does not get it done in 30 days. About this time Superintendent Cheeseman (the Big Cheese) went on vacation with the 30-day clock running. The Republican Party requested a copy of the resignation but were told that Cheeseman was on vacation and his staff was afraid to release the resignation letter. The result of the foot dragging by the school crowd was that the Republican Party had less than one week to decide who would replace Carlton. That is why they met on Sunday July 13 to decide.
A request was made to Carlton to provide the Republican Party with a copy of his resignation. It seems that Carlton handed his resignation to the School Board shortly after the request was made and thumbed his nose at the Republican Party. This behavior fits well with his claims of being a conservative Republican and then climbing on the cheese wagon. A loyal liberal?
There is another argument about timing that says they have 30 days after the notice is received by the Republican Party. However, when dealing with this crowd caution is required.
School Board member Daniel Hudson recruited Michael Herbert, a resident of District Six, to replace Carlton. Herbert is not an activist Republican. However, Carolyn Walker, not a resident of School District Six had the gall to show up at the Republican Special Called Executive Committee meeting and nominate Herbert. There are serious questions about people who are not residents of District Six being able to influence this kind of election. Does this mean someone from the Aurora School District can nominate someone to be on the Belhaven School Board. This is RINO thinking and not common sense.
Walker got her clock cleaned when there was not a single vote for Herbert. This was another ploy by the two liberals, Daniel Hudson from Pinetown and Carolyn Walker from River Road to keep as many RINOs on the School Board as possible. Sausage making.
This is not the first time Daniel Hudson has meddled with the school system. Hudson, in a closed session, requested the Beaufort County School Board override a school principal’s decision about his daughter being allowed to take a performance test again so she could get an “A” instead of the “B” she actually made the first time she took the test. This is not fair to the rest of the students. Hudson learned quickly to use the system to help his family. Why not use the system? Carolyn Walker and Terry Williams have family members whose good job seems to be dependent on their pleasing the Big Cheese.
In my opinion this item could not be handled in a closed (secret) session according to the North Carolina open meetings laws.
Maybe the Beaufort County School Board was not making sausage, maybe they were making limburger cheese.
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Yes, when you live and work in a corrupt City like Washington, it is important that you are a "team player." You take your demotion with a smile and simply say "Yes sir, Mr City Manager, your wish is my command."
Why Couldnt our Police chief continue as Chief AND help the Detective Dept? Afterall Mr Drakeford who is Director of Public Safety has held multiple titles at the same time... Director of Public safety, Fire Chief, Police Chief, Deputy City Manager... Such a team player! He can do all the jobs for the City. I ask, why didnt WITN interview Mayor Sadler? Because everyone KNOWs that the City Council are all just puppets to the King of the City, the CityManager. By the way, Chief Drakeford doesnt want the city to be known as a ticket city, so you can bet the police officers heard that, and stopped bothering to write speed tickets. Please read: www.witn.com It is WITN Investigative Report. |
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Why isnt this widely advertised?
Now HIRING: www.ziprecruiter.com Police Chief City of Washington Washington, NC $85,868 to $145,313 Yearly Full-Time Posted May 19,2025. |
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When will this “weak kneed” school board learn that Cheeseman is hired help? He sits beside the school board Chairman and reads the rules at the opening of the school board meeting for the meeting. There are no assignments given by the board to Cheeseman, and no “return and report” from Cheeseman. Eight out of thirteen schools are poor-performing schools. Why? Half of our consolidated school buildings are empty. (Our county commission chairman wants to build another one) Aurora did not just happen. Cheeseman has allowed this erosion since he has been here. After all, they are just mostly black kids, Let’em ride the bus. If we move the remaining students to Chocowinity and the new one thousand k-6 monstrosity building does not fill up here in Washington, which it will not. Then the next move will be to bring Chocowinity k-6 to Washington, close Bath and bring those to Washington and “voila”, the problem is solved. We can have more consolidated schools, and Cheesman is a hero.
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Everyone, I had no idea this level of malfeasance existed in the Beaufort County Schools.
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Wow! What the superintendent did and the school board attorney seems to have failed to do just does not pass the smell test. There may have been some school board members also acting inappropriately.
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Yes Bubba,
As you correctly wrote: "Too many of our school board members seem to be little more than rubber stamps / puppets for our very liberal superintendent Cheeseman. That is pathetic." This puppet/rubber stamp scenario exist for the City of Washington as well. Our entire City Council & the bureaucrats that work for them are mere mindless puppets doing the bidding of the City Manager. When Hood wrote: "Sometimes, with zoning, there comes corruption, favoritism and huge expensive bureaucracies to administer the favoritism and corruption." I thought he must be talking about the City of Washington. No, they wont see the error of their ways because they are too ignorant & lazy to understand their own responsibilities to the public. I'll bet you not one of them have read the zoning rules posted on their own City website. Vote wisely. |
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Too many of our school board members seem to be little more than rubber stamps / puppets for our very liberal superintendent Cheeseman. That is pathetic.
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In revaluation years like this one, state law calculates a "revenue neutral" rate, one that would produce the same amount of revenue as the old tax rate based on the increased value of property. Any tax rate above that revenue neutral rate is, by state law as well as by the reality of what taxpayers have to pay, a tax increase.
The county adopted the revenue neutral rate for this year's taxes based on the rate calculated by state law. The City of Washington adopted a rate 28% above the revenue neutral rate. That is a massive tax increase.
Washington's city government is in a sad state of affairs. Not only does the city manager exercise way too much power for a bureaucrat, but the city council is a patheric joke. They are nothing but rubber stamps for Mayor Sadler, nothing but weak "yes men". Between the manager and the mayor, Washington has a Tammany Hall style government.
But the city manager had better watch out. Sadler would love to get rid of him so he can hire the city's first black city manager. With Sadler, it is as much about race as it is about power.