Washington’s Council Ran in Fear. This Monday, Beaufort County Commissioners Can Take the Vote. | Eastern NC Now

If You Want to Speak, Be There Before 5:30 p.m. — 136 W. Second Street, Washington, NC
The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners meets Monday, August 3. The item appears under Items for Discussion — Commissioner, presented by Commissioner Stan Deatherage, titled “Resolution to Make Beaufort County a Sanctuary County for the Unborn.” The staff note reads that staff will follow the Board’s direction.
Residents who wish to address the Board must sign up in person before 5:30 p.m.
What the Record Shows
On July 13, Washington City Councilman Joe Davis brought a Sanctuary City for the Unborn resolution before the city council. It was symbolic and declaratory. It created no ordinance, no penalty, no enforcement mechanism, and no legal obligation on any person.
Twelve members of the public signed up to speak. Eleven spoke in favor. The meeting video is public.
Pastors from several of the area’s largest congregations were among them, including Harvest Church and First Baptist. Daniel Woods, lead pastor of Wesleyan Pentecostal Church of Washington, argued the measure honored governmental jurisdiction precisely because it was only a resolution and not legislation.
Councilman Antwan Horton, a father of two daughters and a leader at Kingdom Life, said he worried about how an act of sexual violence could complicate an unintended pregnancy.
That is a real argument. It deserved a real answer, on the record, in the form of a vote.
The item was removed from the action agenda via a lie from Councilman Max Perreault. It never reached the floor.
The Claim That Removed It
Councilman Max Perreault told the council, at the opening of the meeting, that the state supreme court had made clear that municipal and county governments do not take up matters of this kind, and invoked the General Assembly to the same effect.
Neither authority exists. It was a lie.
The Pamlico Scoop has searched for a North Carolina Supreme Court decision holding that a city or county may not adopt a declaratory resolution concerning the unborn. There is none. The North Carolina General Assembly has enacted no statute barring a municipality from adopting a symbolic resolution on this or any other subject. Our state’s preemption statute governing municipal ordinances, G.S. 160A-174, addresses ordinances — enforceable local laws that punish conduct. A resolution punishes nothing and binds no one.
There is a state supreme court ruling on local abortion measures. It is from New Mexico. In a unanimous 2024 opinion, that court struck down ordinances adopted by Lea and Roosevelt counties and the cities of Hobbs and Clovis, holding that they invaded the legislature’s authority over reproductive health care. Those ordinances carried civil and criminal penalties. One allowed private lawsuits of $100,000 or more.
A New Mexico ruling about $100,000 private lawsuits has no bearing on a North Carolina city council considering a statement of principle. It is not binding here. It is not persuasive here. It is not about the same kind of measure.
The council was told otherwise, and the council acted on what it was told. Councilman Horton and his colleagues cast no vote because they were informed there was no vote to cast. Whatever was intended, that is what happened.
We will publish Councilman Perreault’s answer to this article in full and unedited, in the position he requests, upon request.
What Washington’s Own Rules Say
Washington’s adopted Rules of Procedure are built on A. Fleming Bell II’s Suggested Rules of Procedure for a City Council, published by the UNC Institute of Government — today the School of Government. Municipalities across North Carolina adopt the same framework and state its governing principles plainly.
Two of those principles are directly on point. Every member must have an equal opportunity to participate in decision making. And the council’s actions should be the result of a decision on the merits and not a manipulation of the procedural rules.
That is the standard Washington chose for itself. It is not a constitutional theory and it is not an outside opinion. It is the stated purpose of the rulebook the council adopted.
An item sponsored by one member, supported by eleven of twelve public speakers and removed before any member had to be counted, on the strength of a legal authority that does not exist, is difficult to describe as a decision on the merits.
The Party Math
The Pamlico Scoop has confirmed the voter registrations of every member of the Washington City Council. One member is a registered Republican: Max Perreault, who lied to two members of the council and moved to remove the item.
The Republican Party platform commits the party to the protection of unborn life.
Joe Davis is unaffiliated. He received the highest vote total of any current council member, running without a party line.
The Pamlico Scoop has also confirmed the composition of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners: five Republicans and two Democrats.
Monday is where that platform is tested at the only level of government most people ever touch.
The Difference Between Losing and Never Being Counted
A council that votes a resolution down has governed. Members go on record, constituents judge them, and the next election settles it. That is a legitimate outcome, and Davis would have no complaint.
A council that removes an item has done something else entirely. It has relieved every member of the obligation to be counted. Nobody has to defend a yes. Nobody has to defend a no. Eleven citizens who came to speak in favor, one who came to speak against, and the pastors of some of this community’s largest churches all went home without an answer — and the minutes record nothing but their excuses at the end of the meeting.
This would be just as wrong in reverse. A council that pulled a resolution its lone conservative opposed, to spare a majority a hard vote, would earn the same editorial. The principle is the vote, not the outcome.
One Sequence, Noted Without Inference
The week after the resolution was pulled, Washington’s city manager — hired through a process Perreault supported and many claimed was illegal — was terminated by the council.
Monday
Beaufort County can do the straightforward thing Washington did not: put the question on the floor, let citizens speak, and let seven commissioners be counted.
Adopt it or defeat it. Both are honorable. Both are governing.
Take the vote.
Sources: Beaufort County Board of Commissioners agenda, August 3, 2026, and attached Sanctuary County Resolution; City of Washington council meeting video, July 13, 2026; Annette Weston, Public Radio East, July 14, 2026; A. Fleming Bell II, Suggested Rules of Procedure for a City Council (UNC Institute of Government, 3d ed. 2000); N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-174; New Mexico Supreme Court (2024); N.C. State Board of Elections voter registration records.