Donald Dixon speaks against raising taxes for a new jail... | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

And gets cut off by Chairman Langley

    Donald Dixon, one of the announced candidates for Sheriff of Beaufort County spoke during the Public Comment section of the December Board of Commissioner's meeting. Dixon spoke as a small business owner with a background in law enforcement, both by training and experience, and urged those supporting building a new jail to consider the stressed taxpayers. You can hear his comment in the video below.

    We should explain that we did not include the usual introductory titles in this video clip. The reason is that we wanted you to be able to see that Chairman Jerry Langley cut Mr. Dixon short on his time. You will not on the video that he allowed Mr. Dixon only two minutes and thirty five seconds whereas the policy is to allow three minutes. We have previously documented that Mr. Langley has allowed some speakers during the Public Comment section to go well over three minutes, but we will leave it to you to do your research to see which ones he discriminates in favor of compared to those he gives no quarter to. Just another example of his arrogant abuse of his power as Chairman.

    Mr. Dixon seemed surprised when he was cut off, but he handled it with class. Here are his comments, all two and a half minutes worth:



    In the event that you have not been keeping up very closely with the debate on whether to build a new jail or not, we would point out that Mr. Dixon is the only candidate, to our knowledge, who has taken a position against building a new jail and Sheriff's Office at this time. He contends that he can manage the jail such that the current jail can continue to be used, at least until the economy picks up and some of the current indebtedness is paid down, thus reducing the tax increases that would be necessary to build a new jail complex now.

    Mr. Langley, on the other hand is the kingpin behind the New Jail movement. Some have speculated that he has ambitions to someday be Sheriff and that may be his motive for want a new complex. Who knows? But what is not in doubt is that Mr. Langley cut Mr. Dixon off. The criticism must be getting to the Chairman.