Comments by Steven P. Rader | Eastern NC Now

One thing that struck me on the recruitment of both a new county manager and a new city manager was that there was no effort to bring anyone in with management experience from the private sector. I think many taxpayers would find private sector management experience a plus in running government more efficiently.

Having spent five years during the Jim Martin administration as part of the management team of the largest department of NC state government, I remember that all of our top level deparment management came from the private sector, NOT from government. Our department had a $3 Billion budget and 18,000 employees, a much larges operation than local governments, yet we had no one in top departmental management with those Masters of Public Administration degrees that local governments covet in their management staff. Having also worked several months into the Hunt administration as a consultant, their management staff in the department also came from the private sector.

Private sector management experience obviously works fine in state government, so why is it not a resource to be tapped for local government?

The problem lies in local governments using their state associations to seek applicants, and those groups are wired into career bureaucrats. A smart local government would also advertize where potential applicants with private sector management experience could learn of the vacancy and respond. Our local governments are not doing that.

The larger the pool of applicants, the better the available choices will be.

Even though the state pays for local school superintendents and therefore has more of a say in qualifications, they allow local school boards to hire applicants who have a bachelors degree and four years of management experience who do not have education related education or experience. Some years ago, Wake County hired a retired army general as their school superintendent under those standards, whose management experience came from the military, and he proved a good school superintendent. .

Commented: Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 @ 8:46 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Stan, there is a Vote Calculus organization in the UK that has a pretty good track record. They take national polls and look what the resulting swing in each Parliamentary constituency would do. On a recent national poll, they projected a ReformUK majority in Parliament of over 100 seats over all other parties combined.

In partial local elections last year, ReformUK won ten of the fifteen counties that voted, as well as two of the four mayors that were elected. The same day they won a special election for what had been a "safe" Labour seat in parliament.

Indeed, they are so viable that Labour has been trying to delay the next set of local elections on some sham theories.

Commented: Saturday, April 4th, 2026 @ 8:12 pm By: Steven P. Rader

You know, Keg, I kinda like having all of Beaufort County back in the First Congressional District. All of our county used to be part of the First District for many decades up until 1992. Then we were split with part of Beaufort County being in the First and part in the Third until 2011. It is only in the last 15 years that our county has been all in the Third District. Having myself served as chairman of the First District Republican Party from 1985 to 1992 when all of our county waw in that district, I am pleased to be back in it with our new district lines.

Commented: Monday, February 23rd, 2026 @ 3:57 pm By: Steven P. Rader

We do not have any of this nonsense going on in Beaufort County Schools, As long as we keep conservative representation on the Board of Education, we will have a team that will be on the lookout for it if it appears.

Where we do have a problem is that some of our Board members are not yet fully on board with the parental rights landmark Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor. This showed up when I offered motions to amend our existing written school board policies covering how we handled materials that were controversial with parents and the community. For example, we have an existing policy that says decisions on controversial materials will be made based on opinions of educational staff. My motion was to change this to say that they would be made on the basis of the opinions of both parents and educational staff. Charles Hickman seconded my motion. Carolyn Walker spoke against it, saying we should rely only on the opinions of teachers. She got five votes for her position, which is a majority of the nine members of the board.

After that meeting, I emailed all of the other board members several articles explaining the Supreme Court's ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor plus a full copy of the court's decision. I expect to bring this key parents rights issue back to the board in the future.

Under the Mahmoud decision, all issues dealing with anything that could touch on religion are decided solely on the position of parents. The court ruled that issues related to homosexuality and transgenderism are related to religious beliefs but did not rule on any other issue areas yet. On those issues, schools are required to notify parents of any such content and allow parents to opt their children out of those activities that contain such materials or presentations. When it comes to any matter touching on religion, the Supreme Court has completely frozen out educational experts and left it 100% up to parents.

As long as I am a member of the school board, I will continue to stand up for parents rights.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 5:15 pm By: Steven P. Rader

There is too much pork barrel waste in that bill, but at the present time that is not the important issue. Illegal immigration is the big issue. Democrats are working to derail the efforts to remove illegal aliens from the country. If weak Republicans in Congress let them do that, it will kill GOP turnout in the midterm elections and hand Congress to the Democrats.ICE was given long term funding in the Big Beautiful Bill, so Republicans in Congress need to stand their ground.

Commented: Sunday, February 1st, 2026 @ 10:21 am By: Steven P. Rader

I want to commend our own State Senator Bob Brinson who represents Beaufort County as one of the only three senate Republicans who stood alongside Senator Bobby Hanig to oppose the Shrimpgate bill. No Democrats did at all. The others were staunch conservative Senator Norm Sanderson of Pamlico County and Senator Michael Lazzara of Onslow County. I thank them for their courage in standing up to the "leadership" on this awful bill.

Commented: Monday, December 29th, 2025 @ 5:33 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Glad to see Trump and Rubio standing up for free speech. This is the reverse of the Biden years when Biden's radicalized USAID was lavishly funding the pro-censorship anti-free speech organizations around the world. Renowned law professor and free speech advocate Jonathan Turley called the Biden administration the most anti-free speech administration in US history.

Commented: Thursday, December 25th, 2025 @ 4:23 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Van Zant, the proposal to add the term "hate symbol" to our school policies did not originate locally. It came down from Raleigh, a place more inclined to liberal ideas than eastern North Carolina. Using undefined terms "hate speech" or "hate symbols" have clear problems for freedom of speech.

My first thought on encountering this proposed addition to our school policies was the well publicized incident some time back in Colorado where a student was suspended from school for wearing an item of clothing displaying the Gadsden flag. The Gadsden flag is a historic flag carried by American soldiers in the Revolutionary War, but to a school official in Colorado, it was a "hate symbol".

A similar situation for another flag of that era involved the Betsey Ross 13 star American flag, which was the first official flag of the newly independent United States. Leftwing activists called that flag a "hate symbol" and pressured Nike to remove it from sneakers they were selling. Nike caved in and removed the flag even though they kept selling sneakers displaying the Communist Chinese flag.

This issue of adding the undefined term "hate symbol" to our school policies has come up recently in two meetings at two different places in the policies. If memory serves, in addition to the board members listed by Van Zant, member Donald Shreve also voted for free speech.

My first proposal was that we just not add the term at all. Nothing seems to have happened in our school system to show it was even needed. Getting pushback on that, I then suggested that we simply make a list of the symbols that we thought not appropriate for display by students in our schools. I suggested that swastikas and any emblem of the KKK, for example, should not be allowed. I got strong pushback from member Carolyn Walker who wanted to leave it open ended.

During the discussion, board chairman T.W. Allen mentioned a definition he had just found online that was fairly tight and he seemed to be okay with such a definition. Of course there are various different definitions that could be found online, so we would need to adopt one specifically as part of our own policy. Toward that end, I have drafted a proposed specific definition of this term to add to our policies, which I asked to be put on the agenda for our January board meeting. A tight enough specific definition should resolve freedom of speech issues.

It is shocking but not surprising to look at some of the lists of "hate symbols" compiled by various organizations and published online. They included a number of Christian symbols and symbols of Christian organizations. They include the logo of the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of American Reagan-style conservatives. They include party symbols of the governing parties of Italy and Hungary, the main opposition party of Portugal, the largest party in the Swiss parliament, and the parties leading in the polls in France, Germany, Austria, and the UK, as well as other major European political parties. They even include the symbol that has been used for years by the main opposition party in the Bahamas, the Progressive Liberal Party. Obviously, those who want to designate things as "hate symbols" are just way out of control.

When one gets to undefined "hate speech" it gets even worse. People who have been prosecuted criminally under that banner recently include a French feminist leader charged for posting online that biological women needed their own private spaces, a Finnish member of parliament prosecuted for posting a Bible verse online, and a German pensioner prosecuted for posting online that his country's very unsuccessful Economics Minister was "an idiot". Unfortunately there are many.many more similar cases in Europe.

We do not need to go down this slippery slope. We have gotten by fine without having this term in our policies at all, and if we are going to have it, it needs to be defined so it is harder to abuse. That Colorado incident shows what can happen. The definition I have drafted should accomplish that objective.

Commented: Saturday, December 20th, 2025 @ 6:26 pm By: Steven P. Rader

County voter, you are correct that teaching cursive writing is required, as is teaching the multiplication tables. This was mandated by the state legislature in statute, rather than from DPI. School districts are required to make certifications to the legislature annually.

Given the polling of college freshmen who say they cannot read and write cursive, I wonder if some districts may just go through the motions on cursive, or perhaps not teach it at all. In our state, beyond that certification, there is no further process to determine if cursive is actually being taught.

I was pleased with our own teachers that when I commented on the cards with cursive letters, they tended to be spontaneous in expressing the importance of teaching cursive. I believe our own teachers are genuinely committed to doing so.

One aspect, though, is that when one learns something but does not use it, their skills tend to get rusty. I would like to see us develop some methodologies that would promote students using cursive to a sufficient extent throughout their school years to maintain their skills.

Commented: Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 @ 6:51 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Jack Smith's Operation Arctic Frost was targeted at Republican senators and congressmen on what is known as a "fishing expedition". That was a huge abuse of power and should not be tolerated in a Constitutional republic. Even worse, the documents show that the Biden White House was aware of and condoned it.

Commented: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 @ 9:33 am By: Steven P. Rader

Countrygirl, there are many parents who feel the way you do about indoctrination in our schools. Here in North Carolina, a poll by the Locke Foundation found that 71% of NC parents are concerned about political indoctrination in the public schools. A poll taken by the respected French polling firm IPSOS in 30 countries on all five continents on parents concerns about the education system found that the United States was the only country among those 30 where the top education concern of parents was political and ideological bias in the classroom.

In the Beaufort County schools, we have a new science curriculum that will be coming up soon. One extremely high profile issue that is under debate in both science and in government / politics is whether and to what extent CO2 may cause global warming / climate change. As a school board member, I am already speaking out that we need a curriculum that fairly and objectively covers all sides of this issue. Students need to be taught how to think, not what to think.

Commented: Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 @ 9:07 am By: Steven P. Rader

The Beaufort County School Board has recently amended our policies to ban all DEI in our curriculum. We are currently asking for proposals for a new science curriculum, and that policy has been communicated to the companies seeking to provide our new curriculum. As a board, we will probably have to hold their feet to the fire on this policy. A Locke Foundation poll found that 71% of North Carolina parents are concerned about political indoctrination in the classroom.

Commented: Sunday, November 16th, 2025 @ 1:05 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Stan, Republicans have been active in "non-partisan" elections as long as I can remember. When I was still registered to vote in Mecklenburg County in the early 1970s, the local Republican Party there noted that Charlotte was then voting Republican in elections where party labels were on the ballot, but elected Democrats to city office where party labels were not on the ballot. They started widely advertising who the Republicans on the ballot were and started winning most of the city races. Of course, Charlotte has now gone the other direction, and that has not worked in a number of years. I think McCrory as mayor was the last one who benefited before politics there shifted.

At one time, the same dynamics applied in Raleigh, and the Wake County GOP was heavily involved in getting Republican Tom Fetzer elected mayor in a nominally non-partisan race. Of course, partisan dynamics have changed there, too, since that time.

Back when judicial races were "non-partisan", the Republican Party was active statewide in working to elect the Republicans who were running for judgeships.

This year, the party on the congressional district level, and to a large degree on the state level pushed local parties getting involved in electing Republicans to city offices in officially "non-partisan" races. This is nothing new. It has been going on for some time, and Democrats also do it on their side of the fence many places.

Commented: Friday, November 7th, 2025 @ 4:29 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Stan, local officials are not excluded from conflict of interest statutes, but the way those statutes work in small counties is that the local official can bid and be awarded a contract BUT they must not take part in the decision making process to decide who gets the bid. If they take part in that decision making process, that can have criminal repercussions as a former county commissioner in Hyde County found out some years ago. As long as those guidelines are followed, a company owned by an elected official in a small county is elgible to bid and be awarded a contract.

Commented: Friday, October 31st, 2025 @ 12:58 pm By: Steven P. Rader

What also needs to be recognized are the significant changes in policy that were accomplished at the last school board meeting. The board unanimously adopted my proposal to amend our curriculum policy to prohibit the inclusion of the woke DEI ideology in our curriculum. My motion to remove "gender identity" and "sexual preference" as being part of "discrimination based on sex" both places it previously appeared in our policies was also passed unanimously. Now our Title IX policies are back to reflecting the way Congress wrote them, to protect women, not other groups whose interests are often contrary to those of women.

Success on issues like those reflects talking to and working with other board members. Some of them may not agree with me on every issue, but we agree on some issues, and by keeping open lines of communication, instead of throwing grenades, we can move forward on constructive policy that reflects the viewpoints of our citizens in Beaufort County.

On the issue of the school board attorney, there were two separate groups talking among themselves on trying to get a local attorney. When Daniel Hudson was the first to bring it up before the board, it offered an opportunity to put together a majority to do that. Indeed, our initial decision to put together a Request for Proposals (RFP) to do that was unanimous.

While I have not confirmed who actually wrote the RFP that was presented, it included a kink that divided the board. That was making the local attorney subservient to the out of town attorney, the reverse of the way most school boards and other local government bodies operate. Usually the local attorney is the primary attorney, and brings in specialized assistance from specialized attorneys as needed for lawsuits and some other matters.

I made a motion to rewrite the RFP to make the local attorney the primary attorney, consistent with the usual policy of local boards. The question was raised about Tharrington Smith being brought in as needed on specialized matters, something I had no problem with as it is the usual way legal representation for local government boards work. However, the member who seconded my motion clearly did not want Tharrington Smith involved at all and withdrew the second. Prior to that, I thought we had a reasonable chance of getting a majority to change the RFP. With the second withdrawn, another motion was made to approve the RFP as written, which then passed 5 to 4.

There is a reason why bringing in specialized counsel is sometimes necessary, and is often done by local attorneys for school boards, counties, and cities. Many legal matters are straightforward and have little of nothing to do with policy, but having an attorney familiar with the nuances of handling them makes the odds of success in the legal matter much better.

The example I used was a case I brought on behalf of a high school girl some years ago against Lenoir County Schools. The law and evidence were strongly in my clients favor and I was confident we would be granted the relief we asked for in our written pleadings. However, the local school board attorney, who clearly had no background in such proceedings bungled the school board's case so badly that in my oral argument, I asked for much more far reaching (and much more expensive for the school system) relief and the court granted it. The school system would have saved a lot of money if they had brought in someone specialized in such proceedings instead of having their local attorney try to wing it.

The reason it is important to have a local school board attorney who has similar policy stances to the local community and local board is that while many legal issues have no ideological, philosophical, or political aspects, there are also many issues that arise where law and policy are intertwined and the applicable law can be argued more than one way. When I attended the recent Law Conference put on by the NC School Boards Association, questions to presenters on such issues were always responded to with "ask your local board attorney". When such issues arise, it is best to have a local school board attorney who is in tune with prevailing local opinion of both the community and board.

Commented: Thursday, October 30th, 2025 @ 6:21 pm By: Steven P. Rader

North Carolina is likely worse on illegal aliens on our voter rolls. Republican-run Texas has been proactive, as much as it could be, to identify and stop such illegal voter registrations. With nine straight years of lax state level voter roll supervision by Democrats, North Carolina is in a much different situation. They have been thumbing their noses at federal law that required a partial social secutiry number that could be identified or a drivers license number, so that would make it much easier for a foreign citizen to register to vote. States that give illegal aliens drivers licenses would be the most problematic of all.

Commented: Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 @ 2:32 pm By: Steven P. Rader

States like North Carolina should look to the solution to this problem identified by Poland's populist right Law and Justice Party. They put forward a law that allowed any Polish citizen whose posts complied with Polish law but had them removed by a major internet platform to sue that platform in Polish courts for a million euros per incident. This made censorship of Poles potentially very expensive for those major internet platforms. North Carolina could do the same for posts of North Carolinians which comply with North Carolina law, letting anyone sue those major platforms in North Carolina courts for a large amount of damages.

Commented: Monday, October 6th, 2025 @ 11:08 am By: Steven P. Rader