Beaufort Commissioners Fail to Supervise - Part II | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: This is the second installment of a two part series. We ran the first part of this series earlier in the week.

They are not doing their job

    Part One of this two part series gave some examples of the Beaufort County Commissioners failure to supervise county business, finance and policy. A shocking revelation to a lot of people is that any handling of money is a business and the skills of running a business are required. Because government is a business, we should be electing people to public office who have business skills. Everyone has opinions and is somewhat political. The unique thing is having successful business experience. The lack of business experience among all elected officials is a short coming of our political system.

    We have failed to use oversight committees to solve problems. Oversight committees usually consist of three commissioners who meet informally either with or without county staff to examine an issue and recommend a solution. Sometimes members of the public are appointed to the committee when they have specialized information or insight. Thankfully, we are now using more oversight committees. We are using a three commissioner committee to modernize the technology at the tax offices. Those familiar with the criminal justice system have been appointed to the jail committee. We have an audit committee. I am confident having these committees plus public comment will help us avoid some of our past disasters.
Hood explains it all.     photo by Stan Deatherage
    The public schools are an example of hot emotional issues that have had very opinionated political decisions made without the benefit of deliberate study. About half of the property tax money collected in Beaufort County goes to education. All of our school decisions since I have been a commissioner have been disasters. All of these multimillion dollar decisions have been made by one or two people who simply did not know what they were doing. Those people misinformed their associates along with a few ego driven politicians who simply had to show the conservatives what they could do. I am speaking of overbuild in school rooms along with the 8 to 10 million dollar over run in a 33 million dollar bond issue. How did that happen? Raw emotional politics and a few RINOS and Democrats who simply had to win at all costs. There was no oversight.

    Why would the County Commissioners have won a law suit and then insisted on giving the schools an additional two and one half million dollars per year? The answer again is two or three Democrats and RINOS making the decisions and having to win at all costs. There was no oversight.

    How did we spend almost 200 million dollars for a road to nowhere? Answer again two or three Democrats and RINOS making the decisions and then having to win at all costs. There was no oversight.

    How did we give $267,000 to the Agape charity and deliberately not even ask for an accounting of how the money was spent. The answer again is two or three Democrats and RINOS making the decisions and having to win at all costs. There was no oversight.

    How is it that the Health Director signs contracts without a vote of the Board of Health to say nothing of the County Commissioners. It is your money that is being spent.

    This is not the first time the Health Director has negotiated and signed contracts without approval. One may ask, "How many more contracts and agreements are out there that should have been approved by the County Commissioners"? This problem is caused by the lack of a policy that is actually enforced by the Board of Commissioners. Is there any punishment for usurping the powers of the people?

    How did we tie up at least six million dollars in economic development with no prospect of recovering the money? The answer is two or three Democrats and RINOS making the decisions and then having to win at all costs. There was no oversight.

    Finally, we need to start a policy manual directed at the various department heads as to how the commissioners and manager does business.

    There are Commissioners who simply do not want to be bothered by these important issues, who may actually have to put some time into their job as commissioner, and who use our loosey goosey policy as a way for them to obtain special favors for themselves, their families and friends. It is up to you, the voter, as the ultimate decision maker about government to sort through candidates in the May 8th primary election and decide who is worth voting for. The voters elected those who have brought this Nation, State and County to the condition they are in today. Look at those running for County Commissioner and if you believe they voted for these disasters, do not return them to office.