Friday, April 24, 2015

Oriental Town Board Official Minutes Of July 3, 2012 Meeting


For those nitpickers who pay attention to the Oriental Town Board, it may prove enlightening to compare the verbatim record of the Board's discussion (July 3, 2012) of closing of Avenue A and South Avenue with the approved minutes.  I find little or no similarity. Here are the official minutes (below). Here is the transcript of the actual recorded discussions.

Town Board Meeting-July 3, 2012 1 of 3 

Town of Oriental Town Board Meeting July 3, 2012 

A regular scheduled meeting of the Town of Oriental Town Board was held at Oriental First Baptist Church, July 3, 2012, beginning at 7:00pm.

Present: Mayor Sage; Commissioners Bessette, Johnson, Summers, Styron, and Venturi; Town Manager Maxbauer; and Bylon Whitsett.


Absent: None Mayor Sage determined that a quorum was present. He opened the meeting and led the Pledge of Allegiance.


MOTION: Commissioner Summers made a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Commissioner Styron seconded. Motion passed. 5-0


MOTION: Commissioner Summers, with regards to the consent agenda, made a motion to approve the minutes from June 4, 2012. Commissioner Venturi seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 The minutes from June 5, 2012 were pulled from the consent agenda for review.


MOTION: Commissioner Venturi made a motion to approve the June 5, 2012 Budget Workshop minutes and the June 5, 2012 Town Board Meeting minutes. Commissioner Summers seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 The minutes from June 11, 2012 were corrected to read in paragraph 5 that Commissioner Venturi made the motion and not Commissioner Bessette.


MOTION: Commissioner Summers made a motion to approve the June 11, 2012 minutes as corrected. Commissioner Bessette seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 The Council discussed the modifications to the Contract Agreement regarding South Avenue/Avenue A. It was noted that all modifications applied only to the attachments.


MOTION: Commissioner Summers made a motion to accept the amendment to the agreement and to authorize and direct the Mayor and Town Clerk to sign it.. Commissioner Venturi seconded. Motion passed. 5-0


MOTION: Commissioner Summers made a motion to open the public hearing. Commissioner Styron seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 The following people spoke at the public hearing for the proposed street closures: Town Board Meeting-July 3, 2012 2 of 3 1. David Cox 2. Barbara Stockton 3. Jim Privette 4. John Zeren 5. Bob Miller 6. Bill Marlowe 7. Bob Pittman 8. Clare Pittman 9. Fay Midgette Bond. 10. David White 11. Marshall Tyler 12. Ken Brandon 13. Ken Midyette 14. Dawn Hines 15. Dee Sage 16. Pat Herlands 17. Irma Bond-Maxbauer 18. Grace Evans 19. Ben Cox 20. Art Tierney 21. Jennifer Roe


MOTION: Commissioner Johnson made a motion to close the public hearing. Commissioner Bessette seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 Mayor Sage reviewed various options for the street right of way closure and acceptance of property. There was some question as to whether or not the transaction would be considered an exchange.


MOTION: Commissioner Summers made a motion to find that none would be deprived of reasonable access to their property and that it is not contrary to the public interest to close Avenue A. Commissioner Styron seconded. Motion passed. 4-ayes (Summers, Venturi, Bessette, Styron) 1-nay (Johnson) Town Manager Maxbauer stated that the town needs to make sure that we retain a public utility easement on Avenue A.


MOTION: Commissioner Summers made a motion to reserve all public utility easements on Avenue A. Commissioner Venturi seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 The town attorney pointed out that the state statute requires ten days notice of an exchange being contemplated by the town board and that a statement of value be included in the notice. Regarding South Avenue, there was some discussion regarding the values in connection with an exchange and whether an independent professional appraisal be made.


MOTION: Commissioner Venturi made a motion to pursue hiring an independent professional appraiser to report back at the next council meeting. Commissioner Johnson seconded. Motion passed. 3-ayes (Venturi, Johnson, Bessette) 2-nays (Summers, Styron) There was some discussion regarding the annexation of property owned by Jerome Buckman. The Town of Oriental Planning Board presented a recommendation to pursue the annexation and zone it as R1. Town Board Meeting-July 3, 2012 3 of 3


MOTION: Commissioner Johnson made a motion to set the public hearing date to hear concerns regarding the annexation for August 7, 2012. Commissioner Styron seconded. Motion passed. 5-0


MOTION: Commissioner Summers made a motion to direct Town Manager Bob Maxbauer to sign the RESOLUTION OF INTENT TO ANNEX PROPERTY OWNED BY JEROME L. AND ELIZABETH M. BUCKMAN, WHICH IS NON-CONTIGUOUS TO THE EXISTING MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES OF THE TOWN OF ORIENTAL and the RESOLUTION DIRECTING THE CLERK TO INVESTIGATE A PETITION RECEIVED UNDER G.S.160A- 58.1. Commissioner Venturi seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 During the public comment period, Ben Craven spoke about a fence being removed by the Town. The Town Manager reiterated to Mr. Craven the fence was on Town right of way and removal was an action decision of the Board. The porch encroachment issue on the Baskerville property on Midgette Street was commented on by Al Herlands. The matter of reappointments to the Parks & Recreation Committee were discussed.


MOTION: Commissioner Venturi made a motion to reappoint Sue Magnuson and Jim Edwards. Commissioner Summers seconded. Motion passed. 5-0 There being no further business, Commissioner Bessette made a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Johnson seconded. Motion passed. 5-0. Meeting was adjourned. 

 ______________________________ William R. Sage, Mayor 

 ________________________________ Robert J. Maxbauer, Town Manager

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Transcript Of Public Hearing By Oriental Board Of Commissioners July 3, 2012

Partial Transcription Board of Commissioners of Town of Oriental meeting of July 3, 2012, deliberation by Board members after closing public hearing: Source – Official digital audio recording made by Town of Oriental [Time in Hours, Minutes and Seconds From Start of Audio Recording]


[…Public Hearing Closed] 1:11:21

Bill Sage (Sage): 1:11:40
There are basically two halves to get to what all the experts seem to agree is a legal end. And that is closing these street rights of way and acquiring in fee simple the yellow lot as you see it there.

One train of thought is that we proceed as we are proceeding tonight with closing the street rights of way and then accepting the donation of the property shown there in yellow.

The other train of thought is that we treat it as or we approach it as an exchange. NC State law provides for and empowers a municipality to exchange a property interest *or an interest in real estate, or personal property for that matter, for other property. And there is a procedure set out basically in section 160A-271 for an exchange of property interests.
*Not exactly. Must be property belonging to the Town. Not “an interest.”

And one of the options that the Board has is instead of choosing which of the two paths to take to touch both bases and go through not only the street closing and donation process which we we’ve taken another step towards tonight by having this hearing, but also to go through the exchange process. And that of course would entail a postponement of a decision on closing the streets for purposes of gathering the necessary information and giving the necessary notices that the statute requires under the exchange provisions. And so we can proceed with consideration of closing the streets or we can defer a decision on closing the streets so as to bring forward the necessary notices and information to comply with section 160A-271.


Barbara Venturi (Venturi): Point of clarification; what additional information would we be collecting and putting out?

Sage : 1:15:19 Under 160A-271, the town may by private negotiations enter into an exchange of real or personal property *[Note: “belonging to the city”] if it is satisfied that it receives full and fair consideration in exchange for its property. And it requires that notice to be given by publication of the meeting at which the town board will consider the exchange. And the notice must state the value of the properties.

Note repeated misrepresentation of the statute.

Larry Summers (Summers): [whispering to Venturi “I have a motion on this…”]

Summers: 1:15:36 I’d like to make a motion…

??: “That’s enough to… receive it.”

[papers shuffling] [Summers submitted a written motion. No copy was provided to the public in violation of NCGS 318.13(c).]

Sage: [Venturi recognized]

Venturi: 1:16:06 Indistinct… “model for openness”… indistinct…]

“If it is appropriate to follow two lines of action to ensure that all obstacle courses have been dealt with, I move that we go forward on the full and fair consideration including notice to the public, that would include appraisals as soon as appraisals or evaluations of the properties and considerations…”

Sage: 1:16:53 “…Motion by Commissioner Venturi to pursue the exchange of property provisions of section 160A-271 postponing a decision on the street closure until such time as a public meeting is noticed to the public and published for consideration of the exchange. Seconded by Commissioner Johnson, any discussion?”

Summers: “I’d like to make a point of order to the attorney: Is what we are doing an exchange of property or a closure of a right of way?”

Scott Davis: “I think it can fairly be viewed as an exchange.”

Venturi: 1:18:20 [Indistinct… “appraisals, comparison full and fair”… indistinct.]
“if it is considered a swap, we should at least value these things and provide the ability to prepare these properties for the public.”

Warren Johnson (Johnson): “By doing so, will we not be covering all our bases?”

Scott Davis: 1:19:00 “That’s the theory. As Mr. Cox and others have pointed out*, there are a number of ways to structure this transaction - I have spoken to no-one that has come to the conclusion that we cannot achieve this result.
“The theorical [sic] differences are in how we get there.

*Cox had previously suggested Town lacked authority for exchange and suggested stand alone transactions with dedication to public or deed restriction. Town response: “Don't tie our hands.”

“There’s camp that likes an exchange agreement, there’s a camp that likes a pure exchange, there’s a camp that likes a street closing and a donation separated.

And we don’t have any case-law that tells us what the magic recipe is. *

*Translation: “We can't find a case that says we can do this.”

“So here, since we have folks who have alternate points of view, and there’s nothing that precludes us from trying to accommodate those different points of views, meaning there is no down side to doing it both ways, and there is potential up-side if one way is determined to be superior…

“…[1:19:41] so to me it’s a rather easy path to go down, to take the more prudent course to do it both ways, and hopefully, one of those two ways takes.”

Venturi: [Indistinct about fact that holding a hearing doesn’t mean the Board must vote]

Scott Davis: [no, you would do that later, and you’d take evidence and vote]

Summers: “I am opposed to this thing, and I’ll tell you what, we’ve been working on this thing for seven months [subdued “oooh”s from the audience] [… indistinct...I hear a lot of legal opinions anyone here a lawyer?” …]

Jim Privette [from audience:] “yes”

Summers: “Experience in municipal law?”

Privette: “Yes. Municipal attorney in North Carolina.”

Summers: 1:21:34 “The other thing is: appraising the property. I look at this piece of property, we don’t own the property, we own an easement, as Bill Marlow said, and I look at that, what can you do with an easement?

You can’t sell an easement, you can’t eat an easement, you can only close an easement, that’s the only thing that you can do.

Note: Summers got that right!

“What we’re looking at doing is closing streets, and then being offered in exchange, if we close the streets, you will receive X as a donation to the, for the good of the Town.

“I think that’s a wonderful thing, and I think it’s a wonderful piece of property for it.

“Grace Evans brought up something that I think is really important here. One of the reasons we have a problem now, with our anchorage, is because of the five acres that was sent out there with Oriental Harbor Marina… We have killed the goose that laid the golden egg for Oriental… That’s what we did and I absolutely believe that.

“I would like to be able to go over and put my chair on that property on Saturday night and watch the fireworks, but I guess if we do this, we can’t. I am a believer in doing it, and if this motion fails, I will offer a motion to close the streets.”

Sherril Styron (Styron): “If it’s gonna take one more month to do it right, I don’t have a problem with that, but Avenue A: I can see no reason for that not to be closed, whether we are doing exchanging or do nothing else, Chris Fulcher owns the property on every side of it.

“It goes nowhere, except dead-ends in his property… [words to the effect that opponents envy Chris Fulcher]… no matter what we do, I think Avenue A should be closed, and I’m prepared to do it tonight, unless the attorney feels like we need to wait until next week.

“I’ve not heard nothing tonight that changes my mind on what we need to do. I would love to proceed as quick as we can and close this out.

“But if Scott feels like we need to wait one more month I’ll go along with it.”

Sage: “Any further comment or questions? OK, Motion is postponing a decision and complying with…”

Venturi: “Can we get an idea from the attorney…”

Scott Davis: “…You can bifurcate the street closing, if the board wants to. By separate motion - you can determine tonight to close any portion that has been noticed, leaving the remaining portion to be dealt with at some later date.”

Venturi: “I do agree with Sherill, I think Avenue A is nothing but a liability written all over it. But we had a motion to move forward…”

Scott Davis: “And recognizing, I just wanna say this out loud;
That if you determine later not to close the terminus of South Avenue, and you close Avenue A tonight, It’s done. “And there’ll be nothing in exchange for that, just purely a closing of Avenue A.”

Sage: “All in favor of the motion, say Aye.”

Johnson: “Aye”

Venturi: “Aye”

Styron: “What?”

Sage: 1:25:28 All in favor of the motion for the Town to take the steps to comply with section 260A-271, developing information on full and fair consideration. Say aye.

Venturi + Michelle Bissette (Bissette): “Aye”

Sage: “Raise your hands to say aye… Motion carries, we will take the steps to comply with the provisions of 160A-271.

Motion to close Avenue A would be in order...*

*This move, following passage of motion to postpone confused both the audience and the Board.

Summers: “I’ll do that one.

“I move that the Town of Oriental close the streets as indicated on this with the exception of the South Avenue terminus, on that motion that I handed out earlier, to close Avenue A and the other possible rights of way in the back portion of that property.”

Scott Davis: “Let’s edit that motion in the continuation of the discussion regarding the South Avenue terminus - is that part of your motion?

“You move to close Avenue A, it’d be nice in that motion to also continue the deliberation in consideration -

Summers: “Let me restate the motion, if I may, Mr. Mayor.

“I’d like to move that the Town of Oriental close the following town streets, along with any rights of way formerly indicated as being located in the area bounded by the Western margin of the right of way of Wall Street on the East, the Neuse River on the South, Smith and Raccoon Creeks on the West, and the Southern margin of the right of way of South Avenue on the North - said street portions being lawfully described as follows: Avenue A, and its got the other writing on there, other possible rights of way, but to defer the closing of the South Avenue terminus, to a specific date… the next full regular town meeting. The August meeting.

Sage: “Motion by Mr. Summers for this Board to close Avenue A and other possible rights of way as described in the notice of intention in the area bounded on the West by Raccoon and Smith Creek, on the North by the South margin of South Avenue, on the East by the Western margin of Wall Street, and on the South by the Neuse River.

“Seconded by Commissioner Styron.”

“… and to continue consideration of the closure of the South Avenue terminus for the August 2012 regularly scheduled Town Board meeting.

Scott Davis: “Another recommendation might be to further amend that motion to provide that you have found that closing the street is not land-locking property owners, and is not contrary to the public interest.*

*Another intervention by Town Attorney to include conclusions on matters not discussed or deliberated on by Town Board.

Sage: “Will you make an amendment?”

Summers: 1:29:29 “Yes, I will amend that… it is to the satisfaction of the Board after the hearing that closing the above-referenced streets are not contrary to the public interests, and that no individual owning property in the vicinity of the street or alley, or in the subdivision in which it is located, would thereby be deprived of a reasonable means of ingress and egress to their property.”

Sage: 1:29:43 Repeats Motion, asks for discussion;

Johnson: 1:30:25 “I can't imagine this transaction not happening next month. But let's say it dies or goes away. What have we just done?

Styron: All we've done is close a street [or words to that effect].

Johnson: 1:30:25 Yes, but it's part of the transaction. If for some reason.[indistinct]

Sage: 1:31:20 Calls for vote. Announces motion passes, 4-1 (Johnson voting “nay.Noise in room, Sage gavels meeting.

Sage: 1:31:30 “Motion carries. An order will be entered closing the streets as described.”

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

April Can Be The Cruelest Month

The poet T.S. Eliot described April as "the cruelest month:"

"April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."
Today is the 150th anniversary of the death of fifty-six year old President Abraham Lincoln at the hands of the assassin John Wilkes Booth. 

154 Years ago on April 12th, Confederate forces commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard, fired at the United States Fort Sumter, guarding Charleston Harbor, setting off the Civil War.
Seventy years ago, April 28, 1945, Italian partisans captured and executed their erstwhile fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.
Two days after the death of Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, the fifty-six year old Nazi dictator of Germany, committed suicide in his Berlin Bunker.
Seventy years ago, while at his vacation place at Warm Springs, Georgia, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suddenly died of a massive stroke.

Forty-Seven years ago, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Of all U.S. Presidents, the two who most clearly left the country better than they found it were Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.


Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Oriental Town Board Meeting Brings Up Staggered Terms Option

Not much happened at last night's Town Board meeting.

The only thing of note was that the biannual proposal to amend the Town charter for staggered four year terms was brought up for discussion.

The idea has come up every other year since Bill Sage became mayor and since Barbara Venturi lost the tie breaker for her seat in 2007. Nothing ever came of the discussion.

Charlie Overcash, David White and Larry Summers all spoke against the idea this evening, pointing out that our potential candidate pool tends to be of an age that is reluctant to make a four year commitment. Especially those reluctant to invest in green bananas.

Barbara Venturi and Bill Sage raised the specter of a possible wholesale replacement of the entire board. The new board wouldn't have any continuity and would be unable to provide leadership for the Town's advisory boards and committees.

In my view, that's a feature, not a bug. Voters should have the option of replacing the incumbents wholesale.

Bill Sage reminded the Board that "this almost happened" in 2005.

I attended most of the meetings of the 2005 Board. That Board consisted of Warren Johnson, Al Herlands, Candy Bohmert, Nancy Inger and Barbara Venturi with Sherril Styron in his 18th year as mayor. It was easily one of the best boards of recent years. They had No trouble learning what to do.

That board was replaced by one consisting of Sherril Styron, David Cox, Candy Bohmert, Kathy Kellam and Nancy Inger.

So what's the problem?

Neither Bill Sage nor Barbara Venturi offered much in the way of a parade of horribles

Except that Venturi offered the Comprehensive Plan as an example of something so complicated we need continuity of leadership to insure its implementation.

Really?

Work on the Long Range Plan began in 2006. One of the inputs was an elaborate survey that Barbara designed. The draft Long Range Plan appeared just before the candidate filing deadline. The list of things to do looked a lot like previous lists in our file cabinets going back twenty years. Apparently continuity wasn't much of a problem.

After the election, the Long Range Planning Group continued its efforts. Anyone following the effort would have had a hard time telling what changed between drafts.

One constant theme of the drafts was to protect and enhance public access to public trust waters, particularly to protect public access at each of the street ends. This continued on into the effort that turned the Long Range Plan into a Comprehensive Plan.

The list of streets to be protected for the public specifically included the end of South Avenue, the subject of the Town's successful suit against Lacy Henry.

On May 5, 2012, the Town Board voted to adopt the Comprehensive Plan, including protection of public access to the harbor at South Avenue. The vote was unanimous. Barbara Venturi voted yes.

Later during the VERY SAME MEETING, someone introduced a motion to hold a public hearing to close both Avenue A and South Avenue.

Barbara Venturi voted for that as well.

I conclude that "continuity" may or may not be a problem from one term to another, but it is evidently a serious problem from one motion to another at the same meeting.

I doubt we could do anything to the Charter to fix that.

Did I mention that when Bill Sage brought the idea of staggered four year terms up in 2008 none of the Board members spoke for it and at least four spoke against it?

This is the kind of legislative proposal often mentioned as a "zombie" idea - it won't die, but just keeps coming back.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Dr. Strangelove, Andreas Lubitz and General Jack D. Ripper

We learned soon after the Germanwings crash that it appeared to have been intentional.

The movie Dr. Strangelove immediately came to mind.

In the movie, US Air Force general Jack D. Ripper, undergoing an apparent mental health crisis, launched a first strike attack on the Soviet Union with disastrous consequences.

The movie was a black comedy, but was viewed by some experts as "a documentary," in that it depicted very realistically a scenario of what could happen if one demented individual were to take over the procedural machinery of launching a nuclear attack.

In the movie, General Ripper made use of a "safety" procedure to allow a retaliatory strike even if the central command authority had been destroyed.

That's exactly what Andreas Lubitz did, making use of the safety device designed to keep hijackers out of the cockpit.

In the real world of nuclear weapons control, there were two control mechanisms in place to prevent unauthorized release of nuclear weapons: (a) the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP) and (b) the two-man rule.

The PRP identified every person with a role in the handling and release of nuclear weapons. Both personnel and medical records were flagged so that administrative and medical personnel were aware of the PRP members. Medical personnel were expected to take immediate action to bring any such person going through a mental health crisis to attention of the command. No worries about privacy. Too much at stake.

It appears that Lufthansa and Germanwings had no such program. Plainly, passenger safety must override any concern for privacy of pilots and other flight deck personnel.

It also appears that Lufthansa had no rules prohibiting a single person in the cockpit in a position to crash the aircraft. This needs to be changed immediately.