Town of Oriental Referendum 1993

The North Carolina Legislature in its 1991 session passed An Act to Set a Referendum on Possible Changes in the Electoral System for the Town of Oriental (Chapter 878, Senate Bill 968). That act is posted on the Town of Oriental's web site at pages four and five of "town charter and amendments" under General Ordinances and Town Charter. The 1991 act scheduled a referendum for a special election to be held November 3, 1992.

Anyone reviewing the 1991 Act can see immediately that each of the three choices to be presented to the voters begins: "(a) Sections 3 and 7 of Chapter 184, Private Laws of 1899 (the original 1899 charter) are repealed."

Section 3. of the 1899 charter stipulates: "That the officers of the town shall be a mayor, three commissioners, a constable, who shall be elected by the commissioners, and such other officers as the commissioners may deem necessary and proper, as provided by said chapter sixty-two of The Code [of 1883]; Provided that no person shall be a mayor, commissioner or other officer of said town unless he be a qualified voter therein."

Before the special election was held, the state legislature passed "An Act to Make Technical Corrections to a 1992 Charter Amendment to the Town of Oriental, and to Reschedule a Referendum. The act rescheduled the referendum for November 2, 1993, modified option B to provide for a five-member rather than a six-member board and stipulated that whichever choice received a plurality of votes would go into effect beginning with the 1995 regular municipal election. That act is not posted on the town's web site, but is posted on the web site of the North Carolina Secretary of State.

The Pamlico County Board of Elections conducted the referendum at the same time as the November 2, 1993 municipal election. Sherrill Styron was elected mayor with 265 votes. Commissioners were Radford Lewis (265 votes), Joe Harris (249 votes), and Dave Nelson (185 votes). A plurality of voters voted for question 'C', a mayor and five member board of commissioners with the mayor voting only in case of a tie (218 votes). Question 'A', keeping a three-member board received 73 votes and question 'B', a five member board with the leading vote getter serving as mayor, received 69 votes.

The Pamlico County Board of Elections retains a copy of the abstract of canvassing (the vote count) for that election, as well as a copy of the ballot used for the election.

The 1993 repeal of sections 3 and 7 of the 1899 charter had no immediate effect. The town continued to have a "mayor-council" form of government, which gave the board of commissioners as much operational control of day to day operations, including hiring, as the board wanted to exercise. But in 1997, the town amended the charter by ordinance, changing to a "council-manager" form of government. Under that form, the commissioners have no day to day administrative powers - only the right to establish general policies and exercise general oversight.

North Carolina General Statutes establish the duties and responsibilities of the manager by law.