Oriental Town Board Closed Sessions

Last night the Town of Oriental Board of Commissioners went into closed session "to discuss personnel matters" and someone mumbled the paragraph "143-318.11 (a)(6)" as the alleged authority.

Not good enough, on two counts:

(1): The open meetings act requires the public body to act only on a motion that explains the purpose of the closed session in plain English. Western Carolina University has helpfully provided a model motion for closed sessions under North Carolina Law here. Under section 143-318.11, there is NO general permitted purpose called "personnel." As you can see from the model, the public body must provide more information concerning the purpose under 143-318.11 (a)(6), selecting one of the following:

"+ consider the qualifications, competence, performance, condition of appointment of a public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee.

+ hear or investigate a complaint, charge, or grievance by or against a public officer or employee.

+ plan, conduct, or hear reports concerning investigations or alleged criminal conduct."

So the motion to go into closed session was improper on its face;

(2) Assuming that the actual purpose was to "consider the qualifications, competence, performance, condition of appointment of a public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee," and that it concerned the possible hiring by the Town of a police officer, the closed session was improper because it usurps the statutory powers and duties of the town manager under NCGS 160A-148. I have mentioned this before here and here.

I reminded the commissioners last night that they attended a special workshop August 17 2010 at 11:00 a,m. at Town Hall for the purpose "to learn the difference between Council/Manager and Council/Mayor forms of government...." The explanation was provided by Mr. Hartwell Wright, human resources consultant with the North Carolina League of Municipalities, accompanied by Ms. Lisa Kinsey, NCLM Member Services and Marketing Representative.

According to my notes from that session, Mr. Wright made it quite clear that in a council-manager government, the manager hires, fires and supervises all subordinate offices, including police, unless the town's charter is specifically amended. Otherwise, North Carolina General Statutes 160A-148 apply.

One of the commissioners said to me, "I'm looking at the Town Charter and it says we elect the constable." The same paragraph also stipulates that town officers (including the constable) must be a qualified voter in the town. The charter stipulates that municipal elections will be held every year on the first Monday in May, that commissioners have the power to collect taxes by levy and sale of property, and that the mayor has the power to cause all persons who fail to pay fines or imprisoned for violation of town ordinances to work it out on the streets. None of those provisions still apply.

The charter specifically cites chapter sixty-two (62) of the Code of North Carolina, vol. II as the source of the town's powers, rights, privileges and immunities, "as amended by subsequent acts of the general assembly."

That refers to The Code of North Carolina, Enacted March 2, 1883. I have a copy of chapter sixty-two of that Code, and provided a copy to the town manager some years ago to file with the charter. A reading of chapter sixty-two of the Code makes it apparent that very few of its provisions still apply to municipalities. The Code was long ago replaced by North Carolina General Statutes.

I'm reminded of a question raised forty-eight years ago by another old codger:

"Can't anybody here play this game?"
- Casey Stengel

Congressional Redistricting

Every ten years the United States goes through two related procedures following the federal census: (1) reapportionment, which is a process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives to the states based on population and; (2) redistricting, which is the process whereby state governments redraw congressional district lines to create districts with more or less the same number of residents in each district.

The first of these processes is mathematical.

The second process is political. There is no mathematical approach that will reliably meet the criteria established by law and by federal courts.

What does the US Constitution say about congressional districts? Nada. Zilch. Representatives are allocated to states by state population and representatives must reside in the state they represent. No mention of districts. Then there is the requirement of the fourteenth amendment for equal protection of the laws. The Court has ruled this means "one person, one vote."

The constitution also provides there may not be more than one representative per thirty thousand population, but there must be at least one representative from each state.

The total number of representatives is set by law, not by the constitution. The last time the number was increased was in 1913, when each member represented about 200,000 voters. Following this year's reapportionment, each member will represent about 710,000 voters.

If you find it hard to get your representative's attention, this is certainly one reason.

When citizens of other western democracies learn about our redistricting system, they are puzzled. Most have some form of proportional representation, which requires no redistricting.

Should the Town of Oriental Disincorporate?

The recent retirement of Oriental's police chief, who was also the only paid member of the police department, has caused some to ask whether we need a police department. Can't we just let the county do it?

Good question.

If our taxpayers want to save money, there is an even more effective way to do it. Just cease to be an incorporated town.

What distinguishes an incorporated town from any other part of the county is the services it provides. Here is the list of services, some or all of which NCGS 136-41.2 requires municipalities to provide, along with the status in Oriental. The state's criteria is whether the town's budget appropriates funds for the service:

(i) police protection - not currently provided - some have proposed we just let the county do it;
(ii) fire protection - not currently funded by town - provided by Southwest Pamlico Volunteer Fire Department (no town appropriation);
(iii) solid waste collection or disposal - provided - town pays contractor. Some advocate changing to contracts by individuals instead of the town;
(iv) water distribution - provided - some have proposed selling our water plant to the county and letting the county distribute the water;
(v) sewage collection or disposal - not provided by town - the town sold its sewage treatment plant to Bay River Metropolitan Sewer District many years ago and no longer offers that service to its citizens;
(vi) street maintenance - some by town some by DOT - NCDOT already maintains some of the streets (e.g. White Farm Road, North St. and Broad Street) that would otherwise be our responsibility. Why not just let them do it all;
(vii) street construction or right-of-way acquisition - not provided - I have found no record in town minutes that the town ever purchased a street right of way or constructed a street (developers do that);
(viii) street lighting - provided - (many of the lights don't work);
(ix) zoning - provided, but controversial - the town's GMO is the source of great controversy. If we unincorporated, we would come under the county's land use regulations.

So, as it turns out, we do not completely provide or have abandoned a number of services normally provided by municipalities (six out of the nine listed services).

State law requires that municipalities levy an ad valorum tax of at least 5% per $100 of valuation in order to receive certain funds.

We could just lower everyone's taxes by 5% by unincorporating.

Not that there wouldn't be grumbling. Some would say we need a quicker police response than the county would provide. Some developers would chafe at the county's rules for waterfront property. Roads might deteriorate. Local ordinances would no longer apply. The town would no longer exist, so there would be no authority to sell liquor by the drink.

Operators of lodging would no longer have to collect and remit the occupancy tax. But something would have to be done with accumulated funds.

There would be no need for town hall and its staff. No public works department to fund.

So there would be complications and grumbling.

But look at the money we'd save.

Independence Day

The Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776.

On July 3, 1776, the British army evacuated Boston, leaving no British troops anywhere in the thirteen colonies of the Continental Congress.

The Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

The official signing ceremony was not held until August, 1776.

So when British troops returned to the thirteen colonies, they were arguably invading an independent, sovereign nation.

Voting: Privilege or Right?

Last week, one of our local papers in Pamlico County printed an article claiming that voting is a privilege.

Wrong. Under both state and federal law, it is a right held by all citizens. The right can only be taken away by a court of law.

Or it can be frittered away by not standing up for it.

One of my earlier posts addressed the issue here.

Remember: municipal elections come up this fall.

Exercise your right to vote.

There are no unimportant elections!

The Age of Grand Undertakings

In September, 1929, the U.S. Stock market crashed. By 1932, as the depression set in, US industrial production had fallen nearly fifty percent, wholesale prices had fallen by a third, foreign trade was down by seventy percent and unemployment was up more than 600 percent.

In New York City, the corporation planning to build the world's tallest building continued with their plans and completed the building in 1931, a year and a half after construction began. Construction began on the largest reclamation project in the west, the Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover dam) in 1931, with completion in 1936.Further west, in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, authorized by an act of the California legislature, was incorporated in 1928 to design, construct, and finance the Golden Gate Bridge. After the crash, unable to raise construction funds, the District lobbied for a $30 million bond issue. The bonds were approved in 1930. Bank of America bought the entire issue in order to help the local economy.

Construction began January 5, 1933. It was finished by April 1937, $1.3 million under budget.

Further north, work began on the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia river in 1931. Later expanded in design, the project was completed in 1942 and provided hydroelectric power for wartime industries in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1934, the US Army Air Corps put out a bid for long range bombers. Less than a year later the first prototype B-17, which became the backbone of strategic air operations in World War II made its first flight.

About the same time, Congress authorized a new battleship. The keel of USS North Carolina was laid October 27, 1937. The ship was launched June 13, 1940 and put in commission April 9, 1941. Nine more fast battleships came behind her and served in World War II.

These were all grand undertakings. They were by no means the only grand undertakings in these years. In my native state of Oklahoma, the longest multiple arch dam was built on the Grand River to provide flood control and hydroelectric power.

Every one of these designs was created on paper by design engineers who did calculations by hand and with slide rules, made copies of detailed drawings using the blueprint process. Not a single digital computer was used, because none existed.

Where are our visionaries of today? All we hear is, "oh, we can't afford anything like that!"

Are we led by a generation of fraidy cats and wimps?

Don't Fence Me In

Sometimes memory plays tricks.

In my memory, I never cared much for cowboy movie star Roy Rogers. He sang too much and paid entirely too much attention to Dale Evans. Even Gabby Hayes was more interesting.

Didn't care much for Gene Autry, either.

This evening on Turner Classic Movies I watched a 1945 Roy Rogers movie that I first watched 65 years ago at the Will Rogers Movie Theater in Tulsa Oklahoma. The movie didn't get any better in the intervening decades. Still, I found I could sing along with Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers when they sang "Don't Fence Me In" and "Tumbling Tumbleweed." I was surprised that I remembered the words after all these years.

I still preferred Hopalong Cassidy.

Pamlico County Municipal Elections Candidate Filing

The candidate filing period for Pamlico County municipal elections opened today at noon at the Board of Elections office at the county court house in Bayboro. The filing period ends at noon on July 15.

As of 3:00 this afternoon, July 1, 2011, no candidates have filed.