County Commission Chairman Issues Warning for Harnett County Voters
November 2, 2014
November 2 ,2014
Election information for
Johnston, Lee and Harnett counties
Do we really know what our elected officials are doing? In May of this year a local house bill (HB 1108) was introduced by our House Representative Mr. David Lewis, which changed the voting rights of your locally elected officials. The elected officials targeted by this bill are your Board of Commissioners and your Board of Education members. The really disturbing fact about this bill, besides its content, is the fact that David Lewis introduced the bill under cover of another local bill from Duplin County. No one in Harnett County, including the Commissioners, Board of Ed members or the County Manager knew anything about HB 1108 until it had already passed the Legislature and was in committee on the Senate floor. It was then the County Manager was informed by the NCACC (North Carolina Association of County Commissioners). With the discovery of HB1108, both boards drafted and signed resolutions against the bill and personally delivered them to Raleigh, placing them in the hands of Senators. BOC passed the resolution 3-2 and the BOE passed it 4-1. Our Senator, Mr. Ron Rabin, dismissed our resolutions and supported the bill and pushed it thru the Senate.
What does this bill do?
1) It takes away the voting rights of any lame duck Commissioner or Board of Ed. Member with 7 months or less left in their term. These men and women (which you elected) will no longer be able to vote on any appointed position in the county,( i.e.: Finance Director, Tax Assessor, County Manager)
2) If a Commissioner has to resign for any reason, the BOC will no longer have any say so or vote on who the replacement may be; this choice now goes to the executive committee of the resigning commissioner’s party.
3) If the County Manager is fired the Chairman of the BOC may take over as County Manager with all rights, benefits and pay of the County Manager
Now remember, neither Representative David Lewis nor Senator Ron Rabin ever met with anyone in the county about this bill and if not for the NCACC it would have passed the Senate without YOUR duly elected officials ever knowing. Representative David Lewis has not commented on this bill but when I ask Senator Rabin about his decision to support and vote for this bill his comments to me where “it makes logical sense to me” That was all he said. My question is “if it makes logical sense then why was it a SECRET and why try and sneak it thru the General Assembly. Also Mr. Rabin and Mr. Lewis, if it’s such a great bill why does it only pertain to Harnett County and not the other 99 counties in the state. Something here smells, and it’s not the good smell of Sunday lunch. As Republicans we scream for smaller government, less regulations and freedoms but you gentleman have over reached government and are now dictating to local government from Raleigh. We have another House member that I have not mentioned and he is Mr. Mike Stone. Now whether Mr. Stone knew of the writing of HB 1108 or not I cannot answer but Mr. Stone as a representative of the citizens of Harnett County you should have ask some questions and let someone know that this was going on.
Joe Miller
Harnett County Commissioner District 5
Board Chairman
Republican
