Commissioners, Sheriff answer questions in community forum

MORVEN — A community forum took place on Tuesday, October 10 at the Lemuel Community Training Center, sponsored by Impact Anson. Commissioners JD Bricken and Jamie Caudle, along with Sherriff Scott Howell, braved friendly fire from their seats of honor, facing their constituents questions head on.

Issues addressed at the community forum were wide ranging, with simmering racial tensions, district-wide voting, past concerns over Sherriff’s Howell’s election, plans for a new middle school, and education for the children of female prisoner’s incarcerated at the Women’s Prison through the Proverbs 226 group, were just some of the hot button issues.

“I am coming in front of a group that is predominately black, talking to the black community, hearing the needs of the black community, so I can figure out how I can better represent them,” stated Commissioner Jamie Caudle, his compassion evident. He spoke out in response to citizen questions regarding what he and other commissioners are doing to mend the racial divide.

Facing criticism over district wide voting not being made public prior to commissioners’ voting on it, many citizens questioned why a notice of the scheduled voting was not published in the Anson Record ahead of the commissioners meeting. Many stated that they see a momentous change to the way the county’s voice is heard as deserving of a public referendum.

“We post the agenda a week in advance, it is present on the web site,” Commissioner JD Bricken quickly reminded, leading to a chorus of grumblings from the audience.“The agenda has to be approved the Tuesday before the meeting takes place. It is on the Anson County government website… anyone can look at it and see what will be discussed… have the opportunity to know and come to the meeting and voice their concerns.”

County commissioners meet on the first and third Tuesday at 6 p.m. every month at the Anson County Government building. They’ve doubled the amount of times they meet each month in an effort to promote transparency and accountability.

A common complaint murmured among attendees is the plight of the already marginalized, homebound citizens or citizens living in internet-challenged localities, becoming further marginalized and silenced. Many expressed concerns that such citizens are unable to look over the agenda and address the board, or even know about issues before they are voted on.

“If there were pros, did you see cons that you are willing to give feedback on (county wide voting)? Because your point is always going to be on the pro, but can you stand back on the other side and say this is the bad side…though it may not be fair or right in your eyes?” spoke out an attendee of the forum from Wadesboro. (Editor’s Note: Many names were not stated before a public address at this meeting, and it was not possible to verify names prior to publication).“If you can see the point from the con side…when both of you explain…that makes it better for accountability,” he continued.

Quick to answer, Caudle confirmed, “We absolutely look at the cons. I am a citizen of Peachland, I know a lot of the constituents in my district, I feel comfortable in my election, why would I vote to change where now I need to come to Morven or Lilesville… now I have to go out and earn your vote,” rejoined Caudle. “There are several other places I would rather be tonight… for one, my daughter’s softball game, I would rather be watching her play… why would I put myself up for this if I didn’t think it was the best thing for the county as a whole?” asked Caudle rhetorically.

“I am accountable to each and every one of you in this room. I am accountable to you and looking to you,” he assured attendees.

Caudle continued to answer questions posed from the audience, “It is highly unlikely that every commissioner can speak personally with every one of their constituents prior to meetings,” stated Caudle. “We do speak to people throughout our community, get their feedback, a general feeling, whether it is positive or negative,” Caudle added.

“I think district wide voting is way more important than allowing people to buy alcohol, why wouldn’t we have a referendum on that?” questioned another attendee.

“Or the casino?” piped up Polkton resident Charles McGinnis, “The people of Anson County should have decided if we have a casino or not?” he contested.

Republicans in the state legislature ditched efforts to expand legal gambling in the state of North Carolina in September. While Anson County was considered a destination for a casino, it’s approval was never authorized and casino gambling remains illegal outside of tribal areas in the state.

“The people of Anson County should decide… why don’t you trust me to make the right decisions, why do you not trust the citizens, as a collective to make the right decisions?” demanded McGinnis.

“The collective argument goes back to the voting argument in that it allows us to collectively make decisions,” reminded Bricken.

“Since 1992 there has been one bad decision after another made by the seven people who held that [commissioner] seat… but don’t get me wrong, y’all are doing a phenomenal job, really phenomenal,” amended McGinnis.

Largely escaping the hot seat, Sherriff Howell faced questions regarding the integrity of his pathway to being named Sheriff.

“There is a lot of tension, it’s like racism- black against white and white against black, people have a lot of resentment about this [Howell’s election]. Y’all made a decision that caused that. I never thought or wanted to feel any type of resentment or racism,” shared a concerned citizen. “I want to know how it happened, how did it come about?” he further questioned.

As documented in the Anson Record, the Anson County Democratic Party’s initial selection of Gerald Cannon to succeed Sheriff Landric Reid was overturned by the North Carolina Democratic Party after a previous Executive Committee Meeting violated the processes and rules laid out in the party’s plan of organization. A non-publicized, secret meeting of the Board of Commissioners took place months later with members who were about step down and again selected Gerald Cannon. The next day, an official meeting of the Board of Commissioners named Howell the Sheriff.

“I walked into it the night it happened,” Caudle remembers, “The democrat party was to hold a meeting of democrat elected officials to allow them to select their candidate to replace Sherriff Landric Reid. That meeting was not held in accordance with what the North Carolina state Democratic party laid out as their rules, so they were told that they had to meet again, the second time it was after the deadline the general statute of North Carolina said, ‘You got to make a decision.’ After that deadline, the general statute sends it back to the county commissioners to make a decision,” Caudle patiently explained.

A female attendee, wishing to provide a recap on the events surrounding Sherriff Reid’s untimely passing, backed up Caudle, stating, “ I spoke with the state attorney that Friday, and asked specifically what was the process, and that state attorney told me it was all in the hands of the Democratic Party chair. At that time, as Commissioner Caudle said, [the Democratic Party] had the right to put whomever they chose in that office but because the party was not organized, and they did miss that deadline, then it did revert back to the commissioners.”

“It was to be held (vote on Sherriff) at the next commissioner’s meeting… not an emergency meeting, not a special meeting… at the next commissioner’s meeting,” reiterated Caudle. “The North Carolina statute clearly spells it out, it is to be held at the next county commissioner meeting. So that is what we did, we elected the next Sherriff that night,” Caudle matter-of-factly explained.

“We were given legal advice from our county attorney Scott Forbes; he represents the board of commissioners, according to the general statute of North Carolina the process I just laid out,” Caudle continued to clarify.

“Let me ask you this,” began event coordinator Miriam ‘Meme’ Liles of Lilesville, “Why does your attorney [Forbes] still say, to this day, that we have two Sherriff’s in Anson County?” inquired Liles.

Commissioners Caudle and Bricken expressed that they were unaware of this claim and citizens would need to follow up with Forbes for further clarification.

Speaking with Forbes following the community forum, he gave a brief insight into the Sherriff question.

“Until the Court of Appeals makes a decision, we theoretically have two Sheriffs. However, at this time, we have one Sherriff appointed by the North Carolina appeals process… it is the appeals process through the state of North Carolina that determines if that process has been proper. If the process is deemed to have been carried out properly, then Gerald Cannon will have lost his appeal. If the process is deemed to have been conducted improperly, then Gerald Cannon would be eligible to ask for a new trial or over-turning of that verdict, then Gerald Cannon can appeal and potentially be installed as Sherriff,” clarified Forbes.

“However, the original conclusion is that Sherriff Howell is the rightful Sheriff… that is the Superior Court of Anson County’s decision, deeming the proper resolution to this issue, is that Sherriff Howell is the rightful Sherriff,” stated Forbes.

“The meeting was held inappropriately and the votes from that [first] meeting became null and void,” commented Caudle.

“Because the process was done wrong,” interceded Bricken, “I had to make a decision based on who I thought the most experienced candidate was.”

Bricken went on to mention that Howell had been second in command for the last nine years and spent thirty years in highway patrol.

“It is not fair to him [Sheriff Howell]… to be sitting in the hot seat,” decried an attendee, showing empathy with Howell’s plight.

“I don’t think any candidate would want to be in his [Howell’s] position, obviously any candidate would like to be elected by their peers,” said Caudle, sympathizing with Howell.

Commissioner Bricken wished to take a moment to reflect on positive issues, forcefully steering the conversation towards announcing news on Proverb 226’s efforts to install a trade school for the incarcerated children of the Women’s Prison, beside the prison.

“It will allow the 200 older teenage children to learn auto body, culinary arts… it will allow the women who are incarcerated there to have their children close by, where the children can visit,” shared Bricken.

He cited a recent study finding that 80% of children with an incarcerated parent are likely to one day be incarcerated.

“This program cuts that number down to nearly 20%,” excitedly shared Bricken.

“Anytime that you have an absent parent from the home, I don’t care whether it is a man or a woman, you are at risk for something, you don’t have the guidance that you should have,” cautioned Sherriff Howell.

In addition to the exciting developments with the Women’s Prison, Bricken announced plans for a project very near and dear to the hearts of both county commissioners, and Anson County Manger Leonard Sossaman, a revamping of mental health resources and jail campus, or complex, in Anson County. Though Bricken acknowledges they still have a long way to go in both funding and design.

“Not everybody that is doing something wrong deserves to go to jail. A lot of time, that person can go to a mental health facility and find help. Having a complex like this would cost 80 million dollars, we are just in the early planning phase of this, of having the idea,” Bricken said.

“Two places where people who have mental health issues end up in is the jail or the hospital,” weighed in Howell, decrying both facilities as insufficient to meet the long term needs of a person suffering from a volatile, chronic mental health illness.

“It will be nice to have them right next to each other, they are different buildings but not spread out,” added Bricken, idealistically referring to his vision of a campus that meets social service and mental health needs, while also housing a jail.

Another member of the crowd requested an update from commissioners regarding where the county stands on building a new middle school for the overwhelmed district.

“A project, I think from before I was elected, which to my knowledge was fully funded with a 35 million dollar bid to build a new (middle) school. They opened it up bids to build a new school, and the bid came back 48 million dollars, which was well over what they had in their pocket” responded Caudle.

“That is where we come in as commissioners to be more fiscally responsible, we can’t keep going back to the state and saying we are broke we need more money… they are getting tired of hearing that. We have conversations with legislatures in Raleigh and they say, ‘We have already given you 30 million dollars to build a school, what did you do with it? Why can’t you build a school with that?’”

“Then they start talking about taking it back,” interjected Bricken.

“Where we are at today, we have looked at other companies, other alternatives than the one that gave us a 48 million dollar bid. We wanted to see if we could build the school any cheaper, not sacrificing the square footage or quality of the school, not sacrificing the education that is going to be provided to its students, how can we build a more economically designed school,” Caudle stated.“We found out, and it is going to be presented in the very near future, the same square footage they want to build for less money.”

Other issues covered in the community forum related to waste management issues neighbors in Polkton are facing, positive changes implemented in the jail since the start of Howell’s brief tenure as Sherriff and options for finding funding to build a recreation center in Anson County. Miriam ‘Meme’ Liles of Impact Anson and Unlimited Productions, who spearheaded the forum, frequently advertises upcoming forums and community events on her Facebook page. The upcoming community forum is October 18 at 1 p.m. at the South Piedmont Community College.