Cabarrus Cheap Seats

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen - Winston Churchill

Update: Read The Actual Policy Here
About the time the 10th speaker approached the lectern, I decided to put my yellow card away and hope for the best. I came to the December 2005 Board of Commissioners Meeting to put in a plug for the reappointment to the Cabarrus County Parks and Recreation Commission of some of my fellow board members. After the frequent flyers took their turn (folks like Harold Smith, Jerry Williamson, etc.) most of the speakers were jail opponents. Around about the third person that spoke, the rest of the speakers sounded a little like this:

“Well, I agree with what everyone else has said…[insert a 2 minute 52 second-long repeat of what everyone else has said]…” BUZZ!!! Their three minutes is up.

I did, for a moment, consider speaking in favor of the current project. Given the candor of the comments and the behavior of some of the folks at the meeting I figured that a stunt like that could trigger a reenactment of the more entertaining parts of Charlie Daniels’ Uneasy Rider

It went on like this from starting at 7PM and dragging for hours. The meeting did not adjourn until about Midnight.

I figured that it wouldn’t be wise to be extending the comments section any longer than it had to go; and I trusted that the Board would take the Parks and Recreation’s suggestions. They were so exasperated after the verbal bludgeoning from the Jail Trail folks from SaveConcord that they sped through the committee reappointments.

A week or so before the meeting Bob Carruth had asked me if I would ring the bell for the Salvation Army at the Harris Teeter near my house. Well, he caught me before I left. I’d completely forgotten about it. His day for Salvation Army bell ringing started at 8AM following that meeting! I figured since I had pretty much said I would do it and some of my fellow Cabarrus Parks and Recreation Board members were getting their second term, and it was Christmastime…after all that I would spare a lunch hour.

So, let’s set the stage. I’m coming home at around 12:30. Waking up my wife to tell her that the meeting had just ended, and that I’d managed to get dragooned into hanging out at the Harris Teeter during lunch. She said she was glad to see me, I was on my own for bell-ringing, and it sounded like she was going to ask me what happened at the meeting; but she was already asleep again.

My last thought before that long winter’s nap was: “There has got to be a better way of running a meeting”

The Sound and The Fury

When someone has an issue with County government, it’s sensible to go to the monthly business meeting. As to what to do when the meeting comes up,
I’ve listed them from the most effective to the least:

1. You can send a letter or shoot an e-mail to the Commissioners before the meeting.
2. You can speak about it during the informal comment period of their Monthly Business meeting.
3. You can stick around until they address the agenda item you’re interested in and hope that your mere presence will influence the decision.

Some combination of those three work because most Commissioners are just happy not to get confused with the City Council or the General Assembly. Also, they like holding a meetings with more than just them and County staff there.

Before they get to the working part of the agenda - the Board of Commissioners hears from the public. The public comment policy has been as follows: fill out a yellow card, hand it to Susie Bonds, and say what you want for 3 minutes while you get the blank stares of the entire Board of Commissioners and senior County Staff, and a “Thank You” from the Chairman.

And it’s amazing what they’ll thank you for. At this past meeting, we were treated to the stylings of Jerry Williamson. Jerry makes full use of the time allotted to him for an animated and entertaining re-reading of Harold Smith’s website. Honestly, it’s worth showing up just for that. Here’s what’s interesting - there are other speakers that make Jerry look reasonable.
Here’s a taste of Monday night’s meeting:

• One fella compared Bob Carruth to Hitler, Mao, and Stalin. He forgot Pol Pot; but give the guy a break - he only has three minutes.
• There was this other guy who held up a sign that read “King Coy Privette Saint or Satanist”. No, I am not lying - this is post #112 and y’all know I don’t possess the creativity to make that one up. He then read from Romans 6:1. After that, his time was up. And the people rejoiced.

It is only after this Vox populi portion of the meeting can those who have pre-determined business with the Board can conduct it. In the past, this has presented a problem. Sometimes, the Board will hold public hearings in the agenda following informal public comments. Public comments will run long with crazy accusations, far-fetched conspiracy theories, etc. and people with actual business will get moved around in the agenda due to time constraints.

This isn’t fair. There are people who are busy yet deserve to address the board. They should not have to wait until half-past 10PM in line behind people who are merely repeating what a previous speaker said or doing their monthly conspiracy round-up. They deserve as much of a chance to address the board as anyone else.

Bob’s Rules Of Order

In January, Chairman Bob Carruth proposed new rules for public comment. This is the gist of it. Currently the Board of Commissioners has 15 minutes allotted for Public Comments. Of course, they don’t stick to this if they have a lot of speakers. The new rules expand the time until 30 minutes; but holds fast to the limit. The Board can decide to expand the public comment period by a vote.

Of course, the usual suspects cried foul. Harold Smith, referred to the rules as “restrictive”. Coy Privette suggested that Chairman Robert Carruth was taking people’s free speech rights away. I’m not going to get into the lack of merit in both of those arguments. I’m just going to share two experiences as to why these new rules expand freedom of speech.

The first, ironically enough, comes on the same night that Chairman Carruth proposed these new rules. The City of Concord was holding a hearing on the appeal to the Concord Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision to rezone the area for the County Jail expansion. The jail opponents were there; but the meeting was different. It was quieter and didn’t have random people yelling from the audience. I would have to say that this was in large part due to the restrictions that the Concord City Council on the meeting. The projects opponents and proponents both got 45 minutes each to speak. Any deviation required approval by the Council. True, while the project’s supporters were up there, their were grunts, snickers, and muffled chortling from the jail opponents. However, they weren’t able to hijack the meeting through mob vociferation as was the case with the Board of Commissioners’ meetings.

The proof was in the pudding at Monday night’s Board of Commissioners’ meeting. In anticipation for the large number of people interested in the jail project, there were materials describing the various construction options. The public comment period was separated into three parts. The first was non-jail related informal comments. The next two were 30 minute segments were both jail opponents and proponents got to speak. In addition, members from the citizens’ committee on the jail project got to speak. Following that, there was a lengthy discussion by the board where they came to a 4-to-1 vote to submit to the Concord City Planning and Zoning Commission. Instead of a flurry of emotions, real facts and ideas were discussed. Plans were discussed in detail and perspective. Jail opponents actually had a PhD in Economics speak about the possible impact on surrounding land values. Jail proponents got to speak without fear of getting jeered of the lectern. It was one of the most informative sessions of the Board of Commissioners I’d ever sat in.

It takes more than one point to draw a line. To try to extrapolate a trend from one meeting would be foolish. However, if the past meeting is any indication - more of this county’s business meetings will deal with facts and ideas. It’ll also be much harder for certain politicians to pull election-year stunts by commandeering public debate through invoking half-truths to set the uniformed into action - as we’ve seen in the past.