A Question of Ethics
What level of involvement in representation do you expect from your elected officials?
Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson has long objected to the manner in which the Center-Left Coalition, and their associative bureaucrats conduct business, and, in that same vein of purpose, the Commissioner is now requesting a legal opinion regarding the familial status of married members governing on separate boards when dealing with the conundrum of education, and its funding by local taxpayers. Commissioner Richardson, early in his eighth term, will always look for "low hanging fruit" in his struggle to make the People's government more effective; however, when it comes to Beaufort County's largest grantee - the local education industry, Beaufort County Schools - the venerable Commissioner, understandably, takes a keen interest in reducing incompetence.
In this governing issue originated by Commissioner Richardson - requesting a legal opinion regarding the familial status of married members governing on separate boards - the senior Commissioner struck a raw nerve amongst the Center-Left Coalition by providing this curious request. At one point, the commissioners acquiesced on the by consenseces, yet when the vote came to make sure that what Commissioner Richardson requested would actually happen 7-0 consensus devolved into a 4 to 3 vote, with only Commissioner Jerry Langley bucking the Center-Left Coalition's unified reversal of their expressed consensus to support transparency only moments earlier.
The Center-Left Coalition, who swap votes to share power, here on the Beaufort County Commission work as a unified force, with extra services provided by those that are in a position to do so, one being their chairman of the board of county commissioners ... Exhibit one: Center-Left Coalition Chairman Frankie Waters did allow Commissioner Ed Booth 99 seconds (more if he had wished it) to vehemently disparage Senior Commissioner Hood Richardson in a purely slanderous manner, and when Commissioner Deatherage rose to defend what was true by asking pointed questions of Commissioner Booth, the Center-Left Coalition Chairman shuts down Commissioner Deatherage's queries in a mere 38 seconds; in fact, the Coalition Chairman similarly shuts down the whole meeting, and with NO questions answered by Commissioner Booth.
A few moments later, with the camera hot, and a short bit longer, the microphones still hot, Coalition Chairman Waters rose to attack Commissioner Deatherage as "unprofessional" for asking those 38 seconds of questions, while indicating that the Commissioner expected answers. If one watches, then listens to the video (with no visual) as the Center-Left Coalition Chairman begins his attack of Commissioner Deatherage as "unprofessional," originating with the pointed questions, and then the Coalition Chairman mentions the word "websites," and instantly, interestingly, the video feed was cut.
Are only the Center-Left Coalition members allowed "redress of grievances?" Is Commissioner Richardson, who is a proven insightful commissioner, not allowed to question what he believes to have great knowledge of? Is Commissioner Deatherage not allowed the right to question any commissioner that slanders, in a overwhelming disparaging manner, another commissioner of his peer group.
