Now we’ll see how the Brunswick County Commissioners move to remove fellow commissioner Warren from the board at DSS. This could get ugly and here’s hoping that some leadership will lead to a strongly worded rebuke, but I doubt it.
(StarNews) – A Brunswick County Superior Court judge has ruled that the county commissioners do have the power to remove Commissioner Charles Warren from the county social services board.
Warren’s fellow commissioners had scheduled a hearing to remove him but were blocked by a temporary restraining order issued by a judge Jan. 12 after Warren filed a lawsuit .
After hearing arguments on both sides Monday, Judge Jack Hooks on Wednesday denied Warren an injunction, so the commissioners are free to reschedule their hearing.
Commissioner Marty Cooke said he didn’t know when the hearing would be held. It could be as early as Monday, he said.
Commissioners pushed for the hearing after Warren had DSS board member Pat Sykes removed from a board meeting in December.
Later that month, Commissioners Chairman Bill Sue had Warren escorted out of a county meeting by sheriff’s deputies after Warren protested the removal hearing and called commissioners a “bunch of racists.”
Nobody is publicly commenting, but Gov. Perdue is pushing a project (affectionately called “RoadRunner”) for Brunswick County that will reportedly bring up to 1,100 jobs. If true, the public will be led to believe that this is a factory being moved FROM Japan back to the U.S. But again, there are many more questions.
Caterpillar already had facilities in both Wake and Lee counties. Caterpillar also got $426 million in state money that will be used to build facility in Forsyth County. The Lee facility has received numerous incentives to date and I’m not sure where the facility in Wake stands right now. Caterpillar stands to have the state and ancillary agencies at their beck and call for incentive money on this one. Having lost Continental Tire to SC (even though SC offered $14 LESS than NC) and that still stings the central planning economic government types.
In light of the fact that the state is ashamed of its business environment it is left to beg for jobs by giving away money. Hopefully we’ll find out how much money taxpayers will be asked to fork over. Lee Act, Rural Development grants, JDIG, Golden Leaf, and a myriad of other funds are waiting to be given away.
It’s still hush hush on the details, but all flowers and rainbows on job creation from government. And why isn’t the media talking about the lucrative incentives already received by Caterpillar instead of leading the public to believe that this in an entirely NEW endeavor for the state?
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Mayor Saffo announced yesterday that the city will be moving towards building a $40m stadium for an Atlanta Braves farm team. That means some community somewhere is getting ready to lose a team. It also means that council members, if they approve this, will have gone back on their word during the campaign that they would NOT support a taxpayer funded enterprise.
This was covered in depth at the Carolina Journal back in 2009 and the economy is no better now, so it makes this particular move a rather poorly timed one.
In fact, on Sept. 8, 2011 Mayor Saffo emphatically said, “NO” when asked if he supported a taxpayer funded stadium on the BigTalkerFM. Yesterday when I asked him if he stood by his original statement, he simply indicated he now supported a taxpayer funded stadium.
City council will hold their meeting next Tuesday night at Wilmington City Hall at 6:30. It will be interesting to see if any folks from the public will express their frustration with this endeavor. The city will own it so there will not be any property tax revenues. Mandalay (parent company to the Atlanta Braves) will run it and thus make money off the project.
We’re at the bottom of the first, it will be interesting to see how the next few innings go on this one.
Wilmington Business Journal coverage.
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