Murphy – The new year brought with it a new chair for the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners, but not without glitches.
Commissioner Randy Phillips was elected chairman of the board at its December meeting. The Jan. 11 meeting was his first full meeting as chair.
He started off by mischaracterizing the board’s ethics statement, which states that board members should avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest. Phillips, however, characterized the policy as “everybody needs to abide by their best manners, basically.”
The meeting continued normally – commissioners agreeing or disagreeing but essentially being mannerly. That is, until the end of the meeting.
That’s when things went south.
During the portion of the agenda called Chairman/Commissioner Items, Commissioner Ben Adams brought up a number of issues, ranging from Young Republicans wanting to use the board room to hold a candidate forum to setting aside 10 minutes at the end of each meeting to explain to the public what the board did earlier in the meeting. He also said the U.S. 64 West roundabout was not happening. However, N.C. Department of Transportation officials said they only put a “pause” on the project, and they will decide what to do after collecting traffic data for a year.
Adams’ idea about the 10-minute period failed on a 3-2 vote – Jan Griggs voted with him, but not the rest of the board members, who expressed concerns about how such a process would work.
After the vote, Cal Stiles was making a suggestion about coming up with a plan they could agree on. Adams and Phillips exchanged words not picked up by the microphones, aside from Adams saying, “I’m going to say what I want. You can remove me.”
Phillips pounded his gavel and gestured to Adams sternly, saying, “Calm down. We are getting this meeting back under order. You’re not just going to say what you want to. Commissioner Stiles was speaking, sir.”
Adams said he had just as much a right to speak as anyone else. Phillips pounded his gavel twice more.
“You’re out of order,” he said, talking over Adams, “You’re out of order. He had the floor,” again referring to Stiles.
Phillips and Adams continued their squabble as Stiles attempted to further explain his idea.
“I get cautioned when no one else does,” Adams said. “End of story, end of story – end of story.”
“Well, end it,” Phillips responded.
“Don’t yell at me,” Adams said.
“Don’t get out of order, or I will take you out and have you taken out of here,” Phillips replied, adding that he could do that as chair.
An audience member chimed in, “They can ask us to leave as well, and I’m going to tell you, election is coming up.”
Phillips is running for re-election.
Adams said it was not an election issue, but a transparency issue.
Later, during his report, Phillips brought a number of items and urged the board to bring good news to the table. He also apologized for his outburst.
He then brought up the issue of scheduling meetings during coming months. He made a motion to hold one meeting per month through March. Dan Eichenbaum seconded the motion, but other commissioners questioned the proposal.
“This time of year,” Phillips started, then said, “There’s a motion and a second.”
Adams responded, “And we’re in discussion. I’m just wondering, why are we doing this?”
Adams pointed out that the board had only one meeting each month in November and December.
Phillips’ motion nevertheless passed on a 3-2 vote, with Adams and Griggs voting in the minority.