Murphy – Board Chair Dan Eichenbaum declared that with the 2022 election cycle at an end, so too was the “wide leeway” he’d allowed for rowdy behavior during Cherokee County Board of Commissioners meetings.
It didn’t take long for those words to be put to the test Monday night.
A woman was eventually escorted from the meeting, Chief Deputy Chris Wood of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office made a plea for order and law enforcement officers had to stand between some members of the audience as words escalated at times.
“Last year was an election year, and I allowed folks wide leeway in expressing their opinions,” Eichenbaum said prior to public comment. “The elections are now over, and that practice stops tonight.
“... Rudeness and verbal attacks against commissioners or other audience members will not be tolerated. Public forum is not Facebook or social media. Once public forum is completed ... no further public comment will be allowed or tolerated.”
Although the public comment portion of the meeting remained noticeably civil compared to other commissioners meetings this year, tensions later came to head as the board discussed a $44,837 Article 46 sales tax request from Cherokee County Schools. School funding was just one contentious issue brought up during the meeting, along with a resolution calling for an
airport advisory board, complaints about ongoing noise from Ankr/Exponential Digital’s crypto mining operation on Harshaw Road and other concerns.
After Commissioner Randy Phillips made a motion to approve the school system’s request, a man in the audience repeatedly questioned why the money was being pulled from the sales tax fund as opposed to the “school budget” or “COVID money.”
“I said no more comments, and you are out of order,” Eichenbaum said.
“We don’t care what you say,” Judy Stines shouted.
Eichenbaum replied, “And you are out of order.”
“Good! I hope to be out of order,” Stines said. “You’re out of order. We have a constitutional right to ask you questions.”
Eichenbaum asked Wood to have Stines removed from the meeting.
“Answer the citizens’ questions,” Stines said as she was escorted out by a deputy. “I’ll leave, but this is what these people do to you, and when you get home, tell everybody about it.”
Commissioner Jan Griggs then asked Eichenbaum if chief financial officer Candy Anderson could explain to the audience that the quarter-cent sales tax is money already allocated to Cherokee County Schools.
“The Article 46 sales tax was voted in by the public for use for education,” Anderson said. “The school system presents projects that they use this money for.
“Most of them are capital projects, which is a county funding responsibility. ... This is normal use of these Article 46 funds.”
Griggs went on to detail out the school system’s request, which consisted of $4,939 for a retaining wall at the Hiwassee Dam softball field, $15,622 for architect firm LS3P to provide an architectural design document for the consolidated high school, $18,186 for a commercial washing machine and $6,090 for another chiller at Andrews High School.
The board unanimously approved the request. However, the vote immediately sparked another point of contention – a question of whether or not Phillips, who is employed by the school system as a resource officer, should recuse himself from related votes.
“Randy shouldn’t be voting,” a woman shouted from the crowd. “Just saying.”
As Eichenbaum continued to call for order, the woman interrupted several more times, at one point insisting her voice was “the voice of the people” and that she should be able to interrupt because, “When you’re being corrupt, it has to happen.”
After Eichenbaum threatened to clear the room, she replied, “Go ahead, I don’t care. Kick me out. Fine.”
Wood then stepped forward and said that while officials had tried to be fair, and he considered many in the audience to be friends, those present needed to understand that there are rules to how such meetings operate.
“They are written rules, they are not rules that are being made up by anyone in this room,” Wood said. “... Public comment is over.
“I am asking you to please follow the rules of this meeting. I do not want to escort anybody out of here, but be assured that I will do my constitutional duty and walk somebody out of here if I have to.”
After an almost 20-minute intermission, Eichenbaum asked county attorney Darryl Brown to respond to the suggestions that Phillips needed to recuse himself from votes related to the school system.
“In North Carolina, county commissioners have what’s called a ‘duty to vote,’ “ Brown said. “They must vote unless there is a conflict of interest that is identified specifically in the statute.”
Brown said examples of a conflict of interest would include a direct contractual benefit to a close family member or a direct financial interest in the vote itself.
“There were some questions that were raised when Commissioner Phillips was elected,” Brown said. “I made some telephone calls at the N.C. School of
Government.
“... As long as there is no direct financial interest that he has a duty to vote. And under North Carolina state law, he does not have a conflict of interest, per se.”
Even then, members of the audience seized on the “per se” portion of Brown’s statement, but the meeting proceeded without further incident.
Phillips later joined Griggs and Commissioner Cal Stiles in voting 3-2 to table a resolution made by Eichenbaum that sought to establish an advisory board for Western Carolina Regional Airport. Eichenbaum and Commissioner Gary “Hippie” Westmoreland voted in favor of establishing the board.
The meeting was the final session for Westmoreland, who did not seek re-election for the District 3 post. He will be replaced by Ben Adams at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Dec. 5. Monday’s meeting also represented what was most likely Eichenbaum’s last full meeting as board chair.