At-large district voting spurs Anson commissioner meeting into a frenzy

WADESBORO — The Anson County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 19 was fraught with tension, debate, yelling and discontent.

The source of the consternation was an at-large voting proposal which would allow for every citizen in the county to have a vote for the commissioner candidate running in all seven existing districts, instead of limiting a residents voting power to just the commissioner running in their district. The proposed policy would still have a candidate from each district running for a commissioner seat.

Ultimately, the board voted for the policy 4-3 in a familiar voting line for Anson County residents (Commissioners JD Bricken, Jamie Caudle, Lawrence Gatewood, Robert Mims in the affirmative, Commissioners Priscilla Little-Reid, Jarvis Woodburn and Harold C. Smith opposing), but not before the contentious public comment portion of the meeting dominated the large majority of the meeting.

“I stand here tonight to speak against the At Large District voting,” stated Anson County resident and leader of the local Democratic Party, Dannie Montgomery, kicking off the fireworks. “The voices of the people of Anson County have been resonating over the last year, and this vote (At Large District voting), led by individuals who are anti-democracy, consistently ignores our voices and attends to your own self interests. This piece of legislation is just another attempt to assassinate the voice of working moderate to low income workers, regardless of their race or ethnicity. It is an attempt to silence and remove the voices of the people, so the pockets of those already filled, can be filled more,” declared Montgomery with increasing fervor.

“The extreme radical anti-democracy factions of this board seek to impose their self-interest agendas on the more marginalized community. It is obvious that representatives of this board seek to be unaccountable to the citizens it professes to serve, and has corrupt intentions that will inevitably have negative outcomes for years to come. Outcomes that you will be unable to defend… you seek to lock up Anson County government by individuals and organizations with private interest who seek narrow gains drawn from public goods and access, leading to a corrosive and downward spiral of public outcome. The act of At Large District voting strategically puts the election of individuals for district representation into the hands of groups of people with money that live outside the district. Elected officials only promote this agenda when they want to enforce autocratic government,” opined Montgomery.

Miriam “MeMe” Liles, local activist with Impact Anson and Unlimited Productions, also came before the board to air her sentiments on the ongoing issues she sees plaguing the community. She wondered when the Anson County board will begin to start representing the citizens of Anson County.

“A lot of what I have seen, heard, witnessed, and watched has not been reflective of the people of Anson County, yet it has been reflective of yourselves (commissioners) and some of your own personal goals, desires, and benefits. It is the people, with good faith, who voted and put you in that seat and it shall be the people who also change that,” portends Liles, also addressing the recent COLA increase for the Sheriff’s Office that was not granted to all county employees.

“I can live with either choice that is made; the problem is I don’t think it is either of your (Commissioners) choice to make. For you to feel that it is your choice to make, to tell this county how they can vote is wrong on your end,” pastor Josh Ellerbe admonished.“If it had not been exposed at the time that it was, a decision could have been made tonight, without the people ever really knowing. Here is the solution I think we should come up with, why not just create a referendum?” advocated Ellerbe.

“The first question I had written down in my notes when I came here, is why the change?,” asked pastor McLeod. “The climate in this country has changed. The climate in this nation has changed. You know, we think we are equal now. We think we are actually to that point where, they carved out in the constitution, all men are created equal. We think that… our Supreme Court did, remember they said ‘You don’t need no affirmative action, we are going to treat everyone like they need to be. That is a joke, and you know it is a joke…. My concern is simply this, we have struggled for years to come to the table, and I heard you point out that we got five Blacks up there now, but it is calculated. I have been wondering why the change and I have heard that we need to get qualified people, we are tired of putting people there that are not qualified. I’m here to let y’all know that there is always someone more qualified than any of you up there,” pointed out McLeod, wrapping up the public discussion.

Some residents advocate for at-large voting

Lilesville resident and business owner, Bryan Tucker, spoke before the board in favor of the At-Large Voting proposal.

“We the people elected these commissioners, is that not correct?” Tucker inquired

“Each one of y’all was elected by citizens of your district and that makes sense, correct? I mean, everybody voted, nobody couldn’t vote for anybody. Now the way I feel is, I should be able to vote for Mr. Smith, I should be able to vote for Mr. Caudle, I should be able to vote for Mr. Bricken. They are making a decision that is affecting me. Even though I am from Lilesville district, JD, Mr. Bricken, his decisions are still affecting me as a business person in Anson County, as a resident in Anson County, and as a land owner in Anson County…” broke off Tucker when Commissioner Harold Smith interjected.

“The court didn’t set it up like that… it is not set up like that,” interrupted Smith.

“You are not even supposed to speak, correct?” shouted Tucker over the roar of dissention filling the room.

“[Anson attorney Scott Forbes] Mr. Forbes, is he supposed to speak?” asked Tucker, turning to the County Attorney for support.

“I didn’t call you out, but you will be called out in the election,” Tucker replied to Smith, after rightfully regaining the floor.

“I ain’t worried about that,” stated Smith with confidence.

“Since he made this personal, you have been sitting on this board for how many years,” began Tucker’s impassioned interrogation of Commissioner Smith’s record in the county.

“Longer than anyone,” replied Smith gruffly.

“The poverty rate in Anson County is what… just curious, do you know?” inquired Tucker to the sound of silence.

“We have lost jobs, can’t even keep a Walmart. Do you know? It is not the new county commissioner’s fault. Everybody can agree to disagree… we talk about race that has taken over our country; it is difficult to say, but the pastor done a great job opening up, she done an excellent job. That is where our mind should be, but we talk about racist… I am looking at the board… I am not racist… does the board look racist? No, the board doesn’t look racist,” said Tucker, answering his own question.

“I know these individual [Commissioners], some of them personally, they are not racist, they are up to our standards. I trust [the Commissioners] to make decisions that affect me and my family everyday because they are elected officials. So I want to say again, thank you for the job that you are doing.”

Stanly and Montgomery County District Attorney Lynn Clodfelter also addressed the commissioners during the public comment section.

“Each person in this county has some say-so about who this board is and that’s the way it is all of the surrounding successful counties around here,” Clodfelter said about at-large voting. “In each one of those counties all of the citizens have the input on all of the commissioners. That’s the American way. That’s what it means when your vote counts.”

Clodfelter said at-large district voting, which is utilized by all neighboring counties in Anson, has been “a long time coming.”

“We should have been here when black folks couldn’t represent the people in this county…” commissioner Smith interjected.

“Mr. Smith, I believe we’re past that right now,” Clodfelter responded to a chorus of no’s from the audience.

Following the meeting, concerned citizen and Polkton resident, Charles McGinnis, contacted the Anson Record to share his thoughts on the events from the meeting.

“Last night was a setback that can only be described as a free for all that was emotionally charged and racially divided. Respect, understanding, and decorum were completely overlooked by a significant number of individuals who attended the meeting… last nights only accomplishment was to remind us that Anson County is still deeply divided. The county must grow up and join the twenty-first century. It is past time we began working together and fixing the mountain of problems this county is facing. Look around, it is literally wrecking our future, our kids’ future, and the county’s future,” emphatically stated McGinnis.

The vote

“As we stated in the introduction, our goal is to establish a more inclusive county-wide voting procedure where every citizen has the opportunity to vote for each commissioner,” Bricken began the unpleasant task of attempting to restore order to the proceeding.

“In order to protect the integrity of local representation within these individual districts, we would continue to require these eligible candidates to reside in each one of the seven current districts, as we do now. This would encourage each board member to be more involved in county-wide issues regardless of where they occurred,” patiently outlined Bricken.

From the proposed resolution, Forbes read: “It is in the best interest of Anson County that each citizen be eligible to vote for the members of the Board of commissioners regardless of the district in which they reside.”

“I think that we need to add a referendum to a ballot to see if the citizens want to go this way, and I would actually make that as a motion,” stated Woodburn.

“I second that motion,” Little-Reid was quick to announce.

Forbes stepped in to quickly to remind the board of proper legal procedures.

“We cannot accept or entertain motions at this time. You are able to later, but not at this time.”

Bowing to legal advisement, Woodburn responded, “I just realized that so I will withdraw, as far as my motion is concerned, but that is my intention.”

Following a brief lull in the tension, Bricken ventured to ask, “Is there anymore discussion?”

“I have a question,” voiced Commissioner Little-Reid. “Why does the resolution only address the county commissioner’s seats and not the seat’s of the school board, they also have district representation too.”

“We would assume that this school board would make up their own mind about their own board. We wouldn’t want to interfere with their decisions,” answered Bricken.

“I would just like to add along those lines, since you brought up the school board, one of the options that we could do, is add a couple of seats and make those at large voting seats. Or we could have county managing staff and have some commissioners involved, look at the current make up of the board and determine what seats could be at large. My recommendation would be that we mirror the school board, and just add two seats for at large voting. Then this issue is addressed in my opinion,” reasoned Woodburn.

“The courts made this seven-man seat because you did not have blacks represented in this county,” reminded Commissioner Harold Smith.

“I’ll argue that, by going county-wide voting we are giving all black citizens and all white citizens the opportunity to vote. I will address a couple of concerns that were made earlier, one was, putting on a referendum and letting the citizens decide. I take that to heart and that is exactly what we are doing, we are allowing every citizen to vote on these seven commissioners right here not just one district. Every citizen is going to be able to vote,” explained Commissioner Jamie Caudle, over rumblings of disagreement from the audience.

“One option, one complaint, was about gerrymander the voting district. This option takes away all gerrymandering of the districts. There is no district anymore. Every voter can decide who the commissioners are,” defended Commissioner Caudle.

“Let the courts decide,” suggested Commissioner Smith, over calls from the audience requesting that the people be allowed to decide.

“Put it on the ballot and let them decide, but no you are trying to let us decide,” interjected Little-Reid.

The meeting quickly devolved into intense audience disagreement, a visceral example of the tension simmering beneath divided citizens.

“But right now we have a motion, we have a second. All those in favor, hold your hands up so we can see them real well,” instructed Chairman Bricken.

Commissioners Mims, Caudle, Bricken and Gatewood all voted in support of the motion. Commissioners Woodburn, Little-Reid, and Smith dissented, with the motion passing.

“I didn’t know anything about this thing y’all put together here tonight,” protested Smith, struggling to be heard over the shouting of attendees.

“I have a question, who did get together to put this on? You keep saying, ‘we’, who is we?” asked Little-Reid.

“We had to put something out there for people to vote on it,” protested Bricken.

“But who was it? Who were the people that did it? I would like to know who ‘we’ are. Who on this board got together and decided they wanted to put this resolution together, because it wasn’t me and it wasn’t Commissioner Smith,” retorted Little-Reid.

“Anytime we have an idea we put it out there and we all vote on it,” responded Chairman Bricken.

“It is always the same four people,” stated Little-Reid. “You get together and discuss it, but we never know about it until it gets on the agenda and we gotta discuss it then. Why not involve all of us when you are doing it, instead of the same four doing it all the time?” questioned Little-Reid further.

“That is why we did this, we are involving the whole board,” pointed out Bricken.

Referencing statements made by Commissioner Little-Reid, Dannie Montgomery shouted from the audience, “You said the same thing when we elected the Sherriff.”

“Ma’am, they said the same thing about you, you were found by the Democratic Party to be a liar,” fired back County Attorney, Scott Forbes, who immediately apologized for his outburst.

Reacting to Forbes words, John Montgomery, who was seated in the audience, shouted, “You the liar.”

“No, read it, you forged documents,” claimed Forbes. “I apologize to the board, I am very, very sorry,” stated Forbes plaintively.

“Three or four of y’all cannot go out and talk about things,” reprimanded a gentleman from the audience.

“That’s what happened,” roared Commissioner Smith.

Conversation again devolved into chaos, resulting in Commissioner Mims making a motion to move into closed session, seconded by Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood.

Commissioner Smith opposed going into closed session, though the motion carried. A few commissioners clarified that nothing they would discuss in closed session was related to or involved the at-large voting decision, and the closed session was planned prior to the meeting.

The meeting adjourned immediately following commissioners’ return from closed session, without Commissioner Smith’s presence. Spirited discussion flowed into the streets following the meetings conclusion.

This is a developing story. The next meeting of the Anson County Board of Commissioners will be on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 6:00 p.m. at the Anson County Government Center.