To the Editor:

On July 11, 2016, at the monthly meeting of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, commissioners Ed Booth, Robert Belcher, Gary Brinn and Jerry Langley walked out after the three minutes allotted to Sheriff Ernie Coleman for his “public comment” on current courthouse security had expired. They also saw fit to require the video recording of the meeting to be shut down while the sheriff delivered the remainder of his comments.

The sheriff had made the procedural error of not asking to be “put on the agenda” to be afforded more time. This should have been a simple fix.

Regardless of how irritated the commissioners may have been made by the sheriff’s critique of the private security firm the commissioners have hired to protect the common areas of the courthouse, residents of our county have a right to hear the sheriff’s concerns about our personal safety at a facility taxpayers use and pay for on a daily basis. We had a right to hear his opinion of the effectiveness of how our $168,000 in taxes is being spent. The sheriff had every reason to use the publicly broadcast, monthly meeting of the county’s elected commissioners to make that presentation.

Since 2012, “You don’t run anything here but your mouth,” has become the mantra of the political clique that has run Beaufort County into a bickering and divisive financial-quagmire.

When taxpayers objected to not being allowed to vote on the proposal for a $40,000,000 mega-jail in 2013 and 2014, the four-commissioner majority on the board mandated a moratorium on any further discussion of the issue at board meetings. The opponents of the jail were effectively not allowed to even run their mouths at meetings we were paying for.

In June 2016, when the governor’s appointed trustee to the Beaufort County Community College attempted to explain the college’s need for county funding for cost-of-living raises and long delayed facility maintenance she was abruptly cut off and quickly dismissed.

The “Three Minute Rule” does have a practical application, but it should not be applied when the voters’ own representatives are discussing matters of public policy and are offering information to the voters that voters require to be properly informed.

The right to have opposing views to those of the county commissioners, and to have those views presented at public meetings is not a partisan issue. It is an essential requirement of a well functioning democracy. Sadly, we have all but lost this in Beaufort County due to the “costly, counter-productive, hypocritical and self-serving” mess that has become this county board’s approach to decision making.

During the last month, a prominent Republican has accused me of having the misguided commitment-to-principle of a George Will and a local Democratic politician has strongly implied that I am a hypocrite. If sometime between now and the election I am mistaken for Brad Pitt, this will have been a wonderful year.

The inmates have taken over the asylum, and these people really need to be shown the door.

Warren Smith

Beaufort County