One month ago we sent certified, return receipt letters to each of the ten candidates running for County Commissioner in November. Each was invited to sign the following pledge:

I, xxxxx, candidate for Chowan County Commissioner on November 4th, 2008 hereby make the following Pledge to the Taxpayers of Chowan County: I will follow the spirit and intent of Article 5 Section 4 of the North Carolina Constitution with regard to any capital project (buildings, utility construction, economic improvement projects) in Chowan County between now and November 2013. Any such proposed project will be brought before the people in a Ballot Initiative, wherein the voters may accept or reject the project.

As of September 26th we had received only two responses, from Dana Soles (who signed the pledge) and from John Mitchener, ( who sent us a letter, see: www.johnsams.org/pledgestatus.htm) Two candidates, Ralph Cole and Emmett Winborne, did not claim the certified letter at the post office, even though notified twice as required by USPS policy. Every candidate has been offered the opportunity to state publicly, in writing his position on this issue, but only Mr. Mitchener has done so. Should any other candidate sign or respond before the election we will post his/her written response at www.albemarleweb.com

We conclude that only Mr. Soles and Mr. Mitchener might be expected to seek a vote of the people should new capital projects be proposed (ex: county office building, high school.) Citizens should take the above into account when you vote in November. For those candidates who did not sign, you might ask them why they are reluctant to state a public position on this issue, and whether they intend to bypass the people on capital projects, as was consistently done by our present Board of Commissioners, and is a major cause of our poor fiscal situation.

Robin and John Sams

Apparently the following letter was too hot for the Chowan Herald to handle. I submitted it two weeks ago and they decided not to publish it. I understand the numbers are shocking but I guarantee their accuracy.
rvh

"And the 7-0 Gang does it again. . .

Just when I thought I had seen it all, they outdo themselves.

On Aug 14, 2008 in a meeting with 800 or so close friends, the arrogant Chowan 7-0 Commission approved a balanced budget which included a 10% across-the-board cut in County expenses, refinancing of D. F. Walker School, refinancing the Northern Chowan Community Center and a 16% tax increase. To avoid a state takeover of the County, this budget was then sent to the NC Local Government Commission (LGC) where it was approved.

Now, the 800 in attendance had every right to conclude that these actions finally ended the matter for the current fiscal year. Oops, not so fast!

I attended the NEXT Chowan County Commissioners meeting on Sep 8, 2008, only 5 days after the LGC approved the balanced budget. In that meeting County Manager Rascoe submitted THREE NEW refinance proposals to the Commission.

Not a single Commissioner asked what would happen if they don’t approve these requests. Not a single Commissioner asked if there were any other alternatives. Once again, with virtually no discussion, the 7-0 Gang approved ALL THREE. I asked why these new proposals were necessary so soon after the balanced budget was approved. The answer from Rascoe was that they were necessary to fix the cash flow problem. Does that mean that the LGC approved balanced budget did not address cash flow?

Either the Aug 14 approved balanced budget was bogus or the newly requested refinance proposals are unnecessary!

Voters and taxpayers, you need to realize that the refinance of the Library added more than $2 million to your bill. That is, the $2.6 million Library addition now costs over $5 million. And, the refinance of the Public Safety Center adds another $3.3 million to your bill. That is, the $11 million Safety Center now costs over $22.4 million.

So, the 7-0 Gang, in one meeting, stuck you for more than $5.3 million in ADDITIONAL finance costs.

Oh, did I forget to mention, these figures do NOT include the cost to refinance D. F. Walker nor the NCCC? I’ll tackle them next time.

How do you stop this madness? There’s only one way I know. If you vote for an incumbent Commissioner in November, you are part of the problem. Become part of the solution!

Rich Halbert
Edenton"

Last week's Chowan Herald had a letter to the editor where the writer told about being called a "N**** lover" in a local restaurant. Comments in the Daily Advance on the recent "watermelon gate"column talk about the KKK operating in Chowan County, though not called KKK. Is this rumor true?

For those who are interested in knowing the location of the proposed Highway 17 By-Pass . To view the map click on the image, then click on the GALLERY image to see the larger version.

If you wish to see a more detailed version, I suggest you go down to Edenton Town Hall where the much larger original is on display in the lobby.

Comments on this proposal may be made in the FORUM

There are 10 candidates running for Chowan County Commissioner in November. Check http://www.johnsams.org/running.htm if you are unsure for whom you can vote. If you live near the boundary of District 2 and 3, check with Rebecca Lowe at the Board of Elections to learn your district.

If you would like to receive emails on significant updates to this list, please send an email to samsjl@earthlink.net Your Email address will not be released to anyone for any reason.

Click on http://www.johnsams.org/lateaudit.htm to read a letter received this April from the Local Government Commission admonishing the county for submitting its 2007 audit five months late. One quote: "As stewards of the public's resources, the governing body is responsible for ensuring that the audited financial records are available to the public in a timely manner....A report received by the governing body over nine months after year-end identifies financial and operational problems AFTER IT TOO LATE FOR THE BOARD TO TAKE ANY EFFECTIVE ACTION (capitals added.)

I must commend Peter Rascoe and Lisa Jones for their exceptionally quick response to my request for information on Capital obligations. See my previous story and request letter. I sent the letter via mail on Monday and have the reply via mail on Friday.I have not had time to analyze and will be out of town for 10 days so that will have to wait!

For those who want to try to learn more about our Fiscal situation, please go to:
http://www.chowancounty-nc.gov/, then under Departments, click on Finance Office. Audits for 2002-2007 are now posted there. Also some other documents, including an expected cash flow statement. This is a good step by the county, to make public documents available to anyone with a computer and internet access. Hopefully we will see further transparency (and reports to the people that are easy to understand--ie executive summaries of significant fiscal matters.)

Today's (9/11/08) Va Pilot says the EXTRA cost to refinance 5 building loans is $5 million dollars. We have done some computations just for the Library and Public Safety Center, and come out with $5.3 million ($133,000 per year for 40 years) just for those two. Please go to http://www.johnsams.org/calcloans.htm. The county has a cash flow problem even after raising our taxes because most people don't pay their property taxes until December--so the tax increase balances the budget by the end of June 2009, but until November/December no money is coming in. So they decided to refinance loans with the banks, asking for better short term treatment and in return having to pay more in the long term. Lots more. We have asked Mr. Rascoe to provide more info to work out the numbers on all the loans. .

"9/11/08 PM I have taken another look at the numbers in Timberlake's 2007 audit and compared them to the handout given the commissioners 9/8/08 at http://johnsams.org/9Sep08.htm. The greatest portion of the Library and Public Safety Center loans (around $12.8million dollars) were scheduled to be paid off in 2008 and 2009, according to the Timberlake 2007 audit. That information was surely known at the time of the Swain Auditorium public hearings. Why was the public not informed about this? How were they planning to pay off this $13 million? Probably all along they had planned to refinance, but why not disclose it to the people--especially after $27 million disappeared and taxes were raised 16%? Why not come clean on everything? My guess is that they figured after the Budget Amendment was rushed through, public interest would die down, and the refinancing could be done without further public criticism.

If you look at the 2007 audit, payments on these two buildings were to be made monthly, with a balloon payoff in 2009. The new payoffs according to the commissioners handout are extended for 40 years and will cost us $5.3 million additional dollars. Are there other such surprises coming? We won't know until we see all the figures for all the buildings."