Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:37:19 -0500
From: Heather Johnson
Subject: Response to Jeffrey Starkweather
The Coalition may have disbanded in shame but their tactis continue under Coaltion Co-Founder Jeffrey Starkweather.
The first thing that strikes me about his post in today’s Chatlist is how the Coalition tactic of stripping people of their identities and reducing them to one body of mind continues. It didn’t work during the election Jeffrey – it won’t work now. While it’s clear that we have three new commissioners who ran on the same platform, they are individual people who the voters elected, individually. For Jeffrey’s benefit they are:
Commissioner Brian Bock
Commissioner Walter Petty
Commissioner Pam Stewart
Speaking of the Public Hearing in Moncure, Jeffrey says the public comment was “nearly unanimous” – is that lawyer speak for “some speakers were against cooperation and some were for it”? Because that’s what I saw. Out of the actual TWELVE property owners affected, ONE spoke in opposition to cooperation with WWP.
Since you are not a part of the BOC how do you know that there are no concessions being negotiated? Chairman Bock has stated clearly that negotiations are ongoing. I hope that the BOC listens to what residents of Monucre asked during the Public Hearing. If thy are going to vote yes, then make sure that Moncure benefits. They have infrastructure that is sadly lacking. They asked for protection from forced annexation. I hope that the commissioners include those items in their negotiations.
Last Saturday I attended a meeting in Apex of Chatham Citizens United. Commissioner Petty was there and this was his second meeting of CCU he’s attended *without* Chairman Bock in the past month. Commissioner Stewart was also present at the meeting and she relayed to the CCU members the meetings that she has attended on her own relating to the WWP issue. She stayed for hours and listened to the concerns of the citizens. In fact, she was running a bit late to the meeting and when she arrived she wanted to reiterate her understanding of their position. She relayed back to them almost verbatim the opening statement of the meeting that the CCU President Robert Sears gave (Commissioner Stewart was not present for his opening statement of the meeting).
So you are wrong Jeffrey. These elected officials stand alone and happen to have very similar principles.
I encourage Chatham Citizens to visit the FAQs on the County website for more information on this issue. And please consider support for cooperation with WWP with the concessions that Moncure residents have asked for.
http://chathamnc.org/index.aspx?recordid=2518&page=19
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Heather Johnson
Chatham Bookkeeping Services
919-444-1186