wilkes

"What say we drop the disparaging name calling and the attempts to wrongly portray me as a dangerous radical and have a civil discussion, folks."...that ain't no fun

Tom Morris here to clear up a few misunderstandings and misstatements in previous posts.
1) There is an incorrect belief by some of you that I am hiding from my democratic party connections. I am openly and publicly registered in Wilkes as a Democrat. I am running as an Independent rather than a Democrat in order to reduce the polarization in Wilkes that exist around party affiliation and serves no real purpose at the county level. If you will notice, I am never referred to simply as a Democrat by those who are opposed to my being elected. I'm referred to as a far left wing, ultra liberal Democrat who resembles Charles Manson. (Frankly, I think I look more like Billy Bob Thornton). What say we drop the disparaging name calling and the attempts to wrongly portray me as a dangerous radical and have a civil discussion, folks.
2) the Commissioners' voted a salary increase for themselves when they voted for the budget which includes that increase. (By the way, Keith Elmore and Gary L. Blevins voted against). I hope no one is naive enough to believe that they did not notice that line item in the budget. It is in fact a salary increase and is in no way based on the amount of travel within the county. I verified this information prior to stating it and anyone else can do so by calling the county office and asking.
3) recording of meeting minutes- All discussion of this year's budget, which includes the above mentioned commissioners' salary increase, took place in work session meetings. Because the discussions were not recorded in the minutes, the public has no way of going back and examining those discussions. This is why it is important to record the full minutes (and discussions) for work sessions. Closed meetings are a different matter altogether and are held for specific reasons which are outlined in the NC General Statutes. I will be releasing a video soon which will go into more detail about the importance of recording work session minutes.

I hope this corrects some misunderstandings and I hope that we can continue to have an honest and civil discussion on GoWilkes and elsewhere.

Elect independents. Flush all the republitards.
http://indecan.org/

OH FEBS: Continuing the personal attacks proves you are not able to politely discuss matters and adds nothing to the conversation. Please stay on topic. You are grossly ignorant of my and others' experience and education which are not the subject nor scope of this discussion. Personal attacks on those you disagree with are a common trait of the liberal/progressive when you cannot perform or compete in the arena of ideas. FYI, this thread is about Tom Morris and his fitness as a candidate for county commissioner. Now, picking up where we left off following your distraction, Mr. Morris has specifically cited his business experience as a qualification for election. With at least two incumbents with the same experience, I see no difference that he could possibly make and posit that a diverse attribute would be more appropriate, since he is not happy with the decisions being made. Mr Morris has yet to state what ideas he would bring to the table and specifically what he would do to improve the county. He is running against the status quo but offers nothing to replace it. Also, a continuing curiosity is that if he is running as unaffiliated, why did he choose to announce his candidacy at the Democratic county convention? Is that Mr. Morris in the back left corner with the sunglasses on in the picture on page A7 of the Wilkes Journal Patriot from Wednesday, September 10th celebrating the opening of the Democrat Headquarters?

If Tom Morris' proven skills to successfully start and manage a small business are not evidence of his qualification to be an effective county commissioner, I would like to know what qualifications you think are needed?

Thanks for your concern, Feb, but I have an MBA in business and understand economics very well indeed.

Conrad, once again you are projecting qualities onto "liberals" which you are not able to embrace in yourself and your chosen group.
You and mtpirate need to take a trip to visit other countries and take a course or two in economics and political science. Then you'd realize how narrow minded you sound.

who?

Now, Conrad, don't be childish. There's no need to insult all Democrats, as they are traditionally the more intelligent party -

http://www.psychologytoday....n-congress

http://content.time.com/tim...42,00.html

With that said, I agree with the rest of your (Conrad) comments. From what I've read here, I'm not sure that Tom Morris has a clear understanding of the role of county commissioner, or the laws regarding closed sessions -

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us...18.11.html

Someone that doesn't understand his job or the laws, but is 100% convinced that he's right and everyone else is wrong, is really pretty dangerous to have on the board.

And even though work session minutes may not be legally mandated. It would be genuinely transparent and ethical to do so.

From my perspective he mentioned running a small business as justifying his competence and qualifications for the job. Of which I'm not sure that is a qualification. Not as evidence of his different perspective.

But his perspective/ideology certainly would be different and fresh compared to the current group.

Good observation, Mtnpirate!

"Social and economic equality?"

Sounds all too familiar to the old USSR and to socialist China. It's a real shame that many in our country are being moved to believe that these country's economic systems surpasses that of the USA. The USA is called the "Land of Opportunity" because it affords those who work hard to achieve and reap the benefits of their toil; certainly not to cap their citizens the possibility of achievement.

If this is how Mr. Morris believes, no thanks!

February, you nailed it !

Conrad, you sound like someone who belongs to the John Birch society...the brand of conservative who would sell their own mother in the name of All Holy Capitalism and will argue to defend conventional good ole boy practices to the death regardless of their ethical construct. Your argument sounds good enough because you're trying to appear "logical" but anyone who leans towards blind obedience to religious dogma (which is imposed by humans vs spirituality which is a personal path/process) and calls someone a "card carrying liberal" is clearly operating from a place of fear and has not dared to live a full and adventurous life. Would you like to be called a card carrying conservative or a card carrying fundamentalist? It's really not that black and white...humans are more complicated than that. You obviously don't like Mr Morris because he stands for something you can't comprehend right now....social and economic equality...and acceptance of religious and ethnic diversity. I think your fear might be a challenge for you to learn more about life...to venture out and become better educated and experience more of the world beyond a 50 mile radius of your house.

Frankly, youlie, your credibility to reliably advise voters is far gone.

Vote for Tom, flush all the republitards !

Consistent with Mr. Morris' spin on the commissioner's pay raise was the non-issue of minutes being taken at work sessions. Under N.C. General Statutes, minutes of work sessions are not required, as no actions are taken during those meetings. As all card-carrying liberals are wont to do, Mr. Morris did not do his homework and cited the wrong section of law when he complained to the county attorney about this matter. In appeasement, the attorney instructed the secretary to the commissioners to take minutes at work sessions. Contrary to Mr. Morris' understanding, minutes do not have to reflect discussion, only actions taken. His constant rant that he will shed light on these deliberations shows a complete misunderstanding of the process. There are clearly delineated reasons that a public body may go into closed session. One of those reasons must be stated prior to going into a closed session. Once in closed session, no action may be taken. Actions can only be taken in open session. This is clearly defined in the NCGS under the "sunshine laws" (NCGS 143-318.11(a), 1-9). If Mr. Morris intends to report what was discussed in a closed session he will be in violation of the law and betray the confidentiality of his fellow commissioners. His continued obfuscation of this point of law is only intended to confuse the low-information, knee-jerk voter.

A breath of fresh air, a break from the republitards keeping Wilkes in the 1800's

Mr. Morris has NOT changed his political affiliation. He is still a Liberal, left wing Democrat. He is only running as an unaffiliated candidate to fool the low information crowd. Just who are the folks at the Wilkes Policy Committee that Mr. Morris takes his marching orders from? Will he be beholden to them?