Wake up folks. Especially you 52,000 registered voters who slept through the 2017 Elections. 2018 is an Election Year in Cleveland County. The filing period for County Commissioner and other local, State, and Federal Offices begins this coming Monday at Noon. The Primary Elections will be May 8, 2018 and the General Election is November 6, 2018. But for those signing up to run for office, remember this. Filing for elected office starts Monday February 12, 2018 at Noon.

For those of you that are interested in the County Commissioner’s race, to run for office or to become an informed voter, pay attention. We are going to provide information on the issues related to the Commissioners as well as the other offices.

For the Commissioner’s Office we will start with an issue that many voters may not remember and an issue has not been talked about much. Early last year the Cleveland County Commissioners foolishly voted to have the State abolish the Office of Cleveland County Coroner effective in November 2018. Just AFTER the 2018 General Election. We will start our voter information program with this issue as it clearly shows what not to do in an elected office. That is try to fix something that isn’t broken because of foolish personal animosity and using false information and unethical methods to do it. The day of reckoning is coming soon for that stupid decision the Commissioners made. Read on!

This whole foolish episode was covered in great detail in my articles dated March 13, 2017 and May 30, 2017. If you wonder why I have used the word “foolish: so many times in regard to what the Commissioners did in this heinous example of a political hack job perpetrated by the whole slate of Cleveland County Commissioners, read these articles again and remember this. The Cleveland County Coroner who had his office abolished out from under him (for reasons described in detail in my previous articles as noted above) plans to sign up and run against the incumbent Commissioners in this years Commissioner’s race. And this issue, which is just as politically salacious as the scandals and lawsuits at Cleveland Community College that are even now still reverberating through Cleveland County looking for a final solution. And, since nothing was wrong in the Coroners Office to begin with and plenty will go wrong without a County Coroner when the Coroner’s office is abolished, if the Commissioners have any brains at all, they will reverse their efforts to abolish the Coroner’s office well before November.

Read these article again folks. The County Commissioner’s foolish action to abolish the Coroner’s office is only exceeded by the foolishness of their reasons for doing it in the first place. Reread these articles and ask yourself, who needs foolish County Commissioners who would do such stupid things as this?

Attach the two articles HERE:

You can read that article here.

The second article can be found here.

Mr. Willie A. Green is big on sports. And has two Superbowl rings to prove it.

At the February 6, 2017 Commissioner’s Meeting Mr. Green presented his well thought out and well prepared proposal for a Private-Public Partnership with Cleveland County and possibly the City of Shelby on a Sports Complex to be built on 16 acres of land Mr. Green has already purchased and improved adjacent to Shelby High School and Holly Oak Park. Mr. Green’s proposal was based on a win-win-win-win situation where needs have already been determined and adopted into long term County government masterplans, the economic developed potential is based on reputable information and has been conservatively calculated, the Complex would complement both the American League World Series as well as the Holly Oak Park facility development, provide advanced athletic training for local athletes as well as provide tournament draws from various sports year round. So, Cleveland County wins. The City of Shelby wins. Shelby High School Facilities and the ALWS wins. And Mr. Willie Green’s dreams of giving back to the community wins too. What is not to like about such a proposal as this?

On top of that, as I sat there listening to this proposal and examining the material presented, I realized that, after all my times attending Commissioner’s meetings, School Board Meetings and Community College Board meeting, this was the first time I had heard of a proposal to the County Commissioners where the person making the proposal was putting up a significant portion of the construction money out of his own pocket. Add another win for Cleveland County Taxpayers to the list of wins.

And then, Mr. Green has been quoted by WBTV News saying he demands transparency. “I want to make sure that everyone in Cleveland County who pays taxes knows exactly where their money is going, knows exactly what they’re going to get back from it,” said Green. This is a new concept for Cleveland County and one that needs to be repeated across the board for all County Agencies.

But don’t just believe me. For more details of what Mr. Green proposed to Commissioners regarding his Sports Complex idea please read the following articles from the Shelby Star and WBTV News for the rest of the story.

Also note that the Cleveland County Commissioners hesitated to express a commitment to this Sports Complex proposal even though Commissioner Chairman Eddie Holbrook stated to the WBTV Reporter “The dream is excellent. The county’s interested in it. It certainly enhances the quality of life for our people so it’s just something we’ve got to work through,” said Holbrook. Folks, it is Election Year for the majority of Cleveland County Commissioners. Candidate filing starts Monday noon. Let the commissioners know that it is about time to jump on this worthwhile project. No ifs, ands or buts allowed.

You may read the Shelby Star article here.

You may read the WBTV article here.

If you take a look at recent school and other county building construction in Cleveland County, several things remain the same. Significant and unexplained cost over-runs. The same Architect gets the business over and over again despite poor workmanship and the significant cost over-runs. And a significant lack of oversight by CCS, CCC and the Cleveland County Commissioners. We are especially talking about the LeGrand Center-$7 million cost over-run, The new Health Department-an estimated $8 million cost over-run, Shelby Middle School-another estimated $8 million cost over-run and the New North Shelby School Project-an estimated $6.5 million cost over-run when construction is complete and the secret cost accounting swaps (costs necessary to build the North Shelby School Project charged to James Love) are factored in. (CCS you haven’t fooled us on that.) Former CCS Board Chairman Phillip “Bully” Glover even gave out a costs estimate for new auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools at $42 million during his re-election campaign when the final construction costs for similar construction (and first class facilities-not the cheap stuff we always end up with) at another location outside Cleveland County was around $8 million each-a $26 million cost over-run for Burns and Crest combined. Totaling $55.5 Million in recent cost over-runs if you are counting. And, not a peep about this in the Shelby Star.

Folks, are you getting the message? There are lots of suspicious planning, budgetary and accounting problems associated with CCS, CCC and County Agency building construction. So much so that a good portion is questionable and is likely to border on the illegal. And what have we done? Well, 52,000 registered voters stayed home on the School Board Election Day in 2017. And nobody has complained except me, Stan Anthony, Danny Blanton and CCS Board candidates Robert Queen, Rodney Fitch and Kevin Whisnant who were defeated while the voters that did vote voted a sexual predator onto the CCS Board. And Re-elected Bully Glover. Folks, that’s what happens when you stay home on Election Day.So, Williams, who brought in the FBI in to Cleveland County to investigate school cost over-runs?Nobody! yet. The title of this article says FBI to Investigate School Board… Not the Cleveland County School Board. It’s the Beaufort County School Board they are investigating. And the local newspapers and media in Beaufort County covered the problems in great detail. The following attachments show a very intensive investigative report in 2008 and an announcement this week that the FBI has subpoenaed the Beaufort County School District in an investigation of the cost over-runs. These reports are uncanny as they are almost exactly what has gone on in Cleveland County. Just change the school names, commissioner names, School Superintendent names and the stories are almost identical.We will watch closely what happens down in Beaufort County and perhaps we can get the FBI to pay Cleveland County a visit. The sooner the better as filing for the Three County Commissioners offices up for election this year starts this coming Monday at Noon. Stay tuned for more on that.Attach 2018 Article HERE.

Article from 2018.

Article from 2008.

Folks, now is not the time to celebrate at Cleveland Community College. Things at CCC may now seem to be heading in the right direction, but if we take our eyes off the ball, we might regret it. Let’s make a list of problems that have not been totally resolved and see what we have to do to get everything fixed like it should be.

1. The new president selection has yet to be completed. My original pick was Dr. Jason Hurst due to his high level of experience and competence in Workforce Development. Cleveland County needs a good plan for Workforce Development and a good person to implement that plan. Such a plan has not yet been articulated clearly at CCC (of CCS for that matter) and, as you know, the devil is in the details. More about that later.

If you listen close to Dr. Camille Reese’s interview, she seems to have a toughness that would be necessary to shape up the overall organization at CCC–to pull up the weeds by the roots, so to speak. And not likely to fall for a pretty face as former President Thornburg and interim President Bill Aiken appear to have done.

Also, it is unknown whether or not these two finalists know how just how much personnel reorganization is necessary at CCC or that the College is under legal actions that will require resolution and perhaps Court Orders. Reliable sources indicate that the Caylor Investigative Report has purposely been withheld, upon legal advice, by the CCC Board of Trustees due to the report containing information that would be “detrimental” to the BoT’s defense in these legal actions. I have requested the material in the Caylor Investigation from CCC under the Freedom of Information Act as well as North Carolina Public Records laws but the BoT’s have illegally ignored my requests and refused to provide the material. Of course everybody already knows that if the BoT’s had been doing their job al along, the situation would have never come to this. And the BoT’s are in a cover-up mode for their own actions as well as the actions of others. I mention this as a warning to the CCC BoT that if they get caught withholding evidence in court cases, they may find themselves in contempt of court-or worse.

So, you have to wonder; if the two remaining Presidential Candidates learn the magnitude of the problems at CCC, including a BoT cover-up, would they decide to withdraw their applications like three of the other finalists have already done. If that happens, what comes next? Perhaps a better question would be, who comes next?

Think about that for a minute. This Presidential Search (with the two finalists noted above) is not done until one is selected, accepts the President’s position and signs the contract.

This is probably the easy part though, even though it is still fraught with peril. We will multitask through this by closely watching what goes on in the near term as well as looking for the best path to a bright future at CCC.

2. The lawsuits and legal actions against CCC must be quickly settled and all underlying issues must be resolved. And damages paid as required. However, just paying off the legal actions without fixing the underlying issues is not acceptable. All that would do is cause more lawsuits. All of this is the BoT’s responsibility. We expect the BoT to take the necessary actions as needed to resolve complaints properly to avoid lawsuits in the first place and make whole those that were damaged during the time the BoT was not doing their jobs. All these resolutions may require personnel changes that may end up necessarily with personal discipline up to termination. Whatever it takes.

3. Eliminate the position of Executive Vice President. Even the current holder of this position, Dr. Shannon Kennedy, stated in her public interview that she would not fill this position if she was selected as President. This position on the CCC Organization Chart has too many oversight lines of responsibility that filter out too many lines of management feedback from the President.

4. Allegations of “watering-down” College level courses for dual enrollment programs as a way to bring in more revenue to CCC must be totally and properly resolved. There is too much anecdotal evidence that such a watering-down of coursework is going on to just dismiss these allegations out of hand. Perhaps this is what is causing the Caylor Report to be withheld from the public s well as the Courts. Transparency is the best policy and it is about time the CCC BoTs come to realize that fact. And to practice what they preach.

5. Nepotism and hiring and promoting family and friends must stop. Hiring and promoting must be performance based. That is simple enough, so ’nuff said about that.

This list is not complete, but is a good starting point. CCC BoT’s, you have your work cut out for you.

Editor’s Note: Events at Cleveland Community College involving the search for a new President has moved very quickly this past week. From the results so far I have to believe my articles, especially my article urging the CCC Board of Trustees to do the right thing, made a difference. But, probably the biggest difference was the public interview of Dr. Shannon Kennedy on Monday, January 29, 2018. And probably the biggest difference in that interview came when Dr. Kennedy attempted to answer my question regarding the CCC Strategic Plan. A plan that Dr. Kennedy had herself referred to several times before as the path forward for CCC. My question asked Dr. Kennedy to describe this Strategic Plan and if it was so good, why wasn’t it already implemented. And some follow-up questions.

My question gave Dr. Kennedy an opportunity to shine. Remember, she is the CCC Executive VP and should have had full knowledge of this Strategic Plan that she was advocating. If Dr. Kennedy had come across well with this question, she might have been the shoe-in Candidate for President of CCC.

As it turned out, there was no such Strategic Plan. It was all made up and Dr. Kennedy had gotten herself caught in a lie in front of the Trustees and an auditorium full of people with the cameras rolling. Go watch it, it is on the CCC website.

Anyway, I am preparing articles regarding the final days of the CCC Presidential Search and where we go from here. Folks, send me some suggestions on that. I am sure that the CCC BoT, by now, are willing to listen to good ideas.

Also, I received the following message today and have provided it for your information. AS noted in the message there is still plenty of work to do in turning CCC toward the right direction.

CCC Message:

Hooray!!

To: Robert A. Williams

Sincerely,
Name Withheld by Robert A. Williams