Just past midway (question #7) in the questioning Mike Philbeck asked the candidates a “loaded question” that was clearly intended to benefit the incumbent, Massa Eddie. That question was “List the greatest achievements of the present county government in recent years?” I quickly wondered why Philbeck did not ask the candidates to list the greatest problems in county government?
Massa Eddie, apparently ready for such a question went into his usual diatribe, talking points, about how he brought 5,000 jobs and $6.5 BILLION in tax base into the county and the unemployment rate was 4.1%. 5% unemployment is usually figured as full employment. Massa Eddie never mentions the FACT that the big Duke Power Plant construction at Cliffside brought $$$Billions of tax base and much employment (during construction) into the county with absolutely ZERO influence by Massa Eddie Holbrook and his Economic Development program. Same with that new Natural Gas Plant just South of Kings Mountain. Of course Massa Eddie never acknowledges that there are over 20,000 citizens in Cleveland County on food stamps because of unemployment or underemployment. It is virtually impossible to have a 4.1% unemployment rate in Cleveland County with over 20,000 on food stamps. It is also of note that Massa Eddie in his response to the Shelby Star stated he brought 8,000 jobs into the county and was working on 1,200 more. Leaving out the fact that if the 4.1% unemployment figure was close to right, there were NOT another 1,200 Cleveland County workers for those jobs. And if Cleveland County is at full employment, why recruit more businesses spending millions on “incentives.?” If Massa Eddie was Pinocchio his wooden nose would be two feet long by now. Maybe three feet long.
Holbrook took his leave after this question to go to his big fundraising event. As I recall Massa Eddie’s Country Club buddies raised $42,000 (or thereabouts) for Holbrook’s first run as county commissioner. An office that paid about $6,500 at that time.
Chris Gash answered that question naively acknowledging the 4.1% unemployment rate, but also rightly stating that there were many others needing employment. After the forum I informed Gash about the over 20,000 on Food stamps, a number I received from DSS through Tim Moore as DSS usually tries to hide such information.
Todd McIntosh added that bringing in business was good but rightly stated workforce development was an issue to be dealt with.
Before I get to the list of other questions that were asked and the responses, I noticed a common approach to the candidates approach to running the County Commissioner’s office. Both candidates Chris Gash and Todd McIntosh repeatedly stated during the questioning and in different ways that they would be Honest, Open and Transparent. I decided to call Gash and McIntosh the H.O.T. Candidates for Honesty, Openness and Transparency. They mentioned Integrity many times too. Massa Eddie never once used the words honesty, openness, transparency and integrity. I suspect Massa Eddie didn’t use those words because they are not in his MO as a commissioner. I mentioned this only because I thought that amongst Massa’s other tall tales and misrepresentations he would lie about that too.
