Now the Bot’s come out with their secret (until now) way to go into and out of closed session. They are going to send me and the other CCC employees in the room to Room 2058 until someone comes to get us.
My first thought was “they are trying to send me to jail-solitary confinement-so to speak. I will not go to Room 2058 and sit there away from all the action. I knew it was my legal right to refuse. But, on second thought, I figured, hey, go along with this and see what happens. There are always unintended consequences in the most evil of plans. And I might learn something in the process. And I did. Boy, did I.
As I followed a CCC employee to room 2058 we weaved in and out of corridors that I have never been in before. All with the same kind of doors with the small windows to dozens upon dozens of classrooms. It seemed we were going to the end of the world, but I looked from side to side to see if there were any more doors with windows that were “blacked-out” like Littlejohn had Hurst do for the BoT Board Room. I determined that NONE of these other windows were blacked out. I wondered if those door windows were a part of a Building Code requirement. A Fire Code maybe. I also noticed that all of those doors opened to the inside. Something I know is against modern building codes. Certainly a violation. But maybe not when this particular building was built. Perhaps the architect specified the most expensive doors he could find to run up the cost of the building construction. A greedy thing to do since architects usually get their pay based on a percentage of the overall building costs. All kinds of informational inputs were being loaded into my memory banks. But the real finding would not come to me until later. Read on.
We finally arrived at Room 2058 and went in. I was accompanied by five CCC employees. I was in jail and had five guards. Oh well.
After a while someone comes to tell us the BoTs were ready to come back into Open Session from the Closed session to discuss “pending litigation.” I go back into the BoT Board meeting. Wes Westmoreland makes the motion to go back into open session, which passed. Then there is a motion to adjourn. Not a peep about whether or not the BoTs had taken any action. Also, I remember the statement that the Board had come up with new procedures for closed session HAD to have been discussed in the January 10, 2020 emergency meeting CLOSED-SESSION. Which is a big violation of the Public Meetings laws. All such things as policies and procedures are clearly designated in North Carolina law as strictly forbidden under NC law. This Board can’t win for losing. And the BoTs are not even trying. They deserve to lose lawsuits against them. Every one of them.
So, I quickly go up front and said to Wes Westmoreland that it was a mistake to leave out whether or not the Board had taken any actions in Closed session. I went on to say that these are “simple concepts” and suggested that the CCC BoTs just do what everybody else was doing. The look on this former State Senator’s face indicated he was not pleased with being lectured on the need to follow state law. But I figured somebody had to do it.
The Bot’s went to their catered meal I suppose. And I headed out to run some errands while I was in town. But something was missing. I had my shopping list so it was not that. Something was amiss here and I soon figured it out. Read on-we’re getting close.
When I got home, I powered up my computer and pulled up the CCC website. I wanted to see the minutes for the November 12, 2019 BoT meeting that had been previously approved. Something told me that the piece of the puzzle I was looking for was there. But when I pulled up the place the November 12, 2019 minutes were supposed to be, they were not there. And the minutes all the way back to August of 2017 were all missing too. These minutes would have been critical to the Ginger Bullock lawsuit and it appeared that the BoTs had purged those meeting minutes. Purging official records to avoid punishment in a lawsuit is called “obstruction of justice.” A felony criminal act. I will look into that as soon as possible.
But still, something was still missing. A Clue was there in the middle of my mind, but still not quite in focus.
Then, there it was. All those classrooms I walked past in going to Room 2058. All those windows in the doors that I looked through to see if they were blacked out, only to find they were NOT blacked out. But what those glances through those many-many door windows suddenly told the tale. The TRUTH was here and NOW. It was January 14, 2020, the Second day of Spring classes at Cleveland Community College and all those many-many classrooms that I walked by, looking through each window, should have been FULLl of STUDENTS!! Yet, these many-many classrooms were all EMPTY. In the mid-morning and the Classrooms that should have been full of students were all empty. Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.
Folks, this is probably the longest article I have ever published. It goes through many twists and turns that are necessary to explain what was going on. CCC is building a multi-million-dollar so-called Advanced Technology Center when we most likely do not need one due to our present situation. That situation is Cleveland County is a “dying county” due to a lack of leadership at every level, none of whom will talk truthfully to the public. Cleveland County is sinking fast and our so-called “leadership” has been covering-up for years.
AS it presently stands, our only hope now is this. It is Election Year 2020 and the School Board and the Commissioner majorities are up for reelection. We must elect the best candidates and wait for them to take office before we spend another dime on loser projects or any project at all. WE have four high schools that are over 50 years old. Our schools are failing. Our commissioners appoint the same old same old to all the various boards that suck the life out of our county finances.
Remember that much of Cleveland Community College is empty classes and all the BoTs want to do is build more EMPTY Classes. The new and ultra-expensive Shelby Middle School was built to 900 students yet less than 400 students actually attend that school. The NEW North Shelby School was built for 175 students, yet less than 50 actually attend. And some of them are injured by their teachers-inviting another lawsuit.
Think about it folks, stay tuned and be prepared to do your duty on Election Day-2020. YOU will be glad you did. Otherwise we are sunk and will stay sunk for the rest of our lives and probably the rest of our grandchildren’s lives. It is just that simple. Once the truth is known.
Thanks for staying with us until the end of this article!