Cleveland County Fire Departments have been Weaponized!!???  

CC Commissioner Chairman, Kevin Gordon, is well known to have a hot and uncontrollable temper who flies off the handle whenever someone disagrees with him. Robert A knows for a fact that Kevin Gordon has lost control of his foul temper, yelled and screamed and threatened in front of most County Department Heads, all the other Commissioners and other witnesses. Gordon never apologizes and apparently expects county staff, department heads and even the County Attorney to cover-up his episodes of uncontrolled madness as if nothing ever happened. And, they have covered up for Gordon as they would likely lose their jobs otherwise. Such a “hostile work environment is believed to be the main reasons the Former County Manager, Finance Director and others recently ducked their heads down, found other jobs and got the hell away from Kevin Gordon.

Kevin Gordon is also believed to be a well-practiced liar and a schemer as he refuses to explain to the citizens and voters of Cleveland County why he was forced to leave his high level and high paying employment in Gaston County Government as the Director of the Emergency Services and Fire Services. It is a fact that the Town of Stanley’s entire Fire Department resigned and left Stanley, NC without fire protection for a period of time. Such a power-play and blackmail strategy as the Stanley Fire Department pulled would appear to be something that Kevin Gordon would embrace to get what he wanted.

Robert A would suggest to all the citizens and voters of Cleveland County refuse to vote for Kevin Gordon until the circumstances of his leaving his Gaston County Government employment was fully disclosed. Robert A will extend the courtesy of publishing every truthful word that Kevin Gordon says about that unfortunate situation. AS well as every word of apology that Kevin Gordon writes about his hot-tempered actions and whatever medication he might presently be taking, if any, to assist him maintain his control and perspective during this current uncertain time in CC.

 

And there are other things regarding Kevin Gordon’s leadership actions and seeming lack of leadership skills that demand to be looked into.

  1. When Kevin Gordon signed up to run for another term as a Commissioner, he orchestrated a Publicity Stunt and Photo-op at the Board of Elections headquarters in Shelby that included an entourage of four Cleveland County Fire Department owned fire trucks and as many as 30 citizens that appear to be Firemen. One of those “citizens” holding a Gordon political sign appears to be Dennis Bailey. A well-known Rogue Republican CCGOP member who is well known to be a dirty trickster and tax and spender. These pictures were obtained from Kevin Gordon’s own personal Political Facebook page that show the Firetrucks and personnel in the parking area behind the Election’s Board Offices that will be included at the end of this article.

Also note that Kevin Gordon’s taking FOUR Cleveland County Fire Department Firetrucks and their apparent crews away from duty at their Fire Stations represents an unnecessary risk to the Citizens of Cleveland County of possible death and destruction if a fire had broken out while these fire crews and equipment were being unethically used by Kevin Gordon for his own personal publicity stunt and photo-op.

One must conclude that such an unnecessary risk of death and destruction caused by Gordon’s consuming political ambitions would also include, with a high probability, that Kevin Gordon has also “drafted” under penalty of losing rank and position, firemen to work on his campaign in other capacities, such as constructing and putting up Kevin Gordon’s large and numerous political signs all over CC.

 

  1. Has Kevin Gordon’s position as the Chairman of the CC Commissioners allowed Kevin Gordon to influence Speaker of the House Tim Moore to unequally and perhaps unfairly distribute millions of dollars in State funding to those Fire Departments and Fire Fighters who have supported Gordon’s candidacy and much less to those that may have been unwilling to support Kevin Gordon as much as Gordon might have expected or demanded from those fire departments. Just from the numbers released by various media accounts this certainly appears to be the case. Just from various rumors and rumbling attributed to various County Fire Departments, this could be the case. In any case, there appears to be a sharp sense of betrayal by Gordon from the lack of a fair distribution of the State Grant money.

So, let’s examine the numbers and reach our own conclusions using information provided by The State General Assembly and the various media presentations of that information.

 

The following information is copied exactly from various official accounts of the Millions of Dollar$ in Grants recently given to Cleveland County Fire Departs. And the comparisons of the amounts.

 

Information gathered below from various official governmental and news reports and statements:

 

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said “I am so proud to have secured the much-needed funding for projects that make long-term investments in Cleveland County and the bright future ahead.”

Cleveland County Fire Departments: (From Cleveland County website):

Cleveland County FDs consist of fifteen Fire Departments. On a yearly average, our departments respond to over 3,000 fire calls. (Which averages an unbelievable 8.2 fire calls every single day. Saturdays and Sundays included. (Robert A would like to see this number validated and verified by official records.)

 

Information From General Assembly Documents

  • $2.5 million to the WacoCommunity Volunteer Fire Department
  • $1.25 million for Boiling SpringsFire and Rescue Inc.
  • $1.4 million to Cleveland County for Cleveland Countyvolunteer fire departments
  • $250,000 to CasarVolunteer Fire Department
  • $250,000 to Cleveland County to support theLawndale Volunteer Fire Dept.
  • $75,057 to Cleveland County to support Number SevenVolunteer Fire Department in Lattimore
  • $250,000 to the FallstonCommunity Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.
  • $1.25 million to Oak GroveVolunteer Fire Department, Inc.
  • $25,000 to PolkvilleVolunteer Fire Department, Inc. for capital improvements and equipment
  • $250,000 to theShanghai Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.

These other listed Cleveland County Fire Departments received ZERO from Tim Moore’s latest budget.

 

Bethlehem Volunteer Fire Department got $ ZERO

Grover Rural Volunteer Fire Department got $ ZERO

Shelby Fire & Rescue GOT $ ZERO

Kings Mountain City Fire Department got $ ZERO

 

As can be seen, the Waco Fire Department, Gordon’s Home base, received $2.5 Million in State grants.

 

  • This is twice as much as received by Boiling Springs and Oak Grove Fire Departments.
  • This is almost twice as much as received by the Cleveland Fire Department.
  • This is ten times more that the Fallston, Lawndale, Casar and Shanghai Fire Departments each received.
  • This is 33.33 times more than the Number Seven Fire Department received
  • This is ONE HUNDRED times more than the Polkville Fire Department received
  • And the Bethlehem, Shelby, Kings Mountain and Grover Fire Departments received NOTHING.

 

Folks, the numbers clearly show, for a fact, that the Million$ given to Cleveland County Fire Departments was NOT evenly distributed. And, NO information has been made to the public about why the distribution is skewed so sharply towards the WACO Fire Department.

 

It is also fair to assume that the firefighters whose home fire departments have received so little of the overall grant money are blaming Kevin Gordon for the shun. AS are the citizens and taxpayers that live in the areas covered by those shunned Fire Department.

 

All Robert A can say about that last statement is this:

“Robert A. Williams, as a Cleveland County Commissioner, would ensure that every Fire Department in Cleveland County would be provided the tools, equipment and resources that they need to perform the services that they provide. Without anyone having to fear retaliation or a hostile work environment. Or favoritism and cronyism.”

 

Folks, how can you be more fair than that???

 

Kevin Gordon’s Publicity Stunt pictures are provided below:

 

This is how such problems can be solved in the future:

 

 

Elect Robert A Williams for Cleveland County Commissioner in 2024.

 

This is the campaign sign that cannot be bought or stolen!!