Hang on Folks, it is Midnight. Stay tuned for the rest of this article tomorrow morning!!! In the meantime, watch the CCS Board Meeting Broadcasts and see the details for yourself.
Next Day
Folks, I hope you took the opportunity to watch the August 26, 2019 School Board Meeting Broadcast to see that everything I noted above was totally correct. Now, I will add the arguendo and explanation, fill in the blanks and show the deception, lies, waste and corruption on the School Board, Commissioners and others are much worse than that shown on the broadcast.
We will start out of order, hitting the title points first.
1. Article 46-The proposed increase in Sales Tax for Cleveland County:
The Commissioners, just as corrupt and deceptive as the School Board, have run the county close to bankruptcy and are proposing a 0.25 (a quarter) percent increase (the maximum that NC law allows) in county sales tax that is supposed to bring in $2 Million per year in extra revenue for the county. The Commissioners have already voted to approve putting a mostly hidden referendum on the 2019 election ballot. The 2019 elections will only be municipality voting and turnouts for off year elections are always very, very low. Maybe less than 10%. In such a low turnout, just a few dedicated “tax and spenders” can greatly influence the results of the election.
So, in actuality, the School Board Resolution, on the August 26, 2019 School Board Meeting agenda, to support the sales tax increase was not even needed or necessary. The Sales tax increase referendum WILL be on the November 2019 ballot whether or not the school board passed their resolution in support of the tax increase. But, the corrupt school board has been promised a “piece of the action” of the sales tax increased revenue. Same with Cleveland Community College and the various towns. Obviously a planned scheme to convince voters that “they” will also get a piece of the action.
History has shown that such schemes work, taxes are raised, the schools get a little, CCC gets a little, towns get a little and the City of Shelby, Kings Mountain and the American Legion World Series gets a lot. A lot every year too. That’s the fact of such tax increases. A fact that is lied about every time.
But, the item was on the school board meeting agenda and Danny Blanton had some questions.
Blanton first stated that such a sales tax increase would affect everybody, not just property tax payers. Such a statement was made in the early 1960’s when Democrat Governor Terry Sanford, who once threatened to shut down NC Public Schools rather than integrate, first proposed the original 3% Sales tax. But, Blanton’s statement 60 years later was a warning to every voter that the government in Cleveland County was about to raise taxes for everybody, red or yellow, black and white. And then Blanton started to drill deep into what this tax increase would be used for. From Blanton’s historical perspective on CCS spending, he was correct to assume that any spending without accountability would end up as waste. Wasted money that would tend to flow to buddies of school board members.
Folks, you have already seen this discussion on the School Board Meeting Broadcast. CCS Superintendent Stephen Fisher had no real answer for Blanton’s question. First, Fisher said, we will have to look at how much we get before we decide what to spend it on. A true tax and spend Democrat statement if there ever was one. Totally a bureaucrat talking. It was like saying if the School’s $155 million budget every year was doubled to $300 million, he would find a way to spend it ALL and taxpayers should not expect one bit more improvement in good education for our students. But Blanton kept drilling and Fisher kept hemming and hawing, providing nothing specific.
So, when Chairman Shearra Miller called for a vote, it was 7-1 for approving the resolution to raise the county sales tax. Danny Blanton was the only NO vote. The only correct vote, I would add. That is my opinion. You watched the video. Would you vote for a “pig in the poke” like the rest of the school board did? Remember this on the 2019 Election Ballot on November 5th. Vote AGAINST the referendum to raise the county sales tax. Put an end to this kind of political stupidity and wasteful spending, once and for all.
2. Voting NO on CCS Illegal and Wasteful Spending, as well as an illegal document:
Folks, if you didn’t get fired up watching the three speakers under Public Participation, perhaps you should check yourself into the Emergency Room to see if you are still alive and your heart is still beating. The very next item on the August 26, 2019 School Board meeting will surely light a fire under you. This next item of note
Approval of the Minutes from the August 12, 2019 School Board meeting. Normally just a formality. This time Danny Blanton exposed even more shyster behavior from Chairman Shearra Miller and the other school board members. (Shyster: a person who is professionally unscrupulous especially in the practice of law or politics: PETTIFOGGER. History and Etymology for shyster-probably from German Scheisser, literally, defecator. Totally a good description of Chairman Miller’s and the other board member’s behavior at this point.) Also, highly illegal behavior.
If you watched the CCS school board meeting broadcast closely during the Approval of the Minutes of the August 12, 2019 school board meeting you will see that Chairman Miller asked for a motion to approve those minutes-for both open and closed session. Yet no closed session minutes were provided. The motion to approve the August 12th minutes was made, seconded and voted to approve by a 7-1 Margin. Danny Blanton voted NO.
At this point let me remind you readers that we are now talking about what happened as described in my previous article regarding the August 12, 2019 school board meeting-closed session. I will also remind readers that North Carolina Law requires that any actions resulting from closed sessions have to be brought up and described in OPEN Session, discussed and voted on in OPEN Session. This did not happen on August 12, 2019. Or at the August 26, 2019 School Board Meeting. The minutes, just approved, for the August 12, 2019 meeting also shows, as described in my article of the August 12th meeting, that this legally required action did not take place. What did happen was the school board was so surprised to see me standing there when they burst out of the soundproof closed session room on August 12th hounding Danny Blanton, that they went back into open session in the Central Services auditorium and, without even sitting down, made the motion to adjourn and left the room dumbfounded on how to cover up the legal mess that they had just created. And I was the only eye witness from the public in the Auditorium at that time that saw what was going on. Let me repeat. There was NO vote on any action at the August 12, 2019 school board meeting coming from anything that had been discussed in closed session-supposedly about a legal issue but in reality, only about a drain pipe at the Kings Mountain High School football field as previously reported in my previous article. A closed session totally illegal in every way in accordance with North Carolina law.
After the motion to approve the minutes for the August 12th school board meeting was made and seconded, Chairman Shearra Miller immediately called for a vote without asking for any discussion. This is totally against Robert’s Rules of Parliamentary Procedure that the School Board has adopted and which have the force of law behind them. Again, watch the CCS Broadcast for the August 26th meeting. It is all there.
At that point Danny Blanton, who rightly voted against approving those minutes, voiced his objection to how Miller handled the “No discussion” before the vote and that the minutes for the closed session were incorrect and also illegal. Miller, with no attorney present, stated the matter had been handled properly and that she had allowed time for discussion-a big fat lie. Again, watch the broadcast.
At this point Miller stated that the School Board had approved giving $290,000 to the Kings Mountain High School “Touchdown Club” headed up by David Brinkley for the repair of a drain pipe running under the football field. As previously stated, there was no discussion in open session or any vote in open session that approved the additional $290,000 for anything. Therefore, spending the $290,000 on anything is invalid, illegal and represents a fraud at the highest level. And, only Danny Blanton had the courage to object to illegal, unethical and shyster MO’d actions carried out by the other school board members. Only a do-nothing District Attorney like Mike Miller would allow such as this to happen-safe from criminal prosecution. I will make sure Mike Miller receives a copy of this article. I have courage too.
3. The Minutes for the August 12, 2019 School Board Meeting was illegal in many other ways.:
North Carolina Law requires Minutes of Official Meetings to not necessarily be a verbatim transcript, but to accurately and fairly describe what happened in the meeting such that a person not present for the meeting could read the minutes and totally understand what transpired in the meeting.
The minutes for the August 12, 2019 School Board meeting did not meet this legal standard on so many occasions. I will briefly describe only a few.