Category: Election 2017

One of the primary reasons why so many people dislike so many politicians – they’re dishonest.

Local election results are in and Huntersville will have two new commissioners starting next month. But before moving on from this election, I wanted to write about one specific mailer from the campaign that has been bothering me since I received it this past Saturday – after I had already cast my ballot during early voting.

Commissioner Dan Boone sent out a large mailer on the last weekend of the campaign paid for by the Dan Boone Election Committee. On one side was a list of four reasons to vote for the candidate, but on the other side one specific “accomplishment” was prominently displayed – “The ONLY Town Commissioner to Attend ALL Town Board Meetings!”

This is completely false.

The mailer doesn’t say the only commissioner to attend all parts of all meetings, nor does it say the only commissioner who wasn’t late to any meeting. It says the only commissioner to attend all meetings.

I reviewed the minutes of every meeting of this board from Dec. 7, 2015 through Oct. 16, 2017 (minutes are not yet available for the Nov. 6, 2017 meeting – but all commissioners were present) and Commissioner Boone was present for all meetings, but so was Commissioner Guignard. Commissioner Guignard was late, however, to two meetings: Sept. 19, 2016 and Sept. 18, 2017. The reason he was late to those two meetings – he was performing his duties at the yearly Angels of ’97 charitable golf tournament.

And if you were wondering, over the past two years Commissioner Bales missed one meeting (Nov. 21, 2016), the mayor missed one meeting (Oct. 2, 2017), and Commissioner Phillips missed three meetings (Feb. 1, 2016, July 18, 2016*, and August 1, 2016*). Of course, two of the three meetings missed by Commissioner Phillips were directly related to the serious injuries he received after being hit by a truck – but I guess that’s still no excuse for missing town board meetings.

Besides his claim being completely false, simply being present is not actually an accomplishment in the real world. The town board is not like elementary school where we reward children for perfect attendance (which is really an award that should be given to parents of those children…). Companies don’t cease to function if their employees are late to work or take a day off – and neither does the town board.

Here’s something to consider – if Commissioner Boone had actually missed the June 6, 2016 meeting, we would have had a lower tax rate in Huntersville for at least one year. Reminder – Commissioner Boone voted against a lower tax rate at that meeting and the budget was passed after the mayor broke a 3-3 tie.

As everyone is very aware, Commissioner Boone agreed to run as part of team this election. By running a mailer with a false claim, he placed himself above the team by criticizing the other three members of the team. That he chose to run this mailer on the last weekend of the campaign after benefiting from the other candidates and their supporters putting up his signs, handing out his palm cards, putting him on multiple ads, and encouraging people to vote for him speaks volumes.

I called Commissioner Boone after I received the mailer and requested an explanation since Commissioner Guignard had also attended all meetings. He stood by the statement. He again stood by the statement last night in-person when I asked if he wanted to comment prior to running this article. I’m paraphrasing because I didn’t take down his statement in writing, but his explanation was that being late to the meeting doesn’t count as attending the meeting. He was raised to understand that if you were late to something, it was the same as being absent. He also explained that this same statement was on his campaign website and on one of his palm cards.

Here’s a little secret for any candidates reading this – roughly 99.2% of voters never look at your campaign websites and almost the same percentage never actually read your palm cards. This percentage is even higher for voters, like me, who have already decided to vote for you, which I had before receiving this mailer. The difference is you bring far more attention to something when you purposefully choose to highlight it on one side of an oversized mailer than when you bury it on your website or on a palm card.

So why pick this fight with a newly re-elected sitting commissioner the morning after the election? Because some things are more important than politics.

Commissioner Boone’s vote earlier this year to change management at HFFA took courage and was the right thing to do despite what hack reporters from WBTV might think. The singular importance of that vote was the only reason I voted for him this election. I regret my vote for Mr. Boone, it won’t happen again.

I welcome any response from Commissioner Boone.

Eric

This week’s edition of the Lake Norman Citizen (or as I like to refer to it, LKN Tax the Citizen) once again demonstrates why it can accurately boast of being “the only experienced, professional, legitimate news outlet in the Lake Norman region.” If you’re an aspiring journalism professional who wants to learn how to get politicians to do what you want while still maintaining the pretense of being an objective journalist, you definitely need to read this week’s Citizen.

See, when you’re supposed to be an objective journalist just reporting the facts you have to work extra hard to maintain that pretense of objectivity so you don’t reveal to your readers that you have just as many biases as they do. For example, at the Citizen they have to work to hide their utter disdain for conservatives and their even greater disdain for any effort (usually) by conservative politicians to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. So when the Huntersville town board initially deferred a vote in April and then later voted 3-2 against the proposed revised agreement with the Carolina Rapids during the May 1, 2017 board meeting, the objective journalists at the Citizen went to work right away to ensure the vote went the way it was supposed to next time.

Lay the groundwork in the Horse’s Mouth section for how great the Rapids organization is and how a deal with them shouldn’t be about the money (remember, it’s Parks and Rec, not Parks and Revenue) after some board members had the audacity to ask questions about the proposed agreement during the April 17 board meeting. Check.

After the May 1 vote against the agreement, run a one-sided article highlighting all of the supposed benefits of extending the Rapids agreement without providing any perspective on how much it costs taxpayers to operate Barry Park every year or any information about how much revenue the Rapids reported on their Form 990 last year. Check.

The week before the May 15 board meeting, write a super clever editorial (and I mean like Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing clever) that people will think is about actually cleaning a house, but in reality is about cleaning house at Huntersville town hall, that attempts to accuse the fiscally conservative majority on the board of not acting fiscally conservative enough and cite the Rapids vote as an example. Check.

Then, when Commissioner Boone, one of the original dissenting board members, does the right thing and places the agreement back on the agenda for the May 15 meeting so the board can finally vote the right way – in the May 17 issue, run cover photo on the print edition with celebratory soccer players and text above the photo stating Town, Rapids back in business; credit Commissioner Boone as being the driving force behind saving soccer in Huntersville and quote him in not one, but two sections of the paper (along with a nice headshot in the print edition!); conveniently leave out that the other “fiscally conservative” board members also voted for the agreement to avoid any favorable print for them in an election year; and write a Leslie Knope-esque editorial as a reminder to other politicians that they better not try to cut any money from parks and rec again. Check.

Continue to rake in advertising dollars from parks and rec affiliated partners and area sports leagues (including the ones who engage in viewpoint discrimination which we just turn a blind eye to even though we’re journalists). Check!

And that’s how you journalism.

But hey, I’m just some guy on the internet so what do I know.

Eric

During the public comments portion of last night’s well attended Huntersville town board meeting, former mayor Jill Swain strongly implied bribery was a motivation for current mayor John Aneralla to place the HFFA management contract discussion on the agenda. It is a felony in NC [NCGS 14-217] for any person holding office to receive anything of value, including campaign contributions, for performing any official act.

You can listen to her comments for yourself here beginning at approx. the 25:35 mark. Mrs. Swain read from the minutes of the Oct. 19, 2015 town board meeting – which took place less than a month before the election that Swain lost to Aneralla – wherein Mr. Aneralla, commenting on the HFFA contract renewal discussion that night, stated in part, “I believe there’s a citizen here that would like to bid for that contract.”