CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MAY 31, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:13pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by ERNIE GUTHRIE
Invocation by DEBBIE RUCKER
Number of Attendees – 27

BOB recognized new attendees Charlie and Libbie Wilton, friends of RON and BELVA MANNING.

DIANE LANG gave an update on ROMA WADE’s surgery.  He had an aneurism in his leg but came through the surgery fine.  KEN LANG said Roma had asked him to email everyone that he had had the surgery, and the bad news was he was going to make it; but Ken decided not to send out that news.  KEN and DIANE, both said he was driving Edith crazy.  Someone in the audience asked “What’s new?”

BOB reported that the reason RUTH PARKER was not in attendance tonight was she had bent over to pick up a fork someone in the restaurant had dropped and threw her back out.  He asked Debbie to say a prayer for RUTH.

BOB said “Next Monday, we are trying to get as many TEA Party troops to descend upon the County Commissioners meeting at 6:00 pm at the Court House.  The reason being the budget is going to be discussed and comments solicited from the attendees to talk about what they think is important and we know that C4 group, (pretty much a teacher’s lobby) asking to increase funding) while we will be there in support of tax payers, supporting the County Commissioners recommendation that we leave the budget like last year’s budget.

BOB wanted to know if anyone had had the opportunity to look over the copy of the portion of
the county budget that PEGGY GARNER had passed out last week.  Read small section on the school budget.  Hi-lites were:
Education operating, and capital outlay expenditures account for $21,608,000.00 or 24.04% of the County’s total budget.  The school’s operating expenditures remain at the FY 2011 funding level of $19,340,000.00.  Capital outlay is $1,254,245.00, a 30.26% decrease from FY 2011 adopted capital.  Adopted FY 2011 capital is used as the benchmark for comparison because any previous year unspent capital funds are re-appropriated annually.  Therefore, amended capital funding comparisons are distorted and misleading.
The Community College’s operating expenses remain at the FY 2011 funding level of $2,043,000.00.  Its capital budget is $225,000.00.  In accordance with the FY 2008 joint agreement established by the Community College and the Board of Commissioners; the Board of Commissioners borrowed $1.7 million to fund large Community College projects, as a result, the two Boards agreed to a seven year commitment of $225,000.00 per year capital funding.
The estimated daily membership for county schools in fiscal year 2012 is 8,441 students, as compared to 8,273 last year.  The recommended budget funds current expense per student is $2,291.00 compared to $2,312.00 in FY 2011.  Debt service for the schools is reflected in the debt service department, which totals $8,078,742.00.  The Community College total debt is $909,100.00.
BOB then read a letter from Dr. Daniel A. Novey, Superintendent and Catherine H. Neagle, Board Chairman justifying their request for additional funding above what the Commissioners have come up with.  Excerpts follow:
This Operating Budget request represents the very heart of what makes Carteret County Schools special – our staff.  Recognized as one of the very best school systems in the state, Carteret County Schools provides our children a superb education because of the commitment of the citizens to provide funds for quality teachers and programs.  Reducing the operating funds for our schools means essential personnel will no longer be able to support our children in their education.
Over the last few years, the Carteret County Board of Education and the Superintendent have worked diligently to reduce the expenses of running the school system.  However, there is a point at which reduced budgets no longer reflect improved efficiency but begin to erode the capacity of the organization to fulfill its obligations to the citizens of the county.  The proposed cuts of state funding to education for 2011-12 will result in the need to shift more responsibility to the local level, if the quality of education in our county is to remain a reason for people to move and establish their homes and businesses here.
The state’s proposed budget will require local funds to cover all workmen’s compensation claims previously covered by the state.  The cost of that change includes a $350,000.00 cash reserve and an increase in insurance costs of over $564,000.00 per year.  Additionally, the reductions of state funding will also require local funds to be expended to pay the unemployment claims and the annual health insurance premium for any staff members laid off as a result of any reduction in force (RIF).  Those costs for Carteret County Schools are anticipated to exceed $1,258,000.00 in 2011-12.
Our 2011-12 Operating Budget request of $22,165,624.00 plus the $590,000.00 charter school pass-through funding is focused on maintaining a very lean but effective staff while meeting the routine obligations incumbent on a system of our size.  The increase in local funding over previous years will be essential to meet the changing needs of a restructured method of funding education in North Carolina.
Of the $3,298,374.00 increase requested over the previous year’s budget, $2,574,921.00 (or 78%) represents expenses pushed upon the Carteret County School system by the state government.  The remainder of the increase reflects the increased prices for essential services.  No new programs are included and cuts to existing programs have been made where possible.
The current economical challenges and those of the coming year should not be cause for undoing all the gains that have been made in the last 5 years.  Your support of this request will mean the difference in the future of our school system.

Upon completion of reading this letter, BOB said essentially he is requesting about 3.3 million dollar increase above what the County Commissioners are proposing.

HOWARD GARNER stated “Based upon a conversation he had with Rep. Pat McElraft a few weeks ago, a lot of what Novey has mentioned in his letter of being pushed down to the counties is not going to happen.  BOB said he remembered Pat saying that, but if we are going to go before the board, we need to be sure we have our facts; so we need to follow up on this and find out where it currently stands. HOWARD said maybe someone in the group should check with her this weekend and find out the status.  HOWARD said they will try to tell you there is no fluff in the school system, but when he went to school (sometime after 1492) agriculture was one of the biggest income producers in the county and the school system had only one Vocational/Ag teacher.  Today, according to an email he had received from Tabby Nance,  there are seven and farming today is basically non-existent, except for the Open Grounds, but their personnel is trained in Italy, not here in the county schools.  He is currently waiting for additional information about Vo/Ag teachers in the Middle Schools.  He understands there have been and possibly there still are some teaching there.  BOB requested this be brought up Tuesday at the Board of Education meeting.  He hoped to have several of our members in attendance at that meeting also.  TOM wanted to know if anyone has incorporated the cost of fuel into this budget.  That is going to become a major factor.  Is any part of that 3+ million increase including the increased fuel costs.  ERIC said he understood that 3+ million increase was created by the Obama stimulus plan.  BOB said according to what he just read 2+ million of that 3+ million was for funding being pushed down by the state to the county.  The remainder is for essential services.
FRED DECKER commented that these are the same people who are trying to push back start of school to around the 10th of August.  Evidently they are not aware that the school gets the majority of room tax money.  Starting school earlier will shorten the amount of time people vacation here and pay that room tax.  Shortening the vacation time will decrease the amount of money going into the school system.  KEN said it appeared that there were a lot of good questions needing answers and he thought we needed to prepare for both the County Commissioners and Board of Education meetings.  The County Commissioners meeting is on Monday with the Board of Education on Tuesday.  Right now there are two budgets at the state level, one Gov. Perdue’s and the legislature’s the other.  Quite a bit different.  Even though over the past few weeks they have been trying to negotiate and come up with a compromised budget.  Also has heard that the Governor has been threatening to veto the Legislature budget but others say that is less likely.   The Governor’s budget did push a lot of the costs down to the counties, and that is where you have been hearing about the liability insurance costs, costs of buses, fuel costs and a lot of other things coming to the county that the state has typically paid for.  The Legislature budget however; their goal was not to push any costs onto the counties; would try to maintain state funding and not cause the counties to spend any more funds than necessary.  So what Novey is saying about all these funds being pushed down to the county is referring to Perdue’s budget, not the Legislature budget.  He is playing off a dooms day scenario.  BOB thinks this is a good thing to mention at the meeting by whoever speaks for the TEA Party.  KEN talked about an email he had received from a couple of TEA party members ( a newsletter from Governor Perdue).  Gov. Perdue was here in the county this past week and during her presentation here she continued her dooms day scenario about teachers being fired, teachers aids being let go, etc.  If you read the paper you may as well close the schools and everybody go home.  It sounded terrible.  He sent this newsletter off to Jean Preston and Pat McElraft  and said, OK the Governor’s out there getting all this press on TV, News & Observer, radio, etc,; so he was wondering what the Republicans were going to do.  Either set the record straight or tell us if what she is saying is true or not.  Didn’t hear back from Jean but did hear from Pat.  Pat emailed him that the Governor is telling falsehoods.  She said the State Legislature’s budget did not lay off one single teacher.  Now saying that, there are some nuances in there.  Some teachers are paid by the state and some of the money comes from the county, so it is all not cut and dried.  KEN says he believes it is purposefully that way to confuse us.  As long as we are confused, it is kind of hard to fight, and he thinks that is why they are doing what they are doing.  As far as teachers are concerned, for state funded positions, Pat says there are no cuts.  There will be cuts in other areas, like teachers aids.  Lots of gamesmanship going on, depending on who you are listening to.  ERIC said a lot of the problems goes back to the stimulus money.  KEN said yes, but the stimulus money is gone.  We can argue until the cows come home about whetherthe stimulus money spending was good or bad or helped or hindered.  Like some of that money went to pay for new teachers (knowing the money was only for a short amount of time) and once it was gone there was no way we could continue paying for those new teachers.  The only reason he could see was when the money was gone the school board could come back and say we need more money or we are going to have to lay off teachers.  BOB wanted to know if the stimulus money we got went to hiring new teachers.  ERIC said he had been unable to get a straight answer on that.  He is still trying to get an answer from Tabby Nance.  We do need clear answers.  That is why it is so hard not only for us but also the C4 group to fight for or against an issue, because the school keeps things so fuzzy.  It is really hard to get a firm answer.  We want real answers while the C4 group wants the budget as proposed by the County Board of Education.  Apparently they do not question what is in the budget.  They just take for granted whatever the Board of Education wants is it.

The last meeting before the budget is voted on is  the Commissioners meeting on June 6.  Meeting starts at 6:00pm, so KEN suggested we get there early, so we not only can get a seat but also a parking space.  He imagines that C4 will have a big turnout for the meeting so that small room will probably fill up early.  BOB said he had heard they (C4) were trying to get upwards of 500 people to show up.  KEN said the C4 group had a petition and were hoping to get 20,000 signatures, but would be happy with 10,000.  Basically they are asking for the Commissioners to fund at the level the school board requested.  One of the Commissioners had told KEN that the Commissioners were hoping to keep this year’s budget at the last year’s budget level.  The county is required by law to pass a budget by the end of June.  However, since the state had not passed their budget yet, it will impact on the county budget when one is adopted.  The county may have to go back and make some adjustments.  However, they will vote according to schedule,  because it has to go to the state, so KEN thinks they are leaning toward the Legislative budget as their guide.  BOB said he thinks that since the state has not finalized their budget, that the logical thing for the county to do is stay with last year’s budget.  If they budget all these extra requests and the state budget turns out to be the legislative one, then the schools will end up with all this extra money to just spend, spend, spend.
HOWARD said Rep Brubaker has said he hopes to save the teachers assistants, but he has not heard where that stands at the present time.  KEN said the assistants are important because many of them are used as bus drivers, and when you lose an assistant you could also be losing a bus driver which impacts that whole program.
KEN said in listening to BOB read Dr. Novey’s letter, he noticed the same ole, same ole, ideas came up.  The need for quality schools for our children is as American as motherhood and apple pie.  We all want them.  But many of the C4 group think that the schools are what entices doctors, businessmen, lawyers, and professionals to come to this county.  KEN said he didn’t realize that that was a purpose or objective of the schools.  They always say that.  One lady at a Commissioners meeting said they needed schools to get doctors to come here.  They needed them to take care of the old folks.  They really believe one of the purposes is to attract business and professions to our county.  He thought schools were for teaching students.  For the Commissioners to be able to provide everything the school supporters want; they have to find a way to find the funding and the only way is to increase taxes.  Carteret County is a retirement area – look around the room.  Most of us are seniors from the looks of all that gray hair.  Most are on fixed incomes and many do not have the income to pay increased taxes.  That kind of explanation does not have wide county appeal, only to a small group of people; but they always use that in their talks.  They (Dr. Novey and his group) also say local governments need to increase funding to maintain the quality level of education.  Local governments, in order to do that, the only source they have is to raise taxes, sales tax, room tax, property tax, tax tax, whatever it happens to be, that is the only way they can accomplish that goal.

PAT NALITZ asked if that 100 teachers they keep talking about being laid off was a phantom number, a number that they just throw out there.  I know they use that to get the people aroused.  She said she knew people that had received those pink slips.  Is that what they do and then they get hired back next year.  But is this really for real?  KEN said he thought they do it simply to get more money.  The only evidence he could point to is the email he got from Pat McElraft saying they (the Legislature) are not going to cut any positions; that they are going to maintain the level keeping the positions that we have; then he thinks the school system talking about laying people off is to generate sympathy for the teachers; a political ploy.  KEN said Dr. Novey had told us here when he spoke that they were not actually laying off teachers; that they were doing it just through attrition, that when somebody left that they were not refilling the job, but now it sounds like they are actually thinking about laying people off.  That had been Novey’s explanation, but if she knew of some that had actually received their pink slips that that did not jibe with his comments.  PAT said the lady she talked to said seven teachers had received a pink slip at her school.  KEN said he thought that was political.  C4 had a teacher’s appreciation day held here a few weeks ago and they had a lot of teachers from around the county attending.  He didn’t know how those teachers got off to go to the rally, whether they had taken a personal day or what.  PAT asked was this during the day.  KEN said yes, it was during a week day.  They billed it as a “Teachers Appreciation Day”, so maybe it was an excused day.  From what he read in the paper, there were hundreds of teachers there at this rally.   The theme of the rally was ‘They are going to cut all our jobs out’.  ‘Course that gets the teachers all motivated to go out and start sending emails to the commissioners.  He overheard one of the commissioners ask what was C4 doing; his email box was staying full.  He was being inundated with emails.  KEN said that is why he had never encouraged us to send massive amounts of email to the commissioners.  He did not think it was encouraging good relationships with the commissioners; he felt one on one was more effective.  Tell them in person that we can’t just keep throwing money down the rat hole.  If more of us would take different areas, (like Howard mentioning the seven Ag teachers) it would be more to our benefit.  He told about a pamphlet he had gotten that listed all the classes; for example it listed 5 levels of algebra classes.  (Honors algebra, AP algebra (accelerated something), just plain algebra….no this is not algebra 2, just algebra.  Throw Algebra 2 in and you can double this number of classes.  This is all different levels depending on where you are going after graduation.   As he understands it, the students are required to take Algebra 2 (which also has all these different levels).  Now if you have a kid that just wants to graduate high school and go out and pound nails for a living, KEN wants to know, why it is mandatory that he has to take Algebra 2?  Maybe we should just be teaching him how to balance a checkbook.  His question to the C4 crew is ‘why aren’t you guys questioning the curriculum’, maybe we don’t need all this stuff.  Not everyone is bound for college.  Back when some of us went to school they had the trade classes.  They no longer have them.  For example, kids could learn to work on cars and even today car dealers are looking for mechanics.  Brown from Onslow is one of those car dealers, and he is a big advocate in the Legislature about teaching a trade in school, because he can no longer get the help he needs in his business.  C4 is trying to tell every kid they have to go to college in order to get a job.  KEN’s question is why these kids are taking all these required courses in high school and then when they get to college they have to take remedial classes.  C4 is demanding lower class sizes in high school, but when they go off to college they get dumped into classes of 100 or more students.  That makes no sense.  PAT said that many of them still can’t make it in college so many end up in community colleges.  This is just some stuff to chew on, but those are some of the kind of things we need to be asking the county to look into.  ERIC said they are saying if we lay off 100 or even just 1 teacher, the quality of education is impacted, which is hog wash.  ROY MUSSER said you can pay as much as you want to for education but it does not necessarily mean the quality increases also.  More discussion on teacher/student ratio, etc; (art teachers, handicapped student teachers; those who do not have full classrooms are included in the mix.) and the average number of students per teacher is 12.  Would be interesting if they broke out the actual number of teaching teachers which he felt would give a more accurate ratio, but they don’t.  Feel they are doing themselves a disservice by not providing the information.  If you have one teacher over here teaching 34 students and another teacher only teaching 3 or 4 students, and we are paying both the same, then I want that second teacher doing something else.  I’m going to find another job for her; because that is the way those averages work out.  PAT asked what about the special needs teachers.  They have the small classes.  Are they included in this average?  KEN said that is something we are going to have to ask.  ERIC said C4 and that group are going around saying if we increase class sizes, it will have a great negative impact on education.  OK, so if half of our economy went away, we still could only have what we can afford.  So if we have to increase class sizes, it will impact 40% of our people, and I’m talking about the 19% of Senior citizens over the age of 65, that are reduced or limited incomes, the almost 10% who are unemployed.  That doesn’t factor in the reality those that are working reduced work hours, working part time; those don’t work into the equation.  And there are those who have just given up totally.  Other concern he has is 42% of our students are getting federal assistance with free lunches, either full or partial meals.  That right there tells you that 42% of their parents can not afford it.  So how can they afford again tax increases?  So the question is “do we want to lay off 100 teachers” or do we want to impact 2,000 citizens.  That’s what it is all about to fund the 3.5 million increase in the school budget.  We all know what is happening at the gas pumps, and in the grocery stores.  My point is ‘we can not raise taxes’.  We can not afford it.
BOB said he agrees with all that has been said but Novey has said this increase they are requesting is to take care of all those items being passed down by the state, and from what he understands, this may or may not happen.  So bringing up the student/teacher ratio is just a straw man exercise.  He found another letter from Novey in the county budget.  As we may recall this budget is in two parts, ‘the operating budget’ and the ‘capital budget’.  The second letter is about the ‘capital budget request’.  “This budget request specifically prioritizes needs into two categories.  Those items identified as Priority 1 immediate needs category are considered ‘mission critical for 2011-12.  The other needs in the remaining category are those which must be dealt with in the short-term but the immediacy of the need has not yet reached a mission critical status – although it may on any day.  Regardless of the category, let there be no misunderstanding that all of the items requested are needed within the 2011-12 budget year.  He goes on to identify various critical needs of the schools and states the Capital Budget Request for 2011-12 is $3,104,535.00, which is about a 1.5 million dollars increase, (which is to cover air conditioning, quality air control, painting and maintenance.  KEN said he understood from Novey’s talk to us, that this was already paid for.  Novey was asked specifically by the commissioners about this and Novey told them all those costs were already taken care of.  So now he’s asking for more money for items he has previously said were already taken care of.
He is asking for 3.1 million for the capital budget and l ¼ million for operating budget above and beyond the commissioners proposed budget.  In other words he wants about 5 million dollars above what has been proposed.
BOB asked who was going to speak at the county commissioners meeting next week.  ERIC said he had already been working on what he wanted to say.  BOB asked KEN if he planned to speak and KEN said he might, hadn’t made up his mind yet.  So remember next Monday, 6:00 pm the County Commissioners Meeting, second floor of the Court House. Be there, be RED.   Get there early, rather it be the C4 people standing out in the hall way and us with seats in the room.  Good time to get there – 5:00 pm.  Thinks there will be a bigger turnout this week.
HOWARD said he had a question….When a teacher retires, stays out a while, and then is brought back under contract.  If they don’t have the money, then how are they doing that?  Couldn’t they hire a new teacher for less than they are paying this teacher with 35 or 40 years of service?  KEN said he had heard of them laying off a teacher with lots of years of experience and hiring two inexperienced teachers to take their place.  Now we are paying all the side bennies for two instead of one.  Looks like the schools need to learn about operating a business.  HOWARD said he felt we needed a business executive for superintendent instead of an ex- school teacher.
KEN asked to change the subject and talk about the 2012 election.  It is not that far away.  We need to start discussing presidential, congressional, and senate candidates.  BOB asked  “who we prefer right now”.  Various candidates were mentioned, Cain, Romney, Bachman, Ryan, Gingrich.  Gingrich received the most boos and unfavorable comments.  ROY MUSSER said ‘anybody but who is already in there’.  TOM HARMON said he was opposed to Gingrich, Karl Rove and those who think they are the elite.  They put down anyone supported by the TEA Party.  We don’t need Democrats to talk them down, Krauthammer and the Ruling Class are doing a great job on their own.  They are marginalizing us, apparently afraid of our influence and input.  DEBBIE said she is so tired of the Dems pushing the race issue; that maybe if Cain did run it might put it to rest.  Cain is a very smart business man, strong conservative, and has a lot of pluses she likes about him.  She does not like Obama because he is a black man, but the liberals want to put that in the forefront of this upcoming election that conservatives are racists.  Maybe if we support a strong conservative black man and strong white woman, we can stop some of this rhetoric.  TOM H. said he was listening to CSPAN when Cain announced his candidacy and all the black people who called in called him a clown, an uncle tom, a GOP talking head.  It appears they are going to play the opposite race card.  It’s going to get ugly.  The Republicans have got to have someone who can take it and throw it right back at them.  If we get someone like McCain in the last election, who tried to play Mr. Rogers, we are going to lose again.  KEN, that’s the problem, all these that the conservative elites are proposing are exactly that.  BOB asked if anyone caught Hannity’s interview with Santorum, last week.  He said he was impressed.  DEBBIE said we still have a lot of good people coming in and she feels it is too early to get hung up on any one candidate until we can look at them all.  BOB asked what we thought of Sarah Palin.  Most liked her, but were not sure she could win.  KEN said the other candidates need to be watching her.  She is getting more press, than all the other candidates put together.  All the reporters are talking about how she will not give them her agenda, and it is driving them nuts.  If all the other candidates stopped playing to the media, then the media would be mentioning their name in every report.  They need to stop playing the old school politics and watch Sarah.  She is getting a lot of attention (cause the media doesn’t like her ) and it is not costing her a dime in campaign funds.  BOB asked who would disappoint us the most… and the consensus was ‘Mitt Romney’.  He failed most of our tests when he would not say he had made a mistake with his Romneycare in Mass.  When he said it worked for Mass but probably not work for the country.  That’s when he threw most of us under the bus.  He also supports ethanol subsidy also, which is bad for this country.  Huntsman also supports the ethanol subsidy, cap and trade guy, and is for everything the liberal Democrats are for.  We need to watch carefully, these are the guys that the ruling class are trying to convince us are what we need.  These guys are losers and if we go with them, then WE are going to lose.  We need someone with backbone, don’t be saying one thing one day, and then coming back the next to say we misunderstood what he said.  We get enough of that with Obama.  BOB said another thing we need to remember…we can get a great president, but if we give him/her a lousy congress and senate, we are no better off.  We got a lot of true conservatives this past election and now we need to be looking to put more in office.  TOM H. said he really liked Alan West from Florida and hoped that he might consider running, if not now, maybe later.  He doesn’t back down from anybody.  BOB…any Ron Paul fans here? Only one spoke up.  Good ideas, but too old and not a great communicator.  A good example of how the TEA Party is misunderstood…STEVE BEST said he was at WalMart with his TEA Party shirt on and a guy came up and told him he wouldn’t join the TEA Party because they were all supporting Ron Paul and he couldn’t stand Ron Paul.  This has been encouraged by the Media, and the masses are listening.   ERNIE said he liked Ron Paul, because he was a good Constitutionalist.  The things he said at the last election have proven true.  KEN said yes, he is a smart guy, but not a winner.  He might make a good Secretary of the Treasury.  DEBBIE said yes, he may be brilliant, but we hear every day about how brilliant Obama is…the most brilliant president ever!!!  If the TEA Party holds on to its roots and convictions, we are going to look for the most conservative people  running.  That is the only thing that can turn Washington around.  BOB wanted to know what we are going to do in Carteret County to fire up the voters and get them out.  TOM H. said we did a pretty good job last November, but we just have to get out there early and push.  Our voter recommendation thing we did was a big success from all the good comments we received.  We didn’t have enough participation at the polls last November, so we need to begin planning on who will work this year and get our ducks in a row.  We have about 33 precincts and need one or two members at each.  Last November we only had about 12 or 15 covered.  Those that did work the polls were richly rewarded by all the nice compliments we received…they were glad the TEA Party was there…and appreciated our input on the judges.  It was suggested that we might want to let the voters know who the TEA Party is backing in the presidential and other races also.  We could put their names on the front and let the voters know where we stand.  BOB said we have to be careful.  We can use the word ‘recommend’ but not ‘we are for’.  Recommend all the TEA Parties be sure to back the same candidates and not fracture our powerful input.  Last year because we had so many candidates in the primary, and such a short period of time that we decided to place our emphasis on the November election.  Are we going to get involved in the primary season this time.  If so we need a whole lot more people involved in interviewing want-a-be’s.  The TEA Party has to show the Republican party how strong we are and how much influence we have with the voters.  Right now the GOP is leaning toward moderates and we are going to lose, if we don’t let them know we are here and are not to be ignored.  It seems that all the TEA Parties need to be going out and picking the most conservative candidates.   They don’t have to, right now, all pick the same one, but we need to be getting things lined up to make our final decision, by having several candidates to put our emphasis on vetting so we can come up with and back the most strong and effective candidate.  BOB said we have to be careful with the national TEA Parties, because he thinks it is illegal to announce the backing of a particular candidate.  KEN said we need to do something, because the Crystal Coast TEA Party is not going to make it on the National News.  We have to have more involved than just us.  BOB said he got a lot of flack from the North Carolina TEA Parties because we were supporting certain candidates with our recommendation cards.  He thinks part of the TEA Party problem is that some of the groups have been co-opted.  Some have their own agendas, whereas we have continued with our grass roots organization.  Would hate to see us stuck with a “John McCain” candidate again this time around.  BOB, the unfortunate reality of politics is money is the milk of success.  Palumbo has been spending his time working over Jones’ contributors, trying to bring them over to his campaign/switch sides as well as his own contributors.  You have to have the money to win.  We, the Crystal Coast TEA Party is going to have to make a decision in the very near future “are we
going to support Jones or Palumbo in the primary”.
WAYNE WILLIS asked since we are supposed to go to the County Commissioners Meeting next Monday night and the Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday, when are we going to have our next meeting.  BOB said guess we’ll have to get together at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.  Asked where that meeting was going to be held.  When you go into Beaufort go past the Court House stop light and turn left at the next light.  When you get to the stop light at the old Beaufort school, make a right.  The Board of Education will be held in the building on the left across from Safrit’s.  The old administration building.
WAYNE said he would have to rescheduled the meeting he had set up to discuss the board game for our next meeting then.  He needs the guy working on the computer portion to talk with us since WAYNE does not understand all the ins and outs of the computer portion of the game.  He has something he wants to show us.  He said the game had one bug in it, but this guy had a whole can of Flit between his ears to take care of the problem.

FRED said Adele Collins was not going to run for Board of Education at the next election so we need to be looking for someone to run in her place.  Might also want to be looking for someone to run against Al Hill.

A gentleman arrived to our meeting late, and BOB asked him to introduce himself.  He said his name is Lee Haywood from Gilford County (Greensboro).  He represents the conservatives from Gilford.  He said he had spoken with KEN LANG about our meetings.  He said we had brought back memories of their meetings in Gilford.  School Board expecially.  They are in the same fight we are down here, as far as getting information.  It’s a big slush fund, moving money around, and they have 76, 000 students, claim 10,000 teachers but they can only account for 3600, with a budge of 680 million dollars.  It was interesting to him to hear us talking about the same things they discussed.  Hosted a meeting of their group and 9 of the commissioners, picked out 70 million in cuts, but the chairman did not show up for the meeting.  They are still stirring up things so encouraged us to not give up hope.  He heard us talking about contract employees.  They bring them in on a grant for two years and then end up being permanent, so they start all over.  You have to watch out for that as well.  HOWARD said he thought they were all using the same song book.  Mr. Haywood said Oh, yeah, they all get together and meet underground before they talk to us.  ERIC asked how many teachers were they talking about firing.  Mr. Haywood said they were talking somewhere around 200.  Their Superintendent makes a quarter of a million dollars a year.  He is a lawyer.  He is not able to teach.  It would be against the law for him to go into a class room and teach.  When he came on in 2008 during happier times, he created 39 districts, with 39 administrators for between 4 ½ to 5 million dollars.  Nine of the top 25 officials work for the Greenville School Board.  Empire building and they are protecting it with their life, believe me.  He supports charter schools.  Wanted to know if anyone there was going to the convention in Wilmington this coming weekend.  Said to go on line.  There is a group called caution out of Charlotte.  They already have 22 TEA Party groups meeting in a suite at 9:00.  They are trying to get a bigger room, because it mushroomed on us.  Right now it is in Suite 612 at the Hilton.  KEN said this is kind of a spin off of the GOP state convention.  Go to NCGOP.com web site for additional information.
Thanked KEN for inviting him and enjoyed meeting with us.
BOB introduced two other late comers ‘Susie Haupt and Paul Hee.  Susie is from Marshallburg and Paul is from Beaufort.  Susie said they were the only conservative
Republicans that they knew.  Everyone around them is liberal dems.  HOWARD said, but at lease now you can admit you’re Republican.  There was a time when you didn’t hardly dare to whisper it.  Paul wanted to know if we had a secretary who was keeping up with this meeting.  BOB told him we do and pointed to PEGGY.   BOB asked them to please sign our sign-in sheet.  BOB explained that every Monday night he is on a web site where the various TEA Parties get together and discuss things.  They also have various speakers, etc.  Mr. Hee said he had been listening to us discuss the candidates, but he felt that the platform was also very important.
BOB said part of this would be taking place this weekend at the GOP State Convention where they would be voting on their platform.  Then all that will be forwarded up to national where it will be incorporated and added to the national platform.  BOB said several of our members are going…we are infiltrating the GOP.  DEBBIE explained that we were not vetting candidates tonight, but what we do real often, discuss among ourselves various ideas.  We are not trying to convince other people here how they should lean, but just voicing our opinions.  This is the first time we have brought up at a meeting on how we are leaning, sort of like taking our temperature.  No way we would be choosing a candidate right now, since not everyone has announced yet.
ERNIE GUTHRIE said why can we just list the candidates and rate them according to our beliefs.  That way we are not actually saying we support a certain candidate.  KEN said this is the way he was thinking also.  It looks like it might be a little overpowering with so many candidates but if different members took a candidate and followed him/her and reported to the group, we could keep it from becoming a burden.  We have a place on the web site where you can check up on various candidates, but this is just on the national level, not local, or state.
BOB adjourned the meeting at 8:05pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.

NOTE:   I hope you can find the time to read all of these minutes.   Not only did we have a very long and vocal meeting, but I had purchased a voice recorder and recorded the whole meeting.  Therefore, I ended up with more information than with just my notes.  I found what went on was very informative and wanted to share it with you.  I’ll be shorter next time.  Peggy

CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MAY 24, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by WAYNE WILLIS
Invocation by JERE GEURIN
Number of Attendees – 21

New Attendee BLAKE BEADLE was invited by BOB to introduce himself and give a little background information.

BOB asked HARRY THOMPSON to introduce our guest speaker, CHUCK BEASLEY, for the evening.  He is retired from the US Army; born in Arkansas; father was an officer in WWII.   He has a son and a daughter and retired in 1995.

Mr. Beasley told us he had gone on the internet to find out more about the TEA Party.  Found out we were racists, dumb, sociopathic, and other unfriendly descriptions.  He dismissed these descriptions as biased and liberal; having developed a different view after meeting some of our members.  We are definitely in the cross hairs of those who want to increase government influence and destroy our way of life…. those who enjoy using broken promises; are against common sense and the constitution; believe in taking control from the family and that education being left up to the government…. the dis-unifying of America.
Mr. Beasley’s talk was on GOD, our Constitution and America.  I am unable to share all of Mr. Beasley’s inspirational talk; first of all, I would get so interested in what he was saying I would forget to take notes and second, you had to be there to feel the passion.  Some of the items he touched upon were:
If we read the constitution we can see it is based on religion…GOD is the basis.  The
battle-cry of the Revolution was “No King but King Jesus”.
Now Christopher Columbus is being attacked because he was a religious man and they are taking Christ out of his part in history.
The Pilgrims, the Mayflower Compact, the Old Deluder Act.   All to further the Christian Religion.  Wanted everyone to be able to read the Bible.
‘Taxation without representation’ was only one of the twenty-seven complaints of the Constitution. (abuse of representative powers, abuse of the military, abuse of judicial, etc.)
Our Constitution is unique and original and is based on the Bible (gave references).
Thomas Jefferson did not say anything about believing in separation of Church and State.  He felt his religion was personal; therefore, he is being misrepresented in today’s history.  By the middle of the 19th century, religion was losing ground.   From 1800 – 1900 there was a direct assault on Christianity.  In 1905 there was a determined group (Socialists) who became very active on college campuses.  By 1921 they had changed their name to democracy due to the events going on in Europe.  They believed in redistribution of wealth.  In 1930, it was materialism with a “chicken in every pot”.  Today our biggest problem has become apathy and Christ’s name is being forbidden in many areas, military, schools, etc.  It really has become a “Time for Change” the right kind.
BOB thanked Mr. Beasley and invited him back to speak any time he would like.

BOB said he had heard from Willie Montague and he is coming back to our area in August for a revival.  He needs tents and chairs.  STEVEN BEST said he could get him a “large” tent that seats about 500 and it also comes with the chairs.  KEN LANG said he would get with Steven and help him get with Willie and make the arrangements.

O’NEAL FIELD – BOB informed us that Randy Martin, Morehead City Manager, had finally responded to ERIC BROYLES request for information.  He had read the letter and was pleased with what he saw – did not feel there was any hanky-panky going on.  KEN LANG is posting the four and a half pages on the web site.  BOB requested everyone check it out and be prepared to discuss next week.

ERIC requested that anyone who had not completed the school/class size questionnaire he passed out last week, to please complete one tonight.

HOWARD GARNER said he had been informed that 30 cents is it; but he was still wary, since the school board is still putting the pressure on.  KEN said he had heard there would be no change from last year, unless the State Budget changes things.  Don’t forget the NCAE is Governor Perdue’s power base.  Pat McElraft has said as far as she knew right now, no state increases will be passed down to the counties.

FRED DECKER said for 23 students there are one teacher and two assistants.  He feels we do not need two assistants.  If so, then maybe we just need a new teacher.  We need to reduce admin.
FRED said he had wanted to set up an afternoon class to help students who were having problems.  He had gotten several teachers to offer to help him.  He had gotten no response from Administration.  They don’t want any help.  They just want to prove how much money is needed.

PEGGY GARNER said she was sorry she had been unable to provide a whole lot of facts and figures from the County Commissioners meeting on the budget last week, but had gone on line and gotten the whole 240 page budget.  She had reviewed it, made copies of the charts, figures, and reports that she had been unable to assemble from the meeting, and made copies of those pages.  She had made 6 copies for anyone that wanted a copy, and passed them out.

ERIC reminded us of the School Board meeting on June 6.  He would like to see the ‘red shirts’ in full force.  We need speakers and we need them to get on the list first.  By the time the later speakers get up, everyone is tired and bored.  Please plan to attend and hopefully be prepared to take the floor with your views.

KEN said a Camp Lejeune employee saw his hat and bought 5 of them for people he worked with.  When Ken invited him to come to our meetings, he was told “I agree and support your ideas, but don’t have time to go to meetings.”  Here we go with the apathy again.  Ken is still working on a TEA Party group in the western end of the county.  He had stopped at the VFW to see if we could use their facilities to hold our meetings, and was told “Absolutely not.  The TEA Party is a political party and the VFW is independent.”  KEN said he tried to explain but backed off when he saw it was no good.  This just shows the huge misconception of the TEA Party.  Someone recommended he try the Star Hill Golf Course.  FRED said the Republican Party meets at the Golden Corral this side of Jacksonville.  KEN said that was Onslow County and we are working for a group in the western part of Carteret where we can involve Emerald Isle as well as Cape Carteret and surrounding areas.
BOB said he understands that Hilda Davis, also,  is working on trying to get a group organized down east; but apparently has put it on hold while she is working against a business group in Morehead.

KEN said while he would like to see our group attend the meetings in large groups and send lots of emails, and letters to the editor; he remembers  that the County Commissioners complained about being overrun with C4 emails.  Also, he thinks we suffer from the STP problem – ‘same ten people’.

WAYNE wanted to know if any of us had heard about how Columbus got the money to come to America.  He kept nagging Isabella until she run him off to talk with her representatives and leave her alone.  He told the representatives that if he could give them a problem and he could solve it in 24 hours and they couldn’t, then they would give him the money for his voyage.   The problem was to take a fresh egg and stand it on end so it did not topple over.   The next day, he appeared before the group and asked if they had solved the problem.  They said there was no way to get it to stay upright.  Columbus took the egg, tapped it on the table, flattening the end, thereby standing the egg upright.  The representatives said ‘no fair, he hadn’t said they could break the egg.  Columbus replied “You didn’t ask!”  He got the money.

KEN said there is a Republican Convention in Wilmington and time is running out to register.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary

CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MAY 17, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance let by Wayne Willis
Invocation by DEBBIE RUCKER
Number of Attendees – 25

GUEST SPEAKER – DAVID HORTON
Mr. Horton said our biggest problem is…..People who spend the money don’t care how it is spent!!!!  Morehead City continues ‘business as usual’; ‘no cutbacks;’ and ‘no changes to reduce spending’.  If we can’t control at the local level…how can we possibly control at the state and federal level.
As to the “Park”, it started with a grant of $900,000.  He had thought that was a lot of money, however, they had gotten a grant from the state of $200,000, and donations of $300,000, so the town only had to match $400,000.  The estimate for the park was $922,000.  A year later the scope had changed and the cost was now $1,003,000.  The next year it was $2.1 million, going from $922 thousand to $2.1 million in just two years.  It is now $2.4 million.  All the overruns have been paid by the town.  Big Rock paid for the bleachers.  There are no adequate bathrooms.  The Marlins want better bath rooms, concession stands, batting cages, etc.  Mr. Horton had tried to talk to them about wanting all these additions and goodies and to think about all the money that could have been saved to no avail.  Because the town finally set their foot down about selling beer, they now, even after a year, do not have a  long term contract, only a one year ‘short term’ franchise type deal, which agrees to only $500.00 per game to the town.
KEN LANG said he had been listening to Lockwood Phillips interview Buddy Daniels.  He said the kids playing the game do not get paid.  The town provides them a place to stay while they are here.  Riverfront Sports is raking in all the proceeds with no payouts.  All expenses are paid by Morehead City.
The neighborhood came out against …noise, location, etc.  The Town Manager is one of the ones pushing it.  The way it stands, three votes will pass anything.
The idea at the beginning was a place for the American Legion Team to play, but as things progressed those players could no longer make the team.
Just as the ‘boat ramp’ on Radio Island, is great, but the cost is tremendous $150,000.00 and while the state paid most, Morehead keeps coming up with grandiose ideas that keep costing the taxpayers.
Sewer rates have increased 60% in the last couple of years and they are saying they need to raise them again.
Question was raised “Why the contractor was not held responsible for the overruns. Mr. Horton explained that it was not the fault of the contractor but the changes in scope.
TOM HARMON thinks we should be getting at least a percentage of the income.
BOB CAVANAUGH asked Mr. Horton, “What can the TEA Party do?”  Mr. Horton said we could encourage candidates, who will try to put a stop to the run away spending, to run for office.  BOB asked for volunteers to please step up and help.
DAVID COX wanted to know if anyone had looked into other cities with this type of sport.  Mr. Horton said all that he had heard of were utilization of old stadiums, and not the building of new facilities from scratch.
ERIC BROYLES wanted to know if you could just go to the field, get in, and use the facilities.  Mr. Horton said ‘no, the facility was under lock and key’ and you had to get permission.  The fencing was put around the field so no one could see into the Marlins’ games.
LOU KUKULINSKI wanted to know when, or if, this would go from a Morehead City project to a county project.  Mr. Horton said this is not in the future than anyone knows of since the County has not shown any interest.
BOB thanked Mr. Horton for coming to speak with us and invited him back whenever he would like.  We appreciated his input to the situation.

WAYNE WILLIS thanked us for our support, but he did not win.  He said this was a good civics lesson.  When he ran three years ago, he pushed for a merger of Harkers Island with the Carteret/Craven EMC.  Harkers Island had 1200 meters, 50 year old poles, and no cash flow, and did not generate enough money to continue.  There were lies told of possible loss of jobs, etc., and the merger, then, did not go through.  However this changed when it was found to be beneficial and the combining was negotiated.  During this election there were three people running for this position, Wayne who had served on the board last year,  a guy that had been appointed (who ran as the incumbent and managed to get his name first on the slate of candidates) and a third opponent.  This is where Wayne shot himself in the foot.  Last year there were only 740 votes cast and Wayne thought if there were more incentive to vote, more people would get involved in voting; so he recommended the Co-op give away $200.00 free electricity.   More people did vote (like 2800) however; most did not know or even care who got elected, so they just voted for the first name on the ballot.  Duh!  Guess who won!  Lesson learned — “Educate the Voters”.  He told of the time his father had run for sheriff and won the count.  However, it was decided a few days later they needed to recount the ballots and his father now lost by 3 votes.  Guess some things never change.

PEGGY GARNER reported that she had represented the TEA party last night at the County Commissioners meeting.  (Only one there in the red shirt.)
It appeared to once again be Support School Increased Budget Night.  Several people, (ex school teachers, business men, doctors, doctor’s wife, college student, social worker, etc.) all had been questioned as to the quality of schools, prior to a potentially new professional/businessman coming to Carteret County.  (Apparently we have nothing else to offer – my comment.)   All said the Commissioners should find what funds the schools want, including increasing taxes to provide them.  Any decrease made in school funding now may not be seen as an overwhelming impediment today, or even next year, but if you take a child just starting in first grade, they could assure you that that reduction will be most prominent by the time he is eligible to graduate high school.  Any reduction will impact our schools tomorrow.  Having already suffered cuts, further cuts in staff will ensure the quality will go down and handicap those left.  No teacher should have to go home with a pink slip.  We are robbing students from having a better future.  One businessman thought we should stop all foreign aid to countries that just hate us and use those funds to pay for our schools.  The social worker said she had been told that the school her daughter was going to was going to lose 25% of the teachers in that school.  Commissioner Holt wanted to know which school her daughter went to and she replied Morehead Middle school.
Dr. Novey was asked to give his input into the matter and Commissioner Holt asked about the 25% cut in Morehead Middle.  Dr. Novey said notifications were sent out alerting the possibility of a cut.  The state’s cuts would influence the number.  Most of those receiving cuts would be Probationary Teachers.  The RIF policy will not interfere with education.  The positions are not eliminated.  Someone, the one cut or another, can come in later and fill that position.  This does not mean we are going to lose 25%.  Commissioner Holt wanted to know if the 25% was Dr. Novey’s ‘worse case’ scenario, and could he give a ‘best case’ scenario.  Dr. Novey said with the figures and percentages being discussed and bantered around, couldn’t tell exactly how many teachers would be involved.  There were too many outside factors.
Commission Pat Joyce said he understood many of the Teacher Assistants were also  part time bus drivers.  Dr. Novey said employees have to work so many hours in order to receive the benefit packages.  Doing both gave them not only the hours but the incentive to work harder and do better jobs.

Linda Haynes, President of the Down East Library and Hannah Beasley, Former teacher and member of the Down East Library Board, both requested help with the Library.  The people down east have held used book sales, bake sales, barbeques, etc. to raise the money to fund the library.  It is now worth over $200,000.  The library has been manned by volunteers and now they would like to be able to hire and pay someone to do this.  They would like to give this valuable property to the county and in return, the county to allocate $10,000.00 per year for this position.

BUDGET – Wayne Deal, Interim County Manager, said the 2011-12 budget was very similar to past budgets, taking in consideration the reval.  He has asked Carl (Tilman, I think he said) to come to a County Commissioners meeting to explain the consequences of the reval to the commissioners.  He then turned the presentation of the proposed budget over to Dee Meshaw, Assistant County Manager of Finance and Administration.
The total recommended budget for all funds is $89.87 million (a decrease of $6.92 million).  Of that $74.73 million is general fund, which is $2.94 million (or 3.79%) less than the 2010-2011 budget.  This budget has few new initiatives and no increase in services or personnel.  Educational funding will be maintained at the same level as this year.  School operating expenses of $18.75 million and capital expenses of $1.2 million is less than the school board’s request of $22.16 for operations and $3.1 million in capital.
$604,000 has been allocated for a document imaging system for the Department of Social Services.  This system will enable converting files to a digital format, allowing staff to share client information and regain some of the space that hard copy files have utilized in the past.
While most department budgets have been decreased or reduced, Solid Waste and Public Works have increased $50,000, and the combination of the school system and Community College, no change from fiscal year 2010.
Many facts and figures were presented but this reporter was unable to keep up with the fast and furious charts and graphs presented.  If you are interested in further detail please go to
www.carteretcountygov.org, click on county budget FY 2011-2012 blue tab for the complete budget (all 240 pages).  (Thank goodness Ms Meshaw was very selective of the information she presented.)

Much discussion followed PEGGY’s presentation.  Discussed the “teaching to test”.  If you fail the first time, you can be re-taught and try again.  This is insane.  What are we doing to our kids?  They remediate the kids until they can pass these mandatory tests.  They are now teaching all year long how to pass the test.  Is there another option to testing?  They do not have any opportunity for creative thinking.  ERIC BROYLES said he feels this is more “protecting our jobs” and not teaching our kids.  One of the problems is the unions.  RUTH CHEWRING (please excuse me if I have the name wrong) said we need the unions to back the teachers in case a parent wants to sue for some silly little thing the teacher may or may not have been guilty of.  CATIE MCCABE said while she attends Gramercy Christian School, she has four other siblings who attended public school.  From what she had heard, to be a coach you had to teach a subject, even if you were not qualified to teach that subject.  This can not be conducive to a good education.
ERIC passed out a handout he had printed on the county schools.  He said it was now his understanding that the state was NOT going to shove cost of school buses and several other previously mentioned items down the throats of the counties.  Thank goodness.
One of our members (sorry, I did not get your name) said he had had many problems with teachers while he was in school.  His conservatism was in constant attack from the liberal teachers.  They would gang up on anyone they felt didn’t agree with their philosophy.  He had been accused of being a racist and inciting a riot when he had worn a flag on the back of his shirt and walked through the hallways.  He said we should be protecting the students and not the teachers.
BOB said one of the things that had created problems with the schools was the stimulus package, which encouraged the schools to hire more teachers and when the stimulus money was gone, the schools were not equipped financially to maintain paying those teachers.   The money is gone but the school doesn’t want to cut those positions.
Average teacher annual salary in North Carolina is $47,000.00, not including benefits package.  They do not pay for their health care benefits, and pay very little towards their retirement.  North Carolina is 27th on the pay scale.  The median North Carolina income is $42,000.00 and those people have to pay for their health care and retirement.

TREASURER’S REPORT.  NANCY BOCK, Treasurer, reported we have $706.00 in the bank.

Meeting adjourned at 7:30 pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.

Click the link below to read the May 11, 1011 CCTPP Newsletter:

CCTPP Newsletter-5.11

CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MAY 10, 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:02pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by WAYNE WILLIS and PAM HANSEN
Invocation by STEVEN BEST
Number of attendees – 24

PAM HANSEN asked us to please mark our calendar for Sunday afternoon on May 22, 2011.  She invited us to a ‘Picnic of Thanks’ to be held at her home at 3508 Mandy Lane, Morehead City at 3:30pm.  She requested that we park in the empty lot across from the Sports Center.
Please let BOB CAVANAUGH or Pam know if you plan to attend so she can figure out how big a cake to make!

TOM AUSTIN asked Pam about the money accounts that he had been reading about where they were looking for the people the money belongs to.  Pam said yes there is a move on to find those for whom money is owed (ie. accounts that people have completely forgotten about; moved, or their heirs do not know about.)  They are checking any kind of file or data they can find to help determine ownership.  There is over $100 thousand for ownership to be determined.  If owners are not found, then the money will go to the state.

Pam said much as she hated to admit it, DSS was in a mess.  They had files (even speeding tickets dating back to 1928) scattered all over the Court House Square and beyond, in every available storage spot.  She is trying to identify, assemble, categorize, and classify all the various records and gradually send them to the Archives in Raleigh where their records are climate controlled.  The areas where they are currently located are not conducive for maintaining their integrity.  It is not environmentally appropriate for their maintenance.  Anything she can legally give to the Archives, she is currently sending.  Once received by the Archives, they will index and send us a record where they have filed it.  Tom suggested that we have them send us CD’s so we will have a copy here, but will not take up so much space.  Pam thought that was a good idea and would look into it.

Pam again thanked us for all our help during the election and support we have shown since and hoped to see us Sunday, May 22.  She excused herself since she had a dinner date with her husband (a special occasion, since soon he will be totally involved with running their bookstore on the beach while she will be continuing to do the voters biddings and keeping them happy.)

Guests KEN and BETTY LEE WESTBURY were visiting the area from North Columbia, South Carolina.  He said the Republican Party has been taken over by the TEA Party and equivalent parties and he hoped we could get things CHANGED for the good.  The problem he sees is that in their area, there are about 35 or 40 various TEA parties fighting against each other wanting to be in charge.  That needs to change.  We need to all get together for a common good.  Asked what he thought of Tim Scott.  He thinks the jury is still out.  What about Joe Wilson?  He is a little more conservative, but folds and gives in more that some of the others.  Right now he (Ken) is fed up the SC GOP.   Their female Governor is really trying but having to fight all sides from all directions.  He said Donald Trump will be in Columbia next week.   He was curious how we were maintaining our strength and participation.  Bob said we meet every week, so it has become a habit to attend the meetings.  Bob feels if we met less, we might lose some of our participation and enthusiasm.  Ken said his group in North Columbia meets the lst and 3rd week of the month, but he is also involved with other groups.  He wanted to know if North Carolina has a Patriot State Group that coordinates events.  Bob said Mark Hagar, from Charlotte, is the closest thing to a leader of the Patriots, and an Eastern Coordinator has been appointed, but he could not remember the name.  Ken said in South Carolina they have three different groups…..
High (more the financial elite), Middle and Low (the Red Necks).  The Red Necks are basically taking over and making some good changes.  They have a lot of stick-to-it-ness and will not back down.
WAYNE WILLIS said we have a pretty loyal group that works together.  For example:  At our April 16 Rally, while the weathermen were predicting extremely bad weather, and our rally was out doors with no tents, we still had about 150 in attendance.  The weather was fairly nice (lots of wind) but stayed nice until after the rally and clean up, when the extreme storms began to hit.  While we had 150, under not the best circumstances, the Democrats had a meeting indoors and only had about 40 in attendance.
FRED DECKER said we have a strong, conservative Republican Party here in the county, with a lot of Viet Nam Vets and other vets who are active.

EULA PARKINS wanted to know if we knew that thanks to the efforts of US Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla) U.S. Veterans and members of the Armed Forces may now salute the flag (Old Glory) even though not in uniform.  The bill actually passed in 2008 and was signed by President Bush, but she had just recently become aware of the change.  Previous law stated that veterans and servicemen not in uniform should place their hand over their heart without clarifying whether they could or should salute the flag.  The new legislation removes the confusion and makes it clear that veterans and service members not in uniform MAY render the military salute.  Inhofe had said he looked forward to seeing those who have served saluting proudly at baseball games, parades and formal events.  Those who are currently serving or have served in the military have earned this right, and their recognition will be an inspiration to others.

PEGGY GARNER said she had received a phone call from Judy Wilgus (252-354-3081) with the Republican Party requesting help with making phone calls.  When Judy receives calls or emails from Alan Page of Freedom Works requesting a barrage of calls be made supporting or opposing various bills and programs, she would like to have a large group to help with the calls.  The more people involved the better the show.  If any of our group would like to help make our state (and nation) a better place to live, and also let the world know the TEA Party is very much alive and kicking (HIGH), please contact Judy at the above phone number or email jcwilgus@er.rr.com.  It only takes a few minutes of your time, but is well worth it.

BOB asked us to please try to attend our May 17th meeting (and bring a friend).  David Horton will be our guest speaker on the O’Neal Field situation that ERIC BROYLES has been looking into the last few weeks.  Mr. Horton is the only “No” vote on the O’Neal Field Committee.  I’m sure the discussion will be interesting.

TOM AUSTIN asked if we had any further information on the 4th of July Parade.  PEGGY said she had been extremely busy this past week and had let the group down, by not following up on the information as promised.  Will try to do better for the next meeting.

HOWARD GARNER reported on the Fire Department/EMT Budget committee of which he is a member.  He said those who live outside the city limits are footing two thirds of the cost.  He has complained and dug into the situation so deeply that he has finally gotten the Newport Fire Chief and Town Manager’s attention.  They have written a letter of complaint against him for being disrespectful.  He said he did not care just as long as he had made others aware of the discrimination against the county folks.

BOB reported that the TEA Party had been discussing our support of the Wounded Warriors and other causes (Hope for Warriors in the Jacksonville, NC area; Sam’s Project of mailing packages to overseas warriors, and Carolina Canines).  TOM HARMON said he had recently heard of another great cause “Lap Tops for Wounded Warriors”.  A project whereby funds are raised to buy laptop computers, taken to various veteran hospitals, and bases, and given to wounded warriors, who have no access to computers.  This will enable them to keep up with their families.  TOM will find out more information for our next meeting.  PEGGY wanted to know if we could sponsor more than one cause.  TOM HARMON said he thought it would be nice to hold a contest for designing our new shirts once we determine who we will be sponsoring.  Several thought it would be a good idea.

There was not Treasurer’s Report since NANCY BOCK, our treasurer was not in attendance.

BOB had to leave to attend another meeting, so he appointed TOM HARMON to take over the meeting.

TOM told us about a neat project he would like to see us participate in…..POST IT NOTES!!!
Example:  When you drive up to get gas, leave a post-it note saying something like “Thank you Obama?????” or “Just Maxed Out my Credit Card for one lousy tank of This”.  You get the idea.  Something catchy to get other peoples attention.  Same thing at the grocery store – when you realize that an item has gone up in price or maybe less in the package but higher priced.  Maybe we can get someone’s attention that we have been pushed far enough.  It is time for a REAL CHANGE.  Not an Obama’s Change.  Anyone noticed how much smaller a roll of toilet paper has gotten?  (Well maybe not looking smaller, but fluffier, with fewer sheets.)  Even clothing – the same jeans I bought last year for $19.95 is now $25.95 this year.  Anyone had enough yet???

Meeting adjourned at 6:05pm
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary