CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MINUTES OF
2 APRIL 2012

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:03 pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by CLAYTON GILLIKIN
Invocation by NANCY BOCK

BOB asked NANCY to tell about how she broke her arm.  CLAYTON said he heard she got caught stealing Randy Ramsey’s signs.  NANCY said ‘No, her dog pulled her down.  She wasn’t paying attention (while walking two dogs).  She has 5 more weeks to go in a cast.

BOB introduced Mark Mansfield, who is running for a seat on the Board of Education, District 3.
Mr. Mansfield thanked SCOTT CARPENTER for inviting him to come tonight.  He said ’I strongly believe in fiscal responsibility.  I am an independent business operator.  I appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk to you tonight.  I believe in education.  I believe we need to maintain the quality of education in our schools in Carteret County while simplifying fiscal discipline.  I believe education is an investment in our future, however; I think everyone should scrutinize their investments and privatize their goals.  For those of you who do not know anything about me, I married my high school sweetheart, Jane Lewis Mansfield and we have three children.  I played basketball here at West Carteret High School when we won the State Championship.  I went on to University of North Carolina at Greensboro where I played basket ball and got a Batchelor of Science Degree in Nutrition and Concentration of Restaurant Management.  I am a realtor, a real estate investor, and a business owner.  I have been affiliated with the Dairy Queens here in Carteret County and we have locations outside of Carteret County (up to ten at one time).  I like to think I am capable of running a business.  I understand budgets.  I understand the value of a dollar and at the end of the day, if I don’t meet my budgets I am going out of business.  I have been doing this for over twenty years.  My opponent is a good person.  He was actually a PE teacher when I was here at West Carteret High School.  I think he is a great guy and that makes it hard sometimes when you run against somebody and you don’t really believe that they believe in or you don’t really like them, then it is easy to say bad things.  I don’t have anything bad to say about my opponent.  He is a really great person.  However, there are currently four people on the Board of seven from the education field.  At this point in time I strongly believe that five would be too many.  (Applause)  You hear catch phrases and terms all the time today, you hear a lot in the media, we need more transparency in our county government for the citizens and for the County Commissioners to understand what the needs are at hand.  I think that with somebody who can communicate and share their knowledge and help shape the future, education is where it all starts.  Without a good education we would not have the proper guidance we have here today.  Nobody wants to live where there aren’t good schools.  We wouldn’t have the doctors we have in our community, the lawyers we have in our community.  It is an important integral part as we all age to have people come back and take care of us.  We need to learn to meet doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers, maintenance, being able to fix the roads, and take care; but the main thing is I am a business operator, I do believe in a strong fiscal background.  I don’t believe in spending more money, but by the same token, I sell real estate and I am not going to drive around in a 1972 Oldsmobile station wagon.  There are certain things I have to invest in to do my business, whether it be a new ice cream machine at the Dairy Queen or whether it be a new computer at the office.  I recognize the fact that we do have to spend money, but I do think we should scrutinize how we do it.  That is pretty much my thoughts.  Any questions?  I will do my best to answer them.’
ERIC BROYLES said ‘Over the last several years the school board has submitted budgets that exceed the cost of living.  For example this year the budget was 10% more than what they had before even though the cost of living has been established overall as around 3%.  What is your opinion of the fact that the schools are requesting more than the people here got raises.  Mr. Mansfield said ‘The answer to your question is a tough one.  Not being an elected official, not being privy to some of these closed meeting sessions, I don’t know that I have the correct information to answer your question.  Sometimes, and I don’t know what their situation is now, and obviously we have come through hard economic times in the past five years.  We have all deferred some expenses or eliminated things we have had to.  Sometimes you defer maintenance areas.  If you under fund things sometimes and don’t do maintenance, it’s pay me now or pay me later.  I don’t know if that is gamesmanship and they are asking for 10% and they are only wanting to get 2 or 3.  But they feel that if they only ask for 2 or 3, they are going to get cut 5.  I don’t know the answer at this time but I promise you that once I do have those numbers.  That is the transparency I am talking about.

ERIC said the reason he was asking the question was right now 42% of the students are getting some type of nutritional aid in reduced lunches.  That to him is a clear indicator that we live in a community who is of lower income than general.  If you discount Atlantic Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, that strip out there, you will find out that 55% of this county is classified as lower income.  Anytime you raise taxes that has a deep impact on most folks, especially the 42% that can’t even afford their own lunch.  That is why, if we support you, we would like to think we have a fiscally conservative in there that will try to control this out of control budget, the school has every year.  Mr. Mansfield said he would only be one of seven, so he didn’t know how much control he would have, but you would certainly have a voice.  On the flip side of what you are saying on the 55%, we are very fortunate that we do have people that are second home owners who do pay taxes here, especially that island.  They probably pay about half, I’m not sure it might be more, and they don’t use any of the services so we do have one of the lowest tax rates in the state.  However, you are correct the people who are receiving some sort of assistance, we are a low income.  We get penalized at the state level and we need to fight for more money, because we don’t get some of the state funding we are deemed a rich county; because we are fiscally responsible with our money, which I don’t think is right.  I don’t think you are going to find many business people that aren’t, you know (some of my friends call me thrifty, my wife calls me tight).  I am the President of the Carteret County Association of Realtors.  They sent me to a leadership summit up in Chicago.  They reimbursed me for all my expenses for the trip.  When I flew into Chicago O’Hare you have to take a cab downtown.  It is about a $50.00 cab ride.  I could have gotten a cab and ridden down town, paid the driver $50.00 and $50.00 to come back to the airport and turned in my expenses and got paid for them.  Instead I rode the train down to the main station and then took a cab to the motel and it cost me $10.00 each way.  It wasn’t my money, but I treated their money just like it was my money.  If I am elected, I will do the same thing with you.

HAILEY HULT discussed how it is the school’s personal responsibility on how the money from the county is handed out. When she was in school their teachers met as a group and decided that instead of taking bonuses or raises, they would apply it to the school.   And that is how they got new computers, and a lot more technology than what the school could afford.  She wanted to know if Mr. Mansfield had any experience in the school system itself.  Mr. Mansfield said he had received checks from the Carteret County School system for about 10 or 12 years now.  He has coached high school basketball.  As he had said he went to college on a basketball scholarship and who knows where he would have ended up without it.  Basketball paid for his education.    He has come back to Carteret County to try to give back to the schools the same opportunity they gave to him.  Right now he does not think it is the county’s responsibility, however he thinks we do fund part of the school system.  He thinks the state is not operating correctly and wastes too much money.   Now, unfortunately teachers are suffering, haven’t had raises in 5 or 6 years.  He doesn’t think that is right.  Hailey said she had heard some things about him, but not actually his being with the schools.

HOWARD GARNER said he didn’t know how aware of the system Mr. Mansfield was, but the school superintendent submits a budget to the county commissioners and how he is going to spend it.  But once he gets his hand on that money, he doesn’t have to spend it according to that budget he had submitted.  We have been going to several commissioners’ meetings and some board of education meetings recently.  A certain person does a whole lot of rug dancing.  Mr. Mansfield said it was hard to talk about hypotheticals and not knowing, and with the rug dancing you are talking about, I’m not sure I have the correct information or the citizens, and that is the need for transparency.  HOWARD said he did not know that he would be able to get that information.  The commissioners can’t.  Mr. Mansfield said that is why he was not running for county commissioner.  He was running for school board.  That is why he is here, and why he is running.   He does have kids, one who is in college, the business school here, one is in the first grade and one in the ninth.

CLAYTON said you were talking about maintenance a while ago.  East Carteret High School’s first class was in 1965, he thinks.  The school people submitted a budget each year for a certain  amount of money for maintenance at East Carteret.  This amount was included every year in the budget.  He graduated from East in 1975 and as far as he knows, or anybody can find out, there was never or very much money spent on East Carteret maintenance.  After being involved in politics for several years, he went to them and asked them where all that maintenance money that had been allotted been used.  He was told it had been spent on other schools.  He asked why it was spent other schools, when it had been delegated to East Carteret.  He was told that other schools in the western part of the county needed it worse than East Carteret did.  Mr. Mansfield said again he didn’t have any information but at least if he sits in that closed meeting he might learn some things.  Funding for the schools come from three different sources, the federal, the state and the county.  The state actually has access to that checking account.  They can actually take funds out and can put funds back in without permission from the board of education.  He said he could add real well, and you can play shell games and move things all around but it is still income and expenses.  Right now, not having information, just like you don’t have any information, I can’t sit here and promise you anything.  I can promise you that I will go in with an open mind and try to see what needs to be done, but by the same token, I don’t want to tell you and misrepresent.  I am not for gutting the schools of Carteret County, but I am for spending your money very wisely.  CLAYTON said, getting back to what that young lady was asking a while ago about his experience with the schools, he personally did not want anyone on that school board connected with the school system, whatsoever; because they are going to ask for everything they can think of to get for the school system.  Mr. Mansfield said that is what he was saying about everybody has an agenda at some point.  His agenda is being able to make an educated decision to protect the citizens of this county; but not sell ourselves short or shoot ourselves in the foot.  You can be penny wise and pound foolish.

JERE GEURIN asked if Mr. Mansfield could ever think of any reason why the school board (or public servants) to ever meet in closed meetings or close that meeting to the public.  Mr. Mansfield said he didn’t know whether he could know until he got in there and found out what they were talking about.  He could think personnel issues, contracts, something of that nature that shouldn’t be or where it could hurt the county itself and expenditures, but he did think there should be more transparency for the citizens and for the county commissioners, because if they actually knew what was going on, maybe they would feel more comfortable about the money.  Maybe they feel slighted or cheated, and he doesn’t know if that is how they feel, but that is how it appears by what he reads in the paper.  He thinks somebody should be able to sit down and talk, communicate and be reasonable.  He thinks he is a pretty reasonable guy.

Hailey said the reason she asked about his experience with the school system, she feels that people her age will feel more comfortable voting for him, with him having experience with the school rather than someone who doesn’t.  Mr. Mansfield said the position on the school board you will be looking at contracts, budgets, maintenance, personnel.  However, he probably could teach but they are not going to ask him to go into a classroom and teach a class.  Hailey said she was just concerned about if he had any idea about what goes on in the schools.  Mr. Mansfield said he had been volunteering since he had returned to the county from Greensboro.  He coached  before he even had kids.  He coached Tball teams and sponsored Tball teams for the Dairy Queen, coached soccer teams, before he had children and coached his own kids teams.  He coached in high school before his kids were even near high school age.  He can make more money flipping hamburgers at Dairy Queen than what he makes from the school for those four months that he goes and teaches basketball.  He has a license so that he can drive the activity bus.  He has been in the school system.  He sees the things that go on but he is not a part of what goes on out there.

BOB said part of the problem that we, here at the TEA Party, is with the school board; there are too many teachers on the school board.  We don’t feel that the school board knows enough about the budget, how to read a budget, and how to sort though all the numbers and stuff like that.  Basically, right now, they are just rubber stamping whatever the school superintendent says they are going to do.  He just steam rolls right over the top of them with piles of numbers, figures, facts, and carries it right off.  We need someone with a business background that can read a budget and not be so entrenched in the school system that they only look at the problem from that perspective.  That is why we would like to see more business oriented people on the school board.  ERIC said he thought it was a conflict of interest to have more than one teacher on the school board.  That has been part of the issue.  They are just rubber stamping stuff.

ERIC asked ’What is your position on ‘for five years the quality of education that our students get, based on the ABC scores and AYP scores, reading has declined in most schools.’  For example, last year, only 5 schools out of 16 made adequate yearly progress.  The year before, 16 out of 16 made it, and in 2007, 10 out of 16 made it.  What can you do, if you are elected, that will improve this situation.  Not adding teachers, because he feels they already have enough teachers, it is 11 to 1 ratio right now.  What can you do from your perspective to improved the quality of education.  Mr. Mansfield said, ‘one out of many, I’m not sure exactly how much one person can do totally to improve the school system.  You can take numbers and just as you have seen in the past, you can get them and make them look what you want (a lot of things).  On reference to your test results, he is not familiar with those test scores, but he is familiar with those the state has mandated over the past five or six years, and has put such an emphasis on EOC’s (end of class or end of grade) testing, where they placed a ton of our money and the teachers are pushed to teach those tests.  So where they may excel on those tests now, and not do as well on the tests you are talking about may have something to do with it.  He doesn’t think we should waste money on a test if it is not needed.  The state mandates certain things you are required to do at the county level and obviously the federal government mandates some things that you have to do at the state and county level.  A lot of them are unfunded mandates and we all get stuck.  ERIC said the reason he raised the question was this county has made a big commitment dollar wise; we are number 12 in the state in the amount of money the county gives to the education of a student and while we are paying a premium price for education, and we are standing there with our hand out like this, there is a problem.  Mr. Mansfield said he was not so sure about this, but he would look into the problem.  He can tell us right now, the amount of kids, and he has served on the scholarship committee of the Board of Realtors last year when they gave ($16 or $60, not exactly sure of amount he quoted) worth of scholarships, there was a child from East Carteret High School that got accepted by Duke University and that is an extremely prestigious university to get into.  We have had numerous students from this county go on and go to outstanding schools.  We have some smart, very qualified people in this area.  BOB said he read an article in the Carolina Journal this morning and out of the 50 states North Carolina is ranked 42nd as far as spending per pupil and we are 45th as far as scholastic achievement in the states.  So that doesn’t necessarily mean that money equals education because I think that Washington, DC has the highest per capita per student, and one of the worst scholastic achievement rates.  But do we need to spend more?  I don’t know.  We are 42nd out of 50 states as far as spending per student.  Our state house of representative Pat McElraft was here last week and the last budget or the current budget we are operating under now, in the state of NC, in the money they set aside for the schools, was included enough money to hire and fund 2000 more teachers.  And yet, when the money came down to Carteret County we wound up losing teachers and teachers aids.  So what happened to that money that was supposed to come down from the state so we would not lose teachers.  This goes back to Dr. Novey, he can just take that pile…..Mr. Mansfield interrupted with he would have to investigate that.  ‘When you start talking about… because of our finances in our county we are deemed a rich county.  So we get less state funding than Havelock or less federal funding because a military base is hard in Craven County and Onslow County so there is some dollars we are not getting here.  We probably could get more of those dollars but I can’t sit here and honestly  tell you what I am for…you know the money is going to come from somewhere. I’d rather it not come from, I’d rather we get it from the federal or state government.  But I am for spending less, but that doesn’t mean that I am for axing education.  Right now I’ll tell you you can go to the board of education and get all the numbers in the world you want and go spend a day with a teacher in the class room.  Like you say, the money is being shifted around.  I don’t know where it is going.  That is why I want you to elect me so I can find out.  When you were in school I guarantee you took a book home with you.  Today they don’t have enough books, they can’t all take books home.  They share books, they check out books.  Teachers spend their own money, who haven’t had a raise in 5 or 6 years, and go buy paper to run off stuff to give students stuff to do.  We raised I don’t know how much money by the real estate association to buy back packs, pencils, and all these things to help fund that, to help make out a difference.  The community does have some responsibility and we all do have individual responsibility but I can’t tell you what I can do until I get there.  That is the unfortunate part.  I have never been involved in politics before, never really had any desire, but for the same questions you are raising, the only way to get the answers is to step up and do something.  I am willing to volunteer my time.  $300 a month isn’t going to pay me…..I’m just here to let you know that I agree and understand your concerns and I would like to try to make a difference.  Whether I can; I am going to be one of 7.  I am a very honest person, and I believe in what I do and I don’t want to stand here and lie to you and tell you that I am going to go do something and then not live up to my promise.  I’d rather under promise and over deliver.  (More discussion along the same lines followed.)  Several in attendance thanked Mr. Mansfield for coming tonight and especially to the ’new’ young people who came out tonight and joined in the discussion.  We appreciate your concerns and involvement.  Invited them to come back to future meetings.

Mr. Mansfield was asked if he had any questions for us and he said he hoped we liked what we heard and understand that he is not promising anything…a golden parachute or anything like that… He promised to work hard and will try to get the most for our money.

BOB told him that we have another group of TEA party members that meet in the western part of the county the first and third Tuesday of the month.  They are meeting now…their meetings don’t start until 7:00.  He has already called KEN LANG ahead of time that you might be down there tonight.  So if you would like to head on down there…It is 10 minutes to 7:00.  He then gave Mr. Mansfield instructions on how to get to the community building where they are meeting tonight.

Discussion on who our group is going to sponsor.  It was decided and we were in agreement that we would support Sam Sanford’s “We Care” project with the same distribution for us as we had done with the Wounded Warrior’s project…$4.00 for each T-shirt we sold.  The reason for the change was we found out that the head man of Wounded Warrior’s was receiving a 6 figure salary, so we decided to change our support.  JERE GEURIN spoke on the We Care Project for those who are not aware of what the project is.  ’Sam Sanford is a retired Lt.Col.  He was a special forces guy, green beret, served in Viet Nam, Panama, and many other places.  Many of our members here tonight have helped out with this project.  We assemble and pack care boxes that go to our troops in Afghanistan.  Each box is addressed to a First Sgt over there because when you send something through customs that box has to be addressed to an individual.  We cannot send it to a First Marine Air Division or any organization.  We have to send it to an individual.  We get those boxes, we pack them with stuff that is donated and a lot of stuff that Sam buys out of his own pocket.  We put in there tooth paste, shaving cream, deodorant, magazines, books, trail mix, candy, coffee, and all kinds of goodies for these guys to eat.  This goes to guys in remote areas.  These are people that cannot get to a base exchange or post exchange to buy things that they need.  It makes their lives just a little bit more comfortable.  For example, a couple of weeks ago, we packed up something like 125 boxes.  We carried them to the Morehead City Post Office and asked people who came to the post office to please take one or more boxes into the PO (they are all addressed and the customs forms all made out) and mail them.  It costs $13.45 postage to mail each box.  100 boxes would be $134.50.  That is a bit much for Sam to have to undertake.  He already spends, JERE said he would estimate about $500.00 per month out of pocket getting stuff to send in his little warehouse to mail at the next mailing.  The day they took about 100 boxes to the Morehead City Post Office and they did not do very well that morning.  They only got about 20 of those boxes in the mail.  Yesterday they went to Newport and got about 50 in the mail.  This morning they went to the Swansboro Post Office where they were received by the clerks and post master there just like we were old friends.  They put the rest of the boxes in the mail today.  Sam plans to pack again a week from tomorrow, Wednesday morning.  If you are interested in helping out let JERE know and he will explain where to go and when.  Normally he sets up in the warehouse, forming tables in a “U” shape and puts all the stuff that is going in the boxes on these tables.  We assemble the box at one end.  People pick up a box.  They fill it and take it to the other end where someone seals it and it is done.  You can also support Sam by sending him money, because most of the boxes that we mailed today were financed by people who came by and gave us money.  If you have any kind of organization that meets, Sam would like to attend your meeting and explain to you all about “We Care”.  It is a great mission.

BOB gave NANCY BOCK the address to where she could mail the check.  He asked her for an accounting on where we stand financially.  NANCY said we have $1637.00 and we are obligated on the T-Shirts for $308.00.  She wanted to know if that is what we want her to make the check for to ‘We Care’.  BOB wanted to know how we were doing on shirts.  She had bought some recently so we are in pretty good shape right now.  SCOTT wanted to know if we were going to have a Tax Day Rally on the 15th or 16th of April.  BOB said we had put if off for too long a period and now did not have the time to get one organized.  HOWARD said he thought now that our time would be better spent to go to that meeting in New Bern on the 14th.  (Discussion on which meeting he was talking about.  There is one on Monday the 16th as well as one on the 14th).  It is the one at the Taberna (correction – Emerald Green) County Club from 9:00 to 12:00.  GLADYS said that was a different one than she was talking about on the 16th.  HOWARD said supposedly they were going to have all three of the State Senator candidates there.  Whether Randy Ramsey is going to show or not, we don’t know.

ERIC said since we are not going to support the Wounded Warriors anymore, should we not come up with another design on the back of our new shirts we order promoting “We Care”.  BOB said we will need to find out how much that is going to cost us to change the logo.  Find out is there is a set up fee and how much.  The logo for We Care is shown on the card BOB gave NANCY for mailing the check.  BOB asked about our printer of shirts and what NANCY’s contact with them on the situation had been.  She said she had been talking to them about the other Warrior (Hope for the Warriors) project and he said the logos were almost the same, that they would not need to change it.  We might want to get something generic so we can support whoever we want to.  Many at the meeting felt that since we are going with “We Care”, we should change the logo and Sam’s logo is absolutely beautiful and eye catching.  JERE said he would recommend that if we are going to support We Care that we contact Sam and ask him what he would like for it to say.  BOB asked “Do we want to change the logo?”  Discussion followed.  BOB decided to get NANCY to get a price to have the “We Care” logo produced and put on the shirts and what it would add to our bottom line as opposed to what we already have set up to run the current ones.

DAVID COX reported that he had ridden up to Washington on the bus with the group that is putting up the billboards and he was very impressed with what all they have going on up there.  He wanted to know if there was any way we could help them, he would like to.  BOB reported that we had already given them $400 to sponsor a month on one billboard.  We sent the money in January.  DAVID said they are doing some great work there.

BOB asked if anyone had heard about the Super Pac that was going to come out and run ads against Walter B. Jones.  There was a good article in the Beaufort Observer about it and a long letter about the Super Pac(but he couldn’t remember the name of them).  They were expressing that the incumbents have about an 86% election rate.  In the 2012 election the incumbents have all the benefits when running for election because they have all the pac money, the party, envelop franking privileges, etc.  This creates an arrogance of incumbency where they do not feel they are responsible to the voters anymore.  They can just vote however they feel and that becomes more and more evident the longer they are in office.  They get where they feel invincible so this Pac (is not running a campaign for Palombo) but are running their own thing on the side However, it is going to end up benefiting Frank Palombo because he is the only one that is challenging Jones in the Republican primary.  He was talking to Frank Palombo about this whole thing and he feels there is a whole other issue.  He said to watch for the news on Thursday.  There will be a big story coming out, a big media event, but he couldn’t tell what it was about.  He was bound by whatever and couldn’t share the news.  Latter part of next week, around Thursday, maybe Friday morning look for something pretty significant in the news.  Frank shared with BOB a poll that his organization paid for (to do a campaign poll costs a lot of money).  They polled voters within the third congressional district (approximately 500 likely voters) and they asked them about whether they would vote to reelect Walter Jones or not.  He scored a 46% which according to the pollsters is very good.  Then there was a series of eight questions that followed and each question dealt with different pieces of legislation that Walter Jones either voted for or against.  They would ask the question like ‘would you vote for Walter Jones knowing that he voted for the financial reform act (the Dodd-Frank bill).  It would go down the whole list of 8 questions like that and then at the very end they would re-ask the first question again.  Rephrasing “knowing what you know now about Congressman Jones’ voting record how likely would you be to vote for his re-election.  On the second go-round he scored a 29% which anything under 30% means you are going down.  Frank said the whole gist of that poll showed a real softness out there for Walter Jones and it is really all about voter education.  Getting the word out to the voters so they understand that Walter Jones is not the conservative they think he is.

STEVE talked about the prayer rally in support of the Marriage Act, that will be held the same day as our April 17th meeting, in Swinson Park.  He has yard signs and bumper stickers for anyone who would like one.  They think it will last about an hour and half.  They have speakers they are trying to get lined up to come out.  BOB asked if the churches were pushing this from the pulpit.  STEVE said some are but not very many.  Most are afraid to do anything political.
Some are opposed to the amendment because they say it is a hate the gays.  The pastor of Open Door preached about it two weeks ago to vote FOR the amendment.  He has a yard sign in his front yard and plans to put a sign on the church sign also.  A church in Pellitier is way on board.  Their church is doing a lot of stuff.

BOB  introduced Kirby Smith, who is running for judge.  Mr. Smith spoke to us a couple of weeks ago.  He said he appreciated us letting him speak to us again for a moment.  Two weeks ago he was appointed to fill the remaining term of Judge Jerry Waddell on the District Court bench.  That is through December.  He still has to run in the election on May 8, and if he survives that, run again in the election in November.  He told us when he was here last time that he wanted to keep coming back and he wants to keep that promise.  He really wants to keep it when he is a judge.  He is going to be sworn in next week in New Bern on April 12 at 3:00 and you all are invited.  He spoke at length here last time and during his talk to us tonight repeated much of the same information.  He said he loved coming here.  He had spoken at another TEA party meeting and someone came up afterward and apologized for all the hard questions they had asked.  He said he loved the hard questions, it was the easy questions he did not like.  Everyone hits the easy questions out the park.  It is the hard questions that show your mettle, what you are made of and how you think.  He asked everyone to go to his web site to find out what he has done and keep up with what is going on in his campaign.  He makes changes almost every day.  He wants to be approachable as judge.  While he can’t discuss cases, he still wants the contact with the people.

BOB said since the last time he was here, and now that he was elevated to the position of judge, and since we have already heard from the solicitor general arguing before the supreme court, where would you fall on Obamacare and why?  Judge Smith said ‘Oh, my goodness, he would have to quote Justice Scalia when he said 2700 pages – you expect me to read that?  He does not know how they got 6 hours of oral argument in three days.  Normally, you get one hour of argument per case.  He has never heard of this before.  There were several different issues, and he has to be honest with you BOB, he has not been tracking it.  He has been busy with his campaign.  He was not trying to duck his question.  RUTH PARKER said ‘let her ask it to him this way – does the government have the right, through the constitution, to tell us what we need to buy…what we can drive…what we can eat…what we can think.  It is out of control.  Judge Kirby said he agreed with Ruth.  He went on to discuss the bill of rights…what they put in them and what they left out.  The 10th amendment of the US Constitution ‘all powers not relegated to the federal government are reserved for the states.’  It has now been relegated to relatively nothing.  He went on to discuss the Civil War.  He feels it basically was not fought on the issue of slavery but what the Civil War did is (in his opinion) it brought in the era of big government.  The Civil War basically established that we will have a dominate federal government and subservient states.  Because when the states tried to leave the federal government came in and said no.  There were other things that flowed from the Civil War.  BOB said are you trying to blame big government on Republicans?  Judge Kirby laughed and said he hadn’t thought about that.  The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments.  If we say these are the rights … are we saying that is all of them?  Are there more?  Are there less?  Some people did not want to put any bill of rights in there because they were afraid of limiting the rights.  In answer to your question, Ruth, no, it is expressly not in there.  And what Justice Scalia’s argument is, he is the true strict constructionist on the Supreme Court, who, in Judge Kirby’s opinion, writes articulate decisions.  He says if it is not in the Constitution, the solution is simple, then you amend the constitution with what you want in there.  Someone in the audience said he thought Ruth’s question was, ’did he think Obamacare was Constitutional or not…the mandate….is that constitutional?’  Judge Kirby said ‘No, he would be shocked if the US Supreme Court said it is.’

Discussion on DUI’s, levels of offenses and levels of sentencing.

ERNIE GUTHRIE asked Judge Kirby what did he have to offer compared to Mr. McFayden?  Judge Kirby said he did not want to talk negative about his opponent; but he will quote Ronald Reagan when he was debating Walter Mondale….”I don’t want to use my opponents youth and inexperience against him’.  He said he had 20 years of practicing law and that is what he brings to the table.  He has tried and prosecuted every type of case that he can think of.  (He said he hates to say that because someone could raise their hand and ask if he had ever prosecuted such and such a case, and he might have to say no, but he thinks he has covered most of the bases).

Judge Kirby thanked us for our attention and said he always liked to come and talk with us.  Several in the audience thanked him for coming back and said he was always welcome.

BOB talked about the Young Professionals Group (formerly Young Republicans) starting to die out.  He has mentioned it to the Republican Men’s Club and they are discussing incorporating them into the Men’s Club.  He said he would like to see someone like JAMES LAWVER be assigned as Chair of the Young Professionals, but they would have to see what is going on with the current leader.  We had a good group of young voters with us tonight and he would like to see them get involved.

EULA PARKIN wanted to know if you had to be a Republican to belong to the TEA Party.  Didn’t we want any Democrats to join with us?  BOB and several others said we would love to have good conservative Democrats to come out and join us.  If you can find some conservative Democrats, bring them on down.

HAILEY HALT said her mother had been trying to get her to come to the TEA Party meetings; that she (her mother) had been trying to get a group organized in Stella, but so far had had no luck.  Her mother went to the Republican conventions.  BOB asked who her mother was and HAILEY said Jessica Halt and BOB said he knew her.  HAILEY said her mom had also worked with the Young Republicans for a while.  HOWARD said we have a couple from Stella who are very active but are at the TEA Party meeting in Cape Carteret tonight.

BOB asked WES KRAMER where he was from and WES said he was originally from Onslow County.  He went to White Oak School.  He has been living in Las Vegas for the last five years.  He just moved back.  BOB asked if he was working or still in school.  WES said he had just picked up a job at Piccato’s and was hoping to get into Coastal Community College in Jacksonville.

BOB asked ERIC WILSON where he was from.  He said he had lived in Morehead since 2005.  He lived in Newport before that.  He was a West Carteret High School graduate.  He got involved with the Fire and EMS about four years ago and that was also his entrance into the medical world.

BOB asked STEVE BEST how old he was and STEVE said 4l.  BOB said he did not look it, he looked a lot younger; but BOB believed the Young Republicans ages were 18 to 40.  At least that is what it was back when he was one of the five original members that started it, back in 1980.  He was all enthused with Ronald Reagan and he left the area in 1983 to go down to Florida on Marine Corps orders and when he came back in 1986 those young Republicans were all too old.  The group just fizzled out.  You young folks, you are the future of the country.  He had been to a bunch of TEA Parties and rallies and when he looks around, most there are about the same age as he is.  He is now 64.  Some here are a little bit older.  EULA said she was the oldest.  BOB said, ‘are you older than HOWARD?’  EULA said she was 85 and HOWARD said he was 77.  She said when she was in school the desks were screwed to the floor.  The first mistake was when they unscrewed the desks from the floor.  Until then there was respect, discipline, and you didn’t have the kids saying, ‘well, my momma’s going to sue you.’  Talking about the education system going down, it is television, computers, cell phones, and all these little games they play on hand held instruments, and the parents who don’t have time.

Several stories were told about school situations and how they were handled.

BOB adjourned the meeting at 7:55 pm.
Minutes submitted by Secretary PEGGY GARNER