CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
18 SEPTEMBER 2012

Meeting was held at Jing Gianni’s Trattoria in Morehead City, NC
Meeting was called to order at 6:03pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance was led by HOWARD GARNER
Invocation by JERE GEURIN
Attendance – 28

Discussion on murder of our Ambassador, the two Seals and the American citizen, in Libya and opinions of what was the cause.  No one believes it was spontaneous.  It was definitely preplanned.  Obama’s people are doing a lot of spin to take the heat off Obama and his foreign policies.  It was agreed that if our government had listened to what was being said at least three days prior to the storming of the consulate, and if our guards had been armed, this disaster could have been averted.

LUKE KUKULINSKI reported that the phone bank at GOP Headquarters starts tomorrow.  Anyone who wants to help make calls, contact JUDY WILGUS.

SUSAN RYNAS said New Bern was having one (phone bank) this weekend.  Bethany, who spoke to us recently, has been in contact with KAREN BLOOMFIELD.  KAREN stopped by prior to the meeting (she was unable to stay tonight) and dropped off information on making the phone calls that Bethany had talked to us about.  The data even included the talk you were supposed to make in conversing with potential voters.  Very informative.

BOB asked how many had attended the Insurance Commissioners’ debate Monday at the Sanitary Restaurant.  HOWARD and PEGGY raised their hands.  BOB said he hated to admit it but he just plain forgot about it.  He was trying to get caught up with his work before the monsoons hit.  He said he had been told that questions were not allowed from the floor; they had already been prepared in advance.  Also, it appeared that Goodwin may have received the questions in advance.  Couldn’t prove it; but he kept referring to his notes as he answered the questions.  He came off as a ‘smooth’ talker.  HOWARD said he was disturbed by the fact that since the debate was held here, that at least one of the questions should have been about the fact our rates are higher here than anywhere else in the state and that Goodwin had said he felt that the people in the center of the state were being burdened with helping pay our insurance for our beach homes here on the coast.  This was not mentioned.  GUS WILGUS had made out a list of questions he wanted to ask but was not allowed to do so.  HOWARD said he wanted to ask a question about lowering ISO ratings.  When you went on the association’s web site to get information, there is nothing there on this issue.  He feels the web site is absolutely useless.   Several in attendance were concerned about Goodwin having a body guard and several of his employees here with him.  They felt this was not only unnecessary but a waste of taxpayers money.

BOB called on ERIC BROYLES to give a report on the Morehead City Town Council on ‘concealed weapons in the park’.  ERIC said one of the reasons he attended was that prior to the meeting there was a regulation ordnance on concealed handguns and other weapons in city parks.  He said, ‘About one minute and twenty seconds into my speech, I was literally cut off by Mayor Jones.  My response to Mayor Jones was, you can either hear it now or read about it in the newspaper.  Your choice.  So he gave me a little extra time.  Since I realized my time was short, instead of reading my prepared speech, I adlibbed, and it probably ended up being maybe around three to five minutes.  Basically the bottom line is this,  Morehead City went ahead and passed the ordnance (banning or carrying of concealed handguns or other weapons in City Parks).  From what I can find out that caused all this ruckus, (the passing of this ordnance), a couple of citizens had complained that at a baseball game, someone there had a gun strapped to his side, and it concerned them that someone would be allowed to have a gun at a ball game.  The gentleman who had the gun was legal.  He had a concealed permit.  He was checked out by the police at the event.  As a result of this, however, they now felt, because one or two people had complained, so they had to pass a rule that affects around 6 or 7 thousand other city residents.  There have been numerous challenges on this issue around the country, matter of fact, it has been ruled that by signing into law the statement ‘the Secretary of the Interior cannot prohibit or discourage the carrying of firearms in the National Parks’ you can carry a handgun into a National Park but you can’t carry a handgun into a City Park.  Several comments were made about what type of gun you can carry and if it is not concealed but out in the open.  HOWARD said, ‘That would be legal to have one in view, because you would not need a ‘concealed carry’ permit.  ERIC said, ‘the bottom line was they went ahead and passed the ordnance that anyone carrying a weapon, basically of any sort, (ERIC said he had commented that a weapon could be mace, a stun gun; items that are used for defense.  Criminals could use it just as much as a victim trying to protect himself.  What they have done is they have taken your right of self defense away from you.  That is why the second amendment is there to provide self defense.  A member said until we, the people stand up for what we believe in, these people will continue taking away our rights.  HOWARD said, from what he had heard, this new city manager is very much a proponent of Agenda 21 and will push it everyway he can.  Did he have anything to do with this, do you think?’  ERIC said he did not know, but would try to find out.  From the statements he received from the board members after the meeting, it was strictly based on someone getting upset about someone carrying a gun into the ball park.  It had gotten blown all out of proportion.  Just like taking the Ten Commandments down from the walls of the courthouse was the result of a small minority complaint.  ERIC said his opinion was “We are a Christian Nation, get used to it!”  (Sorry ERIC, but we need to speak up a little louder, if we want to be heard)  A few of the board members told him they agree with ERIC’s statements, but they had not looked at the issue as he had presented it.  LUKE said he did not understand that if you had a concealed permit signed by the ‘supreme’ law enforcer Sherriff Buck, how could the town override what he says.  ERIC said, because a law was passed about a year ago that did give local communities the right to restrict weapons and guns on city property.  It did say, in that legislation, that someone with a legal concealed permit, can still have that gun in a glove compartment of their car, or the trunk, as long as it is concealed, and drive the car onto City property.  He feels it is kind of defeating and confusing.  On one hand you can have it in your car and on the other you can’t have it on your person.  ERIC said anyone who is a resident of Morehead City proper, he encourages everyone to call the city council members and beat them up on that.  BOB said it was amazing to him that one or two people could call up and complain about seeing someone carrying a concealed weapon and get some action, but no one seems to listen to the majority who may be in opposition.  TOM AUSTIN said the way he understood it was they had a bill come up in the State Legislature last year that wanted to outlaw the carrying of any firearms in any park or anywhere in the State.  The Legislature said ‘well we don’t feel we have the authority to do that so we are going to let the decisions be made by the individual cities and counties who own the parks make the decision of whether to allow concealed carry or not.  That is why it has fallen on the towns like Morehead City, Havelock, etc and we are having to deal with it here.  TOM said his neighbor that lives across the street from him (a police officer) said he wants law abiding citizens to own guns.  He feels citizens are actually safer by owning weapons.  BOB said by the Legislature not taking action and kicking it down the road, basically is a divide and conquer strategy.  TOM said they are putting it down in the local hands.  The thing is what they could have done about this before it came down into local hands and we had had a chance to get in there and give a voice, like ERIC said, he tried to give a voice, and they gave him what about a minute or so and then told him to shut up.  ERIC said he probably got about three minutes total.  VERNE asked how long ERIC had known about this.  ERIC said he read about it in the Sunday paper prior to the Tuesday meeting.  It said it was going to be considered … considered!  Didn’t say voted on but said considered.  LYN BAKER wanted to know if a referendum could not be considered on it.  ERIC said if enough people put enough heat on them, maybe something could be done.  VERNE THOMPSON said it sounded pretty much like water under the dam, however, he thinks it is safe to assume that at least some of these city council members have further political ambitions so what he would like, if ERIC would be willing, is to give us a list of those who voted unanimously to pass this and at that point people who live in the city or even who live in the county to write letters to the editor saying in effect that they need to keep that position in mind when they again decide to run for office.  This might set the stage for reconsideration.  Discussion on how many parks there are in Morehead City.  ERIC said a lot of elderly walk in these parks late in the evening after it cools down in the summer.  This resolution banning concealed handguns might also be an encouragement for some thugs or robbers to possibly attack, knowing they have nothing to worry about.

Another thing that was brought up was an in depth discussion about the Sea Food Festival Committee, came forth and asked that the city back their recommendation on having a designated speaking zone at the festival.  The committee had it within their powers to establish that themselves.  Last year and the year before, from what he understands, there was a religious group and they were working the crowd throughout the entire sea food festival confronting young girls that had on short or revealing outfits (or what they thought was inappropriate dress) they were calling them ‘sluts’.  The police could not do anything because they were operating strictly within their rights.  So the Sea Food Festival Committee this year, in an attempt to try to prevent this from occurring, came to the City Council asking that they also support their actions, which then puts the city on the spot and if they support their actions, then they are also now accountable for anything that occurs in violation of the second amendment.  If the city got sued by the federal government, or whoever, they will also be entangled with this thing.  The city attorney on numerous occasions during the discussion, kept saying ‘no, I would step away from it’.  It was not that he didn’t believe in what they were doing was right but not getting involved in it because you don’t want to put the city at jeopardy and chance of law suits.  You can be right as rain but can still get sued and it cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.  A couple on the board said they felt they had to take a stand, so they went ahead and voted in the resolution supporting the actions of the Sea Food Festival Committee.  Some folks said ’why don’t you just tell them hey, they are holding speeches over there, why not take your beliefs over there’.  Discussion on how several members themselves would handle these loud mouths doing the insulting.  All agreed that it was probably unlawful to limit their freedom of speech, but could be handled by limiting where they could express it.

BOB called the meeting back to order and said as we discussed last week we will now vote on the November ballot…on the candidates and then he will carry it down to Cape Carteret tonight and combine their output with ours to determine what will be included on our handout ballot.  This ballot will be different from the primary where we had so many contested races and candidates.  Here it will really boil down to whether a Democrat or Republican except the presidential race where we have Jerry Jones the Libertarian.  In the judge races they are not delineated by political party.  In the County Commissioners, there is no one running against them.  So when we do our ballot, do we want to include those who are running unopposed?  (Discussion).  BOB said now remember when we put a name on that ballot, the ballot reads ‘the following candidates support the TEA Party principles.  If we are unsure of where a candidate stands then we need to be more careful about making this statement.  And remember our TEA Party ballot is going to be a lot longer this time and if it is too long, the voter may not utilize it to it’s potential use.  If you give people too much to read, then they may not read it.  So we can shorten it down to the contested races where people have a choice to make and maybe don’t know which way to go, then they can look at our recommendations, and if not too long, pay attention to what we have to offer.  TOM AUSTIN said maybe we should think about putting a statement on the bottom that there are people running unopposed and therefore are not listed on this ballot.  That’s not saying that they are bad people or that we are not for or against them.  (Discussion on this recommendation.)  HOWARD moved that we not put the county commissioners or the Soil and Water candidate on the ballot.  Motion carried.  We also have the NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat, who is running unopposed.  Decision to not include him also.  There are also some judges running unopposed.  Decided not to list them either.

The group voted in favor of the following:  (Most were unanimous)
President – Mitt Romney
US House of Representatives – Walter B. Jones  (Discussion on whether Jones supports
our principles.  Consensus was in the majority of the really
important bills  (especially fiscal responsibility and looking                                           out for the military as well as the immigration problem) we                                               can usually depend on him.)
NC Governor – Pat McCrory
Lt. Governor – Dan Forest
NC Auditor – Deborah Goldman
NC Secretary of Agriculture – Steve Troxler
NC Commissioner of Insurance –  Mike Causey
NC Commissioner of Labor – Cherri Berry
NC Secretary of State – Ed Goodwin
NC Superintendent of Public Instruction – John Tedesco
NC Treasurer – Steve Royal
NC State Senate – Norman Sanderson
District 13 House of Representatives – Pat McElraft
Supreme Court – Paul Newby
1st Court of Appeals – David Robinson     (Since we were not familiar with any of these
2nd Court of Appeals – Marty McGee         three, we decided to vote on all three at one
3rd Court of Appeals – Chris Dillon            time.  Discussion on vetting unknowns)
District Court Judge – Clinton Rowe
District Court Judge – David McFadyen

HOWARD told BOB that if he could get the information for the ballots to PEGGY, then we would try to have them available to RUTH PARKER by the weekend.

Discussion on lack of available Romney yard signs. Most were unhappy that they were having to pay for the signs in order to have them.

Discussion on amount of untrue information being passed around on the internet.  Be sure and check out any information you receive.  LUKE recommended you go to the Drudge Report to check things out.
Discussion on Obama and if there is anything that could be used to impeach him.  Agreed yes.  But what good will it do.  Nothing will come of it, just like with Bill Clinton.  SUSAN talked about the book she was reading about the Birth Certificate….none has ever really been found.
BOB said this is really a dead issue.  If there was really anything to it, he felt Hillary would have used it when she was running against him.  JOHN said what the TEA Party needs to do to increase our numbers and have the same zeal when it is not election season is what the Democrats do.  They are in perpetual motion digging up ‘crap’ so that we have to move heaven and earth to get our points across.  These media outlets have to be fixed somehow.  Somehow or someway we have to discredit these people.  BOB said he didn’t understand why some of these conservatives who have lots of money can’t pool together and buy up these liberal media outlets.  If you buy up enough of the stock then you can get control.

Continued discussion on Obama, his coverup of his background, his birth certificate, and his many lies.

Meeting adjourned at 7:40pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.