CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
29 JANUARY 2013
Meeting was held at the newly reopened Golden Corral in Morehead City in the small meeting room to the left as you go in.
Meeting was called to order at 5:57 pm by Chairman BOB CAVENAUGH
Pledge was led by BOB
Invocation by LYN BAKER
Attendance – 28
(Music in background was extremely loud and created a problem with hearing what was going on in the meeting. The adjustment button apparently was broken and requested adjustment was not provided. I hope this will not create too big a problem with typing the recorded minutes.)
BOB asked if everyone had watched Obama’s speech today. He had flown all the way out in Air Force 1, to give about a 5 minute speech to a high school class. Great use of our tax payer dollars.
BOB recognized ERIC BROYLES to talk on youth participation in the TEA Party that he had mentioned a couple of weeks ago and BOB had appointed as chairman to spearhead this effort.
ERIC said “look around, you do not see anyone here under the age of 40. We need to expand our membership to include those who are younger, the faces of tomorrow“. He had prepared a list of proposals as follows:
(1) You must be between the ages of 13 to 19 to participate in Crystal Coast TEA Party Youth Patriots (CCTPYP)
(2) CCTPYP will have their own meeting time and location. The CCTPYP should meet at least twice a month. The meeting location could be held at a church, since Christianity is a corner stone in the establishment of our country, its doctrines, and its principles. A member of the CCTPP will attend every meeting as a mentor and advisor.
(3) CCTPYP will elect an executive committee with the mentor being a permanent sitting member of that committee. The Teen’s executive committee chairman will become a sitting member on the CCTPP Executive Committee. For a Teen to sit on the executive committee, they must have attained the age of 14 and the age of 16 to become its committee chairman. The CCTPP Teen Executive Committee Chairman will be allowed to vote at all CCTPP meetings.
(4) CCTPYP will design their own ball cap with CCTPP approval. The CCTPP tee shirt will be the uniform shirt for all CCTPP members to wear.
(5) CCTPYP will have their own Web Page as an extension of CCTPP’s main Web Page and their own face book page.
(6) At rallies sponsored by the CCTPP, the CCTPYP will be permitted ½ to 1 hour time slot to present their pre-approved rally ideas.
(7) CCTPYP will select a non-profit Christian-like charity to sponsor.
(8) CCTPYP will participate during the election by working the polls, passing out election information , etc.
(9) CCTPYP will participate in parades as their own standing group.
(10) CCTPYP will be allowed to hold their own fund raisers with the approval of the CCTPP.
(11) CCTPYP will receive in-depth training in the Constitution. Education materials (e.g. – videos, books, seminar, etc) will be provided for additional training and education.
(12) CCTPYP will present skits marking important events in US History.
(13) CCTPYP will participate in field trips designed for educational purposes.
(14) CCTPYP will participate in athletic events.
BOB said, “You have a list of 14 specifics which sets up the structure of this organization, but how are you going to get the people to join it? Where is the outreach on this? Where are they going to come from? They are not coming now – how are you going to get them?”
ERIC said he thought Lockwood might be able to help us out a little on this. We could advertise in the newspaper, other free advertising radio programs, just have to let them know it is available.
KEN LANG said it appeared to him that ERIC had the cart before the horse. Like BOB had been saying, ERIC needed a recruitment plan. You have to have people first, then the structure. But if you do not have people to come then you are chasing your tail. So, first check with Lockwood, and see if you can do a PSA (public service announcement) on the radio and have them contact you and see if you can start putting together a quorum of people and then work on finalizing the procedures. BOB said if you can get an invite to Lockwood’s show “Youth Points” when he has a bunch of young folks in this age group there; then you all can kick it around because a lot of kids in high school and middle school listen to that program.
FRED DECKER said he knew someone at Croatan (could not understand who and all he said) and he would talk to them about getting kids signed up down there and if we could find someone at West Carteret, it would give us a start.
More discussion on developing a group of interested teens and how and where.
SCOTT CARPENTER said he thought the idea was great, but shouldn’t we be maybe looking at the Ron Paul group that had moved on after the election rather than try to re-invent the wheel. BOB said they were in a different age category…ERIC is targeting the 13 to 19 year old and those were in their 20’s. He didn’t know if he would want his 13 year old daughter going to meetings with 19+ year olds. If you can get 3 people show up and keep returning, BOB said he would be surprised. You just can’t seen to get young folks get involved or volunteer. KEN said those Ron Paul people are now meeting under the flag of the Republican Liberty caucus. He knows a couple who are involved with that (one is a precinct member in his precinct) and he will ask them if there is a chance of that happening. ERIC said once again when he looks around he doesn’t see any teenagers here, so we must be doing something wrong. WAYNE WILLIS said he liked the idea of a teen group, but the biggest problem is getting them all together to talk to. The only place they all congregate is at school and you can’t get on school grounds and do what you are talking about doing because they will run you away. WAYNE went on to discuss when he had developed the history game and had been assured by Matt Bottoms that it would be a great idea for use in a history test; but when he carried the CD Rom to the school for them to use, he got an email back a few days later stating the game was too conservative and they couldn’t use it. BOB asked STEVE BEST if he was having any young folk show up at his movie theater. STEVE said last year, they came to the Super Bowl, ate and then left. Really only interested in free food. WAYNE said we might could reach them on Face Book. BOB said all this was good but it still did not answer the question how he was going to get them to show up for a meeting and how did he plan to keep them coming back, if they did come. ERIC said that was inclusive in the specifics he had listed.
BOB told ERIC to move forward with his idea, that he would be real interested in how he was going to recruit people. Try to set something up and organize it and let us know what we can do to facilitate that for you initial outreach contact or whatever. BOB said ERIC was in addition to coming up with the interested teens, he is going to have to come up with a meeting location, and time because a lot of the kids in this age group are involved in sports, clubs, different social activities, homework. He needs to come up with an outreach program, because there is no sense in us getting involved unless we have a group. ERIC said anyone with any beneficial ideas can contact him at ebroyles@ec.rr.com. Verne Thompson offered his time and assistance. GLADYS SUESSLE said the Pig Cookin’ might be a good place to start the interaction with teens and CCTPYP. FRED said he would get with his friend at Croatan and see what he can come up with.
WAYNE WILLIS discussed a book he had received for Christmas….what the TEA Party is all about….multiple authors of the grass roots leaders. It gives the most complete and precise and analytical definition of who we are and why we are here. The first 60 pages is a preface that tells you how it was in 1770 compared to how things are now…..and they are identical!!!! You had Loyalists then who didn’t want to start a revolution with bang, bang…but you have the same thing now. He highly recommends this book to anyone who is a serious member of a TEA Party organization even if it is only in your head. You can get up with WAYNE and he will give you the information on how to get your copy. His brother paid $27.99 for his copy. BOB said we have a copy in the Crystal Coast TEA Party library which he carries with him in his truck wherever he goes…please see him if interested in checking the book out from there. BOB got his copy free since he was a contributing author with a page in there dedicated to him. WAYNE’s email address is dwillis48@ec.rr.com. LYN asked if he had a list of all the books in our library and BOB said he could generate one if anyone is interested. BOB said STEVE BEST had carried the box of books around for several months and got tired lugging them in to the meetings and no one was interested, so BOB now carries them in his truck. The only person that had ever checked a book out from him was VERNE THOMPSON. Verne said he was hoping that BOB had forgotten about that, that if he waited long enough that BOB would forget and then he (Verne) could check out another one. BOB said a Republican never forgets, that is why we have an elephant as our symbol.
BOB asked if anyone had contacted our former commissioners about coming and talking to us. HOWARD GARNER said he had not done so as of yet….that BOB had appointed him to do so, but he had been waiting until we got settled down in our new location. Also he had hesitated until he found out when PEGGY would be having her heart surgery and he knew she would definitely want to be there for that since he wanted to have Doug Harris speak to us first.
KEN LANG said he just wanted to remind us that if we were registered (or planned to register as) Republicans, make sure you were signed up at your precinct meetings and then to the county convention. The precinct meetings were scheduled for February 23, which is a Saturday. You will need to talk to your local precinct chairmen to find out where and what time on the 23rd and then the County Republican Convention is on March 16 which will be held at the Leon Mann Senior Center in Morehead City. He has been looking for volunteers to run for the various offices but has not had much luck. Everyone complains about the status quo but no one wants to be the one to change it. He recommends to anyone who is interested, to check out our Face Book page. He has recently posted several articles about tax reform for NC which is important and interesting to read on what these proposals are. The next Republican Men’s Meeting is on February 13th which is a Wednesday. They normally meet on Thursdays, but that is Valentine’s Day and they had their room taken away from them at Rib Eyes Steak House, in Cape Carteret (where they normally meet). He has invited a lady from AFP (Americans for Prosperity) to come and talk about the NC Legislative agenda in the NC General Assembly. Meeting starts as 7:00 if you are interested.
WAYNE asked if anyone knew what the current status of the Governor’s position on Voter ID? KEN said he had posted several articles on Face Book on that subject, with a lot of comments from people. McCrory said during the elections that he was a staunch supporter of Photo Voter ID. After the election he announced that he might could compromise on the photo part of it. He still supported an ID but wasn’t so sure it had to be a photo ID. He had sent the article published in the News & Observer , stating his new status, to Pat McElraft and Norman Sanderson. The response he got back was ‘we are for Voter ID and don’t plan on changing our minds regardless of what the governor says. GLADYS said she had talked to a lady with the Craven County Tax Payer Assoc., and she said they had done a caucus vote in the Senate on the picture ID and it was 33 to -0- in favor of the Picture Voter ID. Norman said he felt that when that was presented to McCrory that he will go with it. KEN said he feels that the governor will sign whatever comes out of the Legislature. He will not veto it. The whole idea is he (the governor) has gotten kind of soft on what he says he will support which is not a good indication of where he actually stands. McCrory came out and said he supported wind mills off the coast (the Wilmington area and up close to the NC/VA line). If wind energy worked, I wouldn’t mind that so much but wind energy doesn’t work plus it’s got to be subsidized heavily by the tax payer and I am against us having to pay for a ‘green energy’ that doesn’t work. We need to be sending letters, emails, phone calls, etc. to our governor and representatives and let them know we don’t want you supporting and industry that can’t support itself. WAYNE said not only do we need to be letting them know how we feel about ‘green energy’, but we also need them to repeal Senate Bill 3. Whether or not you are aware of it, you are already paying for it. If you will look on your light bill, you will see a place on there where they have charged you for what they call ‘renewal energy credit expense’. The power company has to pay into a fund to buy wind energy from a wind farm that is already built in Texas or Arizona. It is on your light bill right now, so if they do away with Senate Bill 3, it will be the state part of that green energy that you are not going to gave to pay, if they do away with that. This bill has been on the books since ’08. That is four years ago. BOB said usually when a politician makes campaign promises and then starts back pedaling like McCrory is doing, usually it has something to do with a campaign donor who donated a lot of money to the campaign.
LYN said on the Voter ID bill, hasn’t the federal government blocked several states from passing this. BOB said our representatives are trying to model our bill after the one passed in Georgia that passed muster. KEN said what he understood from Norman Sanderson was they want to go over these state’s voter ID bills that have already passed and have cleared the Department of Justice to see what is different from last year and this year. They are still not too concerned about the photo part of it because that is what Georgia passed. All they want to do is make sure they got their ducks in a row so that it will pass any scrutiny.
BOB recognized a couple of new faces tonight ‘Bill and Connie Iler’. They are here living on a boat but have been helping out at the Republican headquarters. Discussed the boat they are living on.
BOB said he had received a letter today from the AFP announcing it Legislative Goals for the 2013-14 legislative biennium. The letter read: ‘When it comes to advancing the free market agenda, no state has a better opportunity this year than NC. We believe that we have a genuine opportunity to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit in North Carolina with lower taxes and regulations to make government less entangling and burdensome to North Carolinians. We will aggressively promote the opportunities of cheaper energy, quality educational choices and less burdensome government, and lower taxes. We hope you will stand with us once again to promote the following goals:
* Passage of the state budget without tax increases
* Lower overall tax burden in NC
* Support for Constitutional Spending Limits that could include – Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) that would limit government spending to the increase in population and inflation and/or legislative supermajority requirement to raise taxes.
* Keeping North Carolina as a ‘Right-to-Work State’, by implementing it into the state constitution along with the state’s ban on public employee collective bargaining.
* Dedicating all NC Education Lottery revenue to school construction; or support ending all state-run gambling.
* Elimination of NC’s Estate Tax – also called the ’Death Tax’.
* Promotion of legislation that allows for the exploration and production of NC energy resources.
* Advocating a ‘rollback’ of NC Renewable Portfolio Standard.
* Blocking the creation of a NC Healthcare Exchange.
* Allowing the purchase of health insurance from any state.
* Passage of legislation to get the state of NC out of the liquor business.
* Ending all ‘welfare’ for politicians, ‘known as taxpayer-funded elections’.
* Protecting free and political speech rights by deregulating campaign speech.
* Ending the Golden Leaf Foundation
* Converting the Tax Credit for Children with Disabilities into a refundable tax credit.
* Increasing the number of non-public school choice options available to parents.
* Repeal of the corporate income tax and elimination of all corporate welfare.
* Simplifying and lowering individual income taxes.
* Promoting the elimination of redundant committees and commissions in order to shrink the size of government in NC.
* Expanding recently passed tort reforms, including ’loser pays’ and
* In general, greatly reducing the regulatory burden on businesses and citizens.
(Discussed each as it was read. BOB requested that if there is any issue you are really concerned and interested in, please let our representatives know.) BOB said the reason he was bringing up these issues is so we can be prepared ahead of time when AFP comes down on February 13th
to the Republican Men’s Club meeting at Rib Eye Steak House in Cape Carteret (meeting starts at 7:00 but come early and eat) and ask any questions we may have.
KEN said ’in March he has the John Locke Foundation coming to speak to the Republican Men’s Club to talk about NC tax reform. They have done a lot of studies on all the different proposals so that would be another good opportunity to come to the meeting and hear what specifically they have looked at and what they think the legislature is leaning towards and there will be an opportunity for Q&A follow-up and ask some specifics about each one of them. He said he did not remember the date right off the top of his head but he would let us know at the next TEA Party meeting.
BOB called on NANCY BOCK, Treasurer, for the Treasurer’s Report. NANCY reported that we have $618.00 in the Treasury with all bills paid.
Discussion on Executive Orders.
Discussion on checking the support and donations made by potential and appointed politicians and committees and the appointment of dentist Dr. Gettey. It was determined that Dr. Getty’s wife has made many donations to the Democrat Party (Sen. Hagan and Obama campaign) since 2002. The question that had been raised was why did we have a supposedly Republican County Commissioner appointing a known Democrat to a committee.
ERIC said the school budget is coming up in the next few months and the board has asked for 6 million dollars, part of which is for capital improvements. ERIC wants to know what happened to the millions that were found last year. How can they have a shortfall when they found all that money not being used last year. KEN said he had talked to Doug Harris about coming to talk to us and hoped we could get him to impart him information on the school budgets. Doug wants to make sure he has the latest data before he comes. He is sure that he will talk about what ERIC is referring to. HOWARD asked if anyone knew how many times they had put in the budget for a new roof for East Carteret. It seems like it has been included almost every year.
BOB asked BELVA MANNING if they had confirmed the biker association cooking our pig for us. BELVA said they had a meeting coming up and would finalize it then.
GLADYS reported that the Craven County Tax Payers Association would be having a meeting on February 19 at the Bridge Point Hotel, at 7:00pm. They are having the Craven County Sheriff and surrounding area sheriffs, plus some people/owners from the Gun Shops. They will be discussing the Second Amendment and gun rights. They anticipate that there will be several hundred people in attendance. She would like to recommend that we have our meeting that night at this meeting in New Bern, instead of here in Morehead. She thinks we will definitely find it most interesting. She will prepare some handouts for next week’s meeting so everyone can have the information available. BOB said we can discuss it next week further.
Meeting adjourned at 7:30pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.