CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
12 March 2013
The meeting was held at the Golden Corral in Morehead City, NC
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 by Chairman BOB CAVENAUGH
Invocation by JERE GEURIN
Pledge of Allegiance was led by BOB CAVANAUGH
Attendance – 25
BOB announced the death of Jim Ferrell. Many of those in attendance knew Jim, a former Highway Patrolman, former member of Newport Pig Cookin’ committee, plumber and sign salesman. BOB had been a neighbor of Jim’s several years ago and told of a few instances he remembered with Jim…example….the time BOB accidentally set fire to Jim’s yard. Many joking comments were made as to BOB and his fire problems….started with yard fire, then shed fire….what is next? JERE said we need to introduce BOB to Smokey the Bear.
BOB turned the floor over to KEN LANG. KEN reminded everyone that the county commissioners meeting is this coming Monday night. They are going to pass a resolution on supporting the 2nd Amendment. Right now it is on the Consent Agenda, so there it will not be any discussion on it, unless we can get a Commissioner to move if off the Consent Agenda and say a few words about it. He is going to talk to a couple of them and see if we can’t get it off so they will have to vote on it separately and so we can see who actually votes for it. The meeting is at 6:00 in the Court House in Beaufort on the second floor in the Commissioner’s Meeting Room. Recommend you get there early. Someone asked if Jennifer Hudson planned to speak again this time. HOWARD said according to the letter to the editor she wrote recently, she planned to speak. Discussion on the article in the paper about the Commissioner’s meeting where Jennifer had spoken….indicating and assuming that she had spoken as a TEA Party member. She emphasized that she had spoken as a Carteret County voter and not affiliated with any party. She did say she appreciated our attendance and support though.
KEN said he had met with Lockwood Phillips this afternoon and told him about the Resolution. He did not know about it, so KEN is hoping he will look into it and put something on his radio program. The main reason KEN met with Lockwood is about the insurance rate hike in NC and the big hit eastern NC is going to take. Lockwood has already done one show on the subject about a week ago and he is going to do another show tomorrow night with Willa Kelly from NC 20, because she has been real involved with legislature on this. He has also had a couple of insurance people that have told him some of the things that Willa has said about the insurance and the way it is done is incorrect. He does not know the specifics on what they are, but still she has a much better grasp than 99% of us do on what is going on. So it should be a pretty good show. KEN said he thinks Lockwood said he was going to try to get her on at 5:15 tomorrow, so if you have a chance, listen to Lockwood at 107.1.
KEN also mentioned the upcoming GOP Convention this weekend. If you are a Delegate or Alternate please make every effort to attend. It is to be held at the Leon Mann Senior Center. Registration starts at 9:30 and Meeting starts at 10:00. There is a $5.00 registration fee. $2.00 goes to the state and the other $3.00 helps to pay for the use of the Center.
BOB reminded us that tonight at 7:00 is the GOP Executive Committee Meeting; so if you are a Chairman, or Vice Chairman of the Precincts, or an interested Republican, go down to the GOP Headquarters and sit in on the meeting. Any voting that takes place will be by the members of the Executive Committee.
BOB said, Following up on the Insurance that KEN was talking about, part of Harry Brown’s epistle of March 7 stated, ‘During the Wednesday session, I (Brown) took a point of personnel privilege to speak on a topic which I’ve been attempting to address since elected to the Senate – rising property insurance rates. The Insurance Commissioner agreed to allow companies to raise homeowner’s insurance policies by a statewide average of 7 percent a year starting in July. The impact to coastal and beach properties is even more dramatic. Homes along the beach in Onslow County could be hit by a premium of as much as 19.8 percent. The rest of Onslow County will see an 8.6 percent increase while Jones County residents fortunately will only see a 1 percent increase. The settlement also eliminates the need for a June hearing where the companies and insurance staffers were scheduled to present arguments for and against the industry’ October increase request. If you are as frustrated as I am, I would recommend that you call the Insurance Commissioner at (800) 546-5664. Discussion on the originally proposed hearing and the scrapping thereof. ERIC BROYLES said he had talked to Goodwin’s office and was told that some of the information that had gone out was not accurately reported. Some of the newspapers up and down the coast only reported 19 percent, but did not report that there were lower rates once you get off to this side of the inland waterway. For example, Carteret County….most is a 9 percent but the beaches, they are going to be 19 percent. He was told they were going to get out another news release that will more clarify by area and region as to the rates. He said the deal with insurance companies had cut more than in half what they were asking. If you remember they were asking for 30 percent increase. KEN said he agreed that there is probably a lot of confusion about it. One of the things he had talked to Lockwood about is it is a fairly complicated issue. If you go back and look at your property insurance for the last five years it has been going up incrementally every year without any approval from the Insurance Commissioner. The way we are structured here on the coast, and it is moving inland right now, is you have your property insured with an insurance company, wind insurance under the beach plan, and flood insurance with the federal government. The Beach Plan is a state plan. It will see a 20 percent increase and that affects everybody who has wind insurance under the beach plan. So if you are covered by that, it doesn’t matter whether you are out there on the island or inland, you are going to see somewhere between 18 and 20 percent increase. That has nothing to do with insurance companies. That is Wayne Goodwin’s…passed by the legislature…but is his plan….he operates it. So he approved the 20 percent increase on his own insurance plan for wind. The insurance companies have no liability for wind or flood, because it is covered under the other two policies. They basically cover fire and theft. They have been raising those rates every year without any approval anyway. Check your insurance policies and see that they have been going up. So what Wayne Goodwin actually did was approve a rate increase for his own plan and you can’t blame the insurance companies for that part of it. They were not proposing anything new as far as the beach plan because they don’t manage it or take money out of it. In fact what they do do is take 2 percent of all the money that goes into the beach plan and then does not do anything for us. LUKE KUKULINSKI wanted to know if there wasn’t something that Gov. McCrory could do about that. KEN said he heard a couple of days ago that there were three bills in the senate, (still in committee, so he is still waiting to get more information). He understands that they are some bills that were proposed by insurance companies (some who think things should be operated this way and others who think they should be operated that) so even they are not on the same page. There is a fairly large group of insurance companies that wants to see the car insurance structure in NC changed significantly, because right now there is a top and lower limit. If you are a really bad driver the insurance companies can’t charge over a certain amount and if you are a really good driver they can’t discount you below a certain level; so the good drivers are paying for the bad drivers. That is why even if you have a real good driving record, you are still paying high insurance. According to his understanding one of the bills is that there is a group of companies, like State Farm, who want to get rid of that rate structure and get car insurance on a risk basis rather than as is currently in NC. The other two bills he is not as clear on what they cover. He thinks they are going to deal with things like beach plan, property and stuff like that. He understands that Harry Brown is one of those proponents in getting those bills through the Senate. KEN said he understands that Senator Norman Sanderson is on the committee looking into insurance and he thinks we should write, call, or email Senator Sanderson and tell him of our concerns and ask him what is being done in the Legislature. He is not sure about Pat McElraft committee assignments, but she is aware of the situation here in Carteret County. He would encourage anyone who can to make a trip to Raleigh to talk with our representatives. ERIC said he would like for them to come down here and talk to us, and that is probably something they need to do, but it is not going to happen immediately because they are so involved at the present time. Maybe sometime during a recess or a break, but right now they are overwhelmed with trying to run our state government and righting wrongs that have been made. From what KEN has heard they are going to set records on the number of bills that they have passed to fix things that have kind of gone awry in the past. They are still working on the Voter ID Bill. Right now there is a Democrat bill SB235 that has surfaced and what they want to do is have photo ID at the polls. In other words you come in and don’t have an ID you fill out an affidavit and say my name is ’Kenneth Lang’ and I swear that this is true and then they take your picture and you get to go vote. The problem with this is that you will not be detected as a fraudulent voter until after the ballots are counted and the election is over. Then it doesn’t make any difference anyway. They are trying everything they can to derail this. BOB said on top of that who is going to pay for all the cameras and software for every precinct in the state. There would be just 27 cameras here in Carteret County.
HOWARD said he wanted to let everyone know that he had talked to Linda and Norman and Linda’s mother had fallen and fractured her hip. She is currently in rehab there by the hospital in New Bern. Norman’ mother is in a coma last weekend and the family was supposed to get together Sunday afternoon and decide whether or not to pull the plug. We have been unable to get up with either of them to find out what has occurred. Norman’s mother is in Whiteville. Linda’s mother is in New Bern.
LYN BAKER wanted to know about nominating committees for the meeting this weekend. KEN said there is a nominating committee for developing a slate of officers and there will also be the opportunity for nominations from the floor. Several of our current officers are not running this year, so we will have to wait to find out who is interested in running.
BOB said he saw today where Robin Hayes is stepping down as Chairman for the NC GOP Party. He is not going to run for re-election. KEN said he understood that Wayne King is interested in running.
BOB said KEN had mentioned automobiles so he wanted to read to us a note from Harry Brown he had gotten. Senator Brown is a used car dealer in Onslow County. He wrote, ‘He had met with NC Automobile Dealers Association (NCADA) Board members. As a former Chairman of the NCADA, I know firsthand the importance of the automobile industry. In the State, it is estimated that 27,800 people are employed by new car and truck dealerships with a total annual payroll of $1.26 Billion. That is just new not used. What would it be if GM and Crysler had not been forced to shut down many of their dealerships under Obama.
There has been no further progress on Senate Bill 58 (Increase Funding for Dredging).
Senator Brown said he had met with Senate and House conferees to discuss Senate Bill 10, Government Reorganization and Efficiency Act. This bill eliminates or changes the compositions of several regulatory, rule-making and oversight boards, many of which have not been meeting on a regular basis. This bill will also allow the new Governor an opportunity to set a new direction for NC state government by allowing him to appoint members who share his vision for reforming and fixing state government. He does not mention any movement on the bill, so BOB assumes it is still stuck in committees.
There is a House Bill 10, Remove Route Restriction for NC 540 Loop. This bill will now return to the House for concurrence. This bill takes the General Assembly, a political body, out of the business of choosing which toll road projects should be built. The bill also removes the mandate in state law requiring proposed toll projects for Gaston County and Wilmington-area roads and for the Mid-Currituck Bridge to be built. Deleting the Garden Parkway, Cape Fear Skyway and the coastal bridge from state law won’t necessarily cancel these toll projects. They will revert back into the pool of road construction projects being evaluated and prioritized by the state Department of Transportation. This change will free up $63 million annually to increase the state’s Mobility Fund, which spends money on projects of statewide or regional significance that reduce congestion. Hopefully this will also keep the Highway 17 project in Jones County on schedule.
BOB said, ‘A case in point, when he moved into his current house, there was a dirt road out there. The pavement stopped at the next street down. You all might remember this, the big Ocean Drive Conspiracy thing where Jean Preston was supposedly taking money under the table to get the road paved over there in Broad Creek. That was his road. Anyway, a neighbor of his came around to the house and told BOB if he could collect from the neighborhood $1,500.00 for Jean Preston campaign that she could go ahead and get that road paved. What that guy didn’t know was BOB had already been down to the state road department and asked about it and they have a 10 year program of what roads are going to get paved and when. His road was 10 years down the line. We were pretty much near the bottom of the list…because it is a dead end road. He told his neighbor thanks but no thanks because number one he knows that this guy is a shyster and will probably pocket any money he gets donated or give it to Jean and tell her it was a private donation from him. Another neighbor took offense to this guy and his asking for money so he contacted the SBI and that started a whole big investigation into a Jean Preston affair; but nothing ever came of it.
Reminder – Pig Cookin’ coming up. Need people to be available to talk to people as they wander the grounds and encourage them to attending TEA Party meetings. What are we planning to hand out besides the pocket constitutions. SCOTT CARPENTER had made up a handout for one of our parades with excellent information provide. HOWARD said PEGGY would be glad to make copies if we need them. We need them to us right away since PEGGY will be going in for heart surgery on the 25th of March and we do not know how long before she will be able to be really involved again…could be a couple of weeks. KEN said we need to look into getting another table besides the one for the cook tent that DIANE was hoping to be able to sell some of the scarves she had been making to raise funds for the TEA Party. Some discussion as to whether of not this would be allowed. BELVA MANNING said she thought we would have to pay to put up a table and tent in order to sell craft items. She does not know if it is too late for us to get permission. She said she would ask and let us know next week what we can and can not do. BOB asked NANCY BOCK if we have something like an order blank for placing orders for our shirts and hats. She said she thought we had something that would work. BOB said she was in charge of that. HOWARD said what you do is when someone comes up and wants to know where they can get one of those TEA Party shirts or hats, you take them back to your car or truck where you have them stashed and he comes away with his requested item. Sort of like bootlegging whiskey.
JERE reported on Sam Sanford’s “We Care” change of venue and what is occurring right now. He said they recently had to move their operations from the warehouse behind Furniture Distributors and are now located in the Cape Lookout High School building. The building is about to fall down but it is free. So that is where they are now located. They plan to pack a couple of trucks tomorrow, one will go to Swansboro, one to Newport and one (Friday morning) to Morehead City post offices.
PEGGY said she would like to have a volunteer to take the minutes for the March 26 meeting, since that is definitely one meeting that she will be unable to attend. (She was told she would be in the hospital anywhere from 4 to 5 days after surgery on the 25th.)
Meeting was adjourned so those who needed to get to the GOP meeting could go.
Meeting adjourned at 7:42.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.