CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
MEETING MINUTES OF
19 MARCH 2013

The meeting was held at the Golden Corral in Morehead City, NC
The meeting was called to order at 6:00pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
The invocation by given by NANCY BOCK
The pledge of allegiance was led by BOB CAVANAUGH
Attendance – 17

PEGGY said at the GOP County meeting last Saturday, Pat McElraft told us that most people say ‘One Nation’ – ‘Under GOD’ (with a pause between).  We should be saying ‘One Nation Under GOD’ as all one sentence.  PEGGY said she planned to make every effort to do this from now on.  Discussion – and BOB said Dwight Eisenhower had included ‘under GOD’ into the pledge when he was president.

BOB asked who went to the convention last Saturday – Someone spoke and said everybody here but you BOB.  BOB said. ‘right, he did not make it.  He was on the other side of Havelock mowing a customers property when it dawned on him what day it was.  He called KEN LANG and let him know that he would not be there to place his name in nomination.   So, KEN asked HOWARD GARNER to nominate him from the floor for next term’s County GOP Chairman against Greg Lewis. Understand the vote was 41 to 61 (told that there were 119 delegates eligible to vote) with Greg being the victor.  Apparently there were a lot who abstained from voting. Discussion on Delegates and Alternates and understanding of how it was supposed to work.  PEGGY said there was discussion on moving alternates over to delegates but it was confusing.  They asked Howard a question about our delegates and we told them we were allowed 13 delegate and 13 alternates.  We had 11 delegates and 1 alternate in attendance, so we ended up with 12 delegates, as we should have; but several other precincts were so confused from all the conversation that they never really did get their count straight, thus several did not vote because they did not know if they were delegates or alternates.  HOWARD said most of the people from down east do not know who KEN LANG is so that was some votes he lost.  BOB said KEN did say there was a good TEA Party showing at the convention.

BOB asked VERNE THOMPSON to give a brief account of the convention.
VERNE said mainly Pat McElraft talked about what they had done and what they planned to do in Raleigh….(1) They were going paperless, which saves time since they do not have to wait for copies to be made, everything shows up on their laptops….they refused the federal Medicare expansion program and the establishment of a state operated health exchange…(Special note:  she said several years ago that they found out that NC was offering nine more Medicaid benefits than were being offered by neighboring states.  A bill was introduced to try to rescind those benefits in order to put NC in line with neighboring states so as to not attract people to move into NC just so they can get more benefits.  There was such an uproar that the bill did not pass, but it made everybody realize that if we were to expand Medicaid like the federal government wants to do in conjunction with Obamacare there would never be anyway to be able to draw back from that; that is to stop those benefits from the federal funding starting dropping off.  VERNE found that to be very persuasive and instructive.)…. She also mention that they had cut unemployment compensation also.  It had been about $525.00 per week and had been cut to about $350.00 which not puts us in line with neighboring states.  People were coming here because we were paying more.  Plus we also refused the federal extension.  We are already in the hole for previous extensions.  No sense in us continuing to offer benefits when we are having a problem paying them back.
Imminent Domain was passed.  (Later on he asked Pat if there was any sentiment to making that a part of the constitution.  She had said not this year but there was enough that she would not be surprised if a bill was not introduced in a subsequent general assembly.  VERNE wants us to do that because just making it a law, it can easily be tampered with or rescinded.)….She also mentioned some others that he was not familiar with – something called Kaylie’s Law, another bill to increase child abuse penalties, and another to increase penalties for Meth.  She didn’t say whether it was for dealing or using.
As to things that they are going to do – (1) First is Photo ID.  She said it is going to pass.  As certainly as it is going to pass, the state is going to get sued.  Atty General Holder’s office is going to sue us and everybody that voted or intends to vote for that bill, well understands that but they are going to pass it anyway.  (2) Also, mentioning getting sued, as PEGGY mentioned at the beginning of our meeting, the phrase ‘One Nation under GOD’, Pat said that the General Assembly used to do the pledge once a week, but they do it every day.  As a result of the statement (without a comma) the ACLU is suing the state of NC.  But there again the Republicans are determined to continue saying it that way, whether they get sued or not.  (3) Pat said a lot of attention is being focused on corporate tax reductions and other reforms and (4) on trimming number of individuals appointed to state boards and commissions.  While the left is going to say that is a bill to get political revenge, she says it is not, that that is just a favorite way that governors extend patronage, appointing to boards.  They want to try and trim it down and get these boards and commissions to a more functional number of people.
She also said that she was convinced that a repeal of the NC state tax will pass and that a bill to refine a windmill permitting process was going to pass.  It will include a provision that will require applicants who want to erect windmills in the vicinity of military installations have to consult with or get the approval of the military establishment that is near the proposed windmill site…..and an energy bill that will define the process for fracking permits, she thinks will pass after they have had time to do their research and evaluation.
On the question of a gasoline tax and whether or not that might be reduced she said no.  The reason she offered was two fold (1) it had been capped in a recent session and (2) NC gasoline tax appears higher than neighboring states because unlike those neighboring states NC funds ALL of our roadway maintenance out of taxes.  Other states have a lower tax but that tax is insufficient to fund their roadway maintenance; so they fund their roadway maintenance in part out of general fund revenues and sales tax etc.
That pretty much covered Pat’s talk to the meeting.  One other thing that VERNE was interested in was the resolutions to be voted on.  When called for a vote, several complained that they had not had time to read the resolutions.  They were supposed to have been placed on the tables, but many of the tables did not have complete copies of all the six resolutions.  They should have combined them into packets stapled together.  Voting was postponed until just prior to closing the meeting.  The resolutions were not all that controversial once he had chance to read them, but still he felt we should have been given an opportunity prior to the meeting to look them over.  (They were voted on later during the meeting and passed.)  They will now be voted on at the District meeting in April and again at the state meeting.  These resolutions can make their way all the way up to the Republican platform.

SCOTT CARPENTER said this was his first County GOP meeting and voting, but from what he saw, the voting seemed to be honest and aboveboard and he felt good about its conduction.  It was by secret ballot and had members watching over the count.

FRED DECKER wanted to know if anyone attended the County Commissioners meeting last night.  Several said they were there and they passed a resolution on Amendment 2.  ERIC BROYLES said under the Consent Agenda was the resolution supporting the right to keep and bear arms.  The Consent Agenda was passed.  There was a proposal to have some changes made to the Proposed Ordinance on zoning and parking.  It was decided by the commissioners to hold off on that until the next meeting so they will have more time to examine the changes.  It is a 300 page document.  They did approve the Taylor Extended Care project and the contract was signed last night.  Russell Overman, county manager, spoke on the Biggert’s Waters/Flood Insurance Act. That was part of the Transportation bill that was passed in 2012.  Apparently the fund is running short and what they are doing is trying to replenish this fund.  Basically there are certain conditions that if met your rate increase on your flood insurance is going to go up 25%.  They did not hand out any documents as to the conditions.  ERIC said you can get more information on TV Channel 10.  He told everyone that if they had any questions to give his office a call.  Citizens are really going to be impacted by this.   They are updating the maps at the current time.  ERIC understands these maps are being updated based on sea level rise.  ERIC said we need to look into this matter in more depth.  If they are using the one meter sea level rise that is going to put a lot of people on flood insurance.  Someone said they understood that was on hold right now.  BOB said the sea level rise thing is, but it is not dead….something like 5 years for making a determination on the sea level rise.  HOWARD said he has been watching what is going on up north after Sandy.  Some of those people are not being allowed to rebuild, and if they are they are having to raise their homes 20 feet in the air.  This is impossible for a concrete based home.  ERIC said this same thing happened a few years back with people down east having to raise their homes.  HOWARD said yes, but the government paid to raise their homes.  Discussed the various rates that have been proposed.

Discussed the Newport Pig Cookin’.  Commissioner Frank told SCOTT, if possible he would like for us and the GOP group, the sheriff’s department and Pam Hansom’s group may be grouped close together and share maybe the generator and other bennies. BELVA MANNING, who is in charge of our event said she was told that it looked like right now that we would be located in Space 2, which is directly behind the Library.  There is a possibility that the above mentioned groups may be grouped together according to the Pig Cookin’ Committee.  Also we can hand out our pocket constitutions and other handouts inside our tent but not outside.  We can not go around the grounds encouraging people to join the TEA Party, nor politicking, nor handing out any information/literature.  The entry fee has been paid and everything is lined up so far.

Discussed the controversy raised by the Onslow County GOP after reading our TEA Party minutes.  Don’t know the outcome of the dispute.

ERIC wanted to know if we had heard of anyone coming out to challenge Kay Hagan.  HOWARD said yes, there is a doctor in Cary who is very active in the TEA Party, that is going to challenge her.  BOB said he would be speaking at the Beaufort County TEA Party sometime in April.  He will get the date but he doesn’t know if anyone wants to go up there.  He plans to go and listen to him and invite him to come down and talk to us.  Also waiting in the wings is Thom Tillis and he may be running.

HOWARD announced that he and PEGGY will not be here next Tuesday.  PEGGY is scheduled for heart surgery Monday and will according to the doctor in Greenville, will be in the hospital 4 or 5 days.  Not sure if she will be up to attending the next meeting or not.  Need someone to type the minutes and get them to KEN LANG to go on our web site and Face Book.

HOWARD said he was told by a friend tonight after he got to the Golden Corral , that we should not drop our guards…that Randy Ramsey has not closed our his campaign organization.  They think he is starting to make plans for another run.

BOB said he talked to TOM AUSTIN about what was going on with the Voter ID bill.  TOM said rumor was going around that Tillis is backing away from the Voter ID and talking about using old expired driver’s license, college ID s.  VERNE said part of that is for older people who can no longer get driver’s licenses.  BOB said college ID’s are not proof of citizenship either.  VERNE said he understood that this bill allowed a free ID.  BOB said when SC voted in their Voter ID bill, they allowed a provision that if you needed transportation to go get the ID call, and someone will come and pick you up.  He said he understood that in a course of one year they got something like 6 phone calls.

STEVE BEST announced that Mike Hucklebee is coming to New Bern,  April 5.  He will be on the air live 94.1.  STEVE said Hucklebee will be on from 12:00 to 3:00.

BOB said with this sequestration thing, and the White House being closed to tours, and now are saying the Easter Egg Roll is also going to be cancelled, he thinks everyone should dye an Easter Egg and mail it to Obama.  He would love to see this go viral.  Discussion on cancelling the Egg Roll when it is mostly funded by private donors.  Everyone agreed that it is another item that the Democrats think will create a lot of hate and discontent against those Rich Loving Republicans.

DAVID COX said he understood that a bomb exploded and killed seven Marines in Nevada on a training mission.  Harry Reid tried to blame the accident on the sequestration also. This too is creating a lot of distrust with Obama also.

Discussion on who will probably run for President and Vice President next time.  Rumor is Hillary will run for President and Michelle Obama as Vice President.  Discussion was lively about this slate and that if so there could be a real cat fight.

NANCY BOCK gave the Treasurer’s report of $1,113.00.

Meeting adjourned at 7:50pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary.