ELIZABETHTOWN — Complaints were dismissed Friday against two members of the Bladen County Board of Elections and all five were served notice state staff will be coming to see them.
In a telephonic meeting of the state Board of Elections, the three Democrats and two Republicans voted along party lines in denying complaints against chairwoman Louella Thompson and Patsy Sheppard to move forward to an evidentiary, fact-finding hearing. And, on a recommendation from Democrat Stella Anderson, the state board directed state staff to visit all five members to also include Democrat Deborah Belle and Republicans Michael Aycock and Emery White to give instruction on requirements and conduct of closed sessions.
Smith’s complaints against Thompson and Sheppard, both Democrats, said each should be removed “due to incompetency.”
State board Chairman Damon Circosta, Jeff Carmon and Anderson were in agreement on every motion on the way to the eventual decision, as were Republicans Ken Raymond and David Black. Raymond wished for more evidence to be added to the complaints of Elizabethtown’s Charlotte Smith; the trio of Democrats refused.
“We’re a long way from having a fully functioning Bladen County Board of Elections,” Circosta did say in trying to create a bridge of solution from the complaints to Raymond’s assertion that dismissal would only “embolden them to continue the way they’ve been doing.”
Collectively in their comments, the state board stressed the importance of Bladen voters having confidence in their county board with a presidential year primary March 3 and the general election Nov. 3. They were hopeful the state staff’s visit will help remove doubts even some of them were willing to express.
No timetable was set for the visit. The county board meets Tuesday at 5 p.m. for the purpose of receiving absentee ballots.
For Thompson and Sheppard, it was the third time they’ve been brought before the state board. On Oct. 18, the panel voted on party lines to dismiss complaints from White Lake’s Wayne Schaeffer during a preliminary hearing. On Dec. 20, the state board voted unanimously to reach an evidentiary hearing, albeit after a hasty recess Circosta arranged moments before, and then voted 4-1 to dimiss complaints from White Oak’s Jane Pait during an evidentiary hearing.
Schaeffer and Pait are registered Republicans; Smith is unaffiliated. Schaeffer is chairman of the county’s GOP.
This meeting was conducted differently than those in October and December, which allowed respondents and complainants to participate. Only board members and legal counsel were allowed to speak by Circosta, the chairman.
Tension grew during Friday’s conference call, with Circosta at one point — the Pledge of Allegiance was the topic — banging his gavel to bring the meeting to order. Bladen County’s portion of the meeting lasted about 30 minutes and included multiple moments of state legal counsel Katelyn Love explaining statutes.
Anderson said the board “should not see another complaint centered around saying the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s not a requirement by statute or rule. The practice differs across all 100 counties.”
She went on to say another part of the complaint was concerning, saying Smith “claims to know what happens in a closed session. This brings a question for all five board members.”
Smith knew because of what Thompson, the chairwoman, told everyone in a public meeting.
It was during the Jan. 14 meeting of the board when Thompson and the board said they would go into closed session for the purpose of a personnel matter. When they returned to open session, Thompson immediately told the audience that was left — Smith, her husband and the Bladen Journal — that the board while in closed session discussed the personnel matter and a segment from earlier in the meeting when the Pledge of Allegiance was spontaneously recited.
Thompson said she would have law enforcement to stop it from happening again.
Her comments were not only blasted on social media but reached Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, and in less than 24 hours he rebuked her actions as did U.S. Sen. Dan Bishop. Two days after that meeting, she reversed course and said she would include it on the agenda of future meetings.
But that didn’t happen, and without her explaining why.
At the next meeting, this past Tuesday, Thompson did away with the agenda and afterward declined to be interviewed about the meeting. She did invite the full-house audience of 49, capped by the fire code, to recite the pledge before she gaveled the meeting to order.
Sheppard did offer some explanation afterward, saying the board was in error in conducting its meetings using an agenda because the members were appointed and not elected. She said they had been advised wrongly by the previous director and had been given advice from legal counsel in making Tuesday’s change.
That explanation, however, creates a contrast to meetings of the state board appointed by Cooper. Each one involving complaints against Bladen board members in the last five months has used an agenda published several days ahead of the meeting. Worth noting as well, state staff to include its legal counsel have visited this Bladen County board last summer and witnessed meetings conducted using an agenda with not only no qualms raised but help given for general parliamentary procedure.
Smith’s dismissed complaint against Thompson said the chairwoman showed bias, violated the state open meetings law and allowed derogatory and libelous comments to be made in the Jan. 14 meeting. It says in meetings Aug. 13 and Nov. 12, “she failed to control the meetings” and allowed Sheppard to make “slanderous, disrespectful remarks.” It, in part, concluded by saying she “tried to use her power to prevent citizens from saying the Pledge of Allegiance.”
The dismissed complaint against Sheppard said she discussed the pledge during closed session on Jan. 14, thereby breaking the state’s open meetings law, and made derogatory and libelous remarks “showing her (incompetency) lack of intellectual and emotional ability to control her statements in regards to her bias opinions.” Smith referred to a Nov. 12 meeting, saying Sheppard on that occasion “bears false witness on several accounts, and continues to make derogatory, libelous remarks.”
The board member is accused of saying during the Nov. 12 meeting that the pledge “was for white supremists.” In an Aug. 13 meeting, Smith says Sheppard made disrespectful remarks to a veteran and interrupted others trying to speak.
The complaints against Thompson and Sheppard handled in October and December involved social media posts and comments on articles associated with this newspaper’s website.