ELIZABETHTOWN — A more than five-week dispute between a hopeful candidate for Bladen County Board of Education and a town administrator in Elizabethtown resulted in that potential candidate withdrawing her petition and filing an official complaint with the town.
Charlotte Smith, owner of BladenOnlin and CAB Marketing, had been collecting signatures to become a candidate for a county-wide seat on the school board. In order to get her name on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election, at least 870 verified signatures from registered voters in the county was necessary.
She had collected 1,050.
But on Monday, Smith withdrew her petition with the Board of Elections, thus ending her candidacy.
“I am withdrawing my petition because, if the petitions are accepted, they become public property and anyone can see who signed them,” she stated on Monday. “I do not want anyone to face retaliation for signing my petition.”
The dispute
According to Smith, the trouble began in mid-April, when she claims Elizabethtown Town Manager Dane Rideout said he could not sign her petition — and added that he told her, “I would think it pertains to all town employees” while in the presence of another town employee.
But Smith says Rideout is mistaken.
“I’m familiar with the Hatch Act, but that is only for federal officers and employees,” Smith said. “Moreover, the act states that employees retain their right to vote and privately express political opinions — but are prohibited from taking an ‘active part in political management or in political campaigns.’”
She added that, on May 14, another town of Elizabethtown employee told her he would like to sign the petition, but he could not sign it because he had been instructed by his employer not to.
“The town employee’s wife signed the petition and other town (employee) spouses signed the petition,” Smith said. “I know that I have town employees’ signatures on my petition as well.”
Complaint filed
On Monday, along with withdrawing her completed petition, Smith sent her complaint against Rideout to both Mayor Sylvia Campbell and Town Attorney Goldston Womble.
“If an individual doesn’t want to sign a petition for personal reasons, that is fine,” Smith stated in an April 16 letter to Rideout, Campbell and Womble. “Still, they should not be discouraged from being involved in the political arena by people in authority over them.
“Citizens have the right and freedom to express their opinions and participate in public affairs, including voting and participating in elections,” she added. “These rights are at the core of our democratic government based on the will of the people.”
Rideout said he feels the complaint is entirely baseless.
“Part of my credentialing with International City Managers Association … we acknowledge following a code of ethics,” he explained. “It specifically states we do not sign petitions, and I did say I didn’t think town employees should either during their work hours.
“But no town employee would ever get in trouble for signing a petition on their own time,” he added.
Mayor Campbell said on Tuesday she had not read the information provided by Smith, and said she would let the town attorney handle the complaint according to the town’s policy.
Attempts to reach Womble were unsuccessful.
For her part, Smith said she wants more than a simple apology from Rideout for her thwarted candidacy petition.
Among the comments Smith made to Rideout in that April 16 email was: “As a town of Elizabethtown taxpaying business owner, I want to hold you accountable for your statements. Under what authority do you say town of Elizabethtown employees cannot sign a political petition? If you cannot reference a law showing where the town employees’ rights are restricted from participating in elections, I would like you to correct your statement, which you made in front of at least one of your employees. In addition, I want your public comments about town employees being prohibited from participating in their freedoms noted in your employee file and a guarantee you will not use your position to restrict town employees’ rights.”
On top of that, Smith is asking the town for “a public hearing on Mr. Rideout’s intimidating and oppressing behavior as a public official.”
Tuesday, Smith filed a Freedom of Information request with the town of Elizabethtown that requests any and all emails “Rideout may have distributed to the town of Elizabethtown employees concerning signing political petitions between April 2022 and May 2022.”
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-852-4163 or cvincent@www.bladenjournal.com.