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SBI investigates King Chicken meeting
County says ‘business as usual’
By NIKIE MAYO, CHRISTINA HALE AND DAN PARSONS, Staff Writers
The State Bureau of Investigation is probing a meeting between some Beaufort County commissioners and members of the Beaufort County school board based on an anonymous letter.
County Manager Paul Spruill said Thursday he and commissioners were surprised by word of the investigation, but that it’s “business as usual” in the county offices.
“It’s a mystery to me from the county’s point of view,” Spruill said. “The district attorney nor the SBI — not even the attorney general’s office has contacted my office or the county commissioners or the county’s legal council.”
The SBI has held face-to-face interviews with school board members, school board Chairman Bryant Hardison said Thursday. Hardison said he was interviewed two weeks ago about what occurred in a May meeting among Commission Chairman Jay McRoy, Commissioner Robert Cayton, school board member Mac Hodges and himself.
The meeting was held at the King Chicken restaurant on Carolina Avenue. Hardison said McRoy called the meeting to discuss the schools’ budget and said the schools would not get the money unless Superintendent Jeff Moss were fired. McRoy, Cayton and Hodges could not be reached as of press time.
Hardison said he knew a letter was sent to the Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office, but that he had no idea who sent it. The letter was not immediately available, but District Attorney Seth Edwards said Thursday it was “dealing with the funding dispute between the commissioners and the school board.” Edwards said the letter had “public documents” attached.
Hardison said: “I certainly don’t enjoy what is going on, and while I didn’t like what happened, you know, that’s life.
County Commissioner Stan Deatherage also did not know where the letter came from.
“I would expect the letter came from the school board or one of its surrogates,” Deatherage said in an interview Thursday. “The school board has played its hand and with nothing else to do, they brought in the SBI. But I haven’t seen the letter — only heard about it from our county manager.
“It’s a matter of a bunch of liberals getting together and signing liberal deals, then they started tattling on each other,” Deatherage said. “They should never have met out of public purview; it’s not right. I believe that if public matters are being discussed, the public should know.”
“I’m not trying to cover for our commissioners, they did something wrong,” said Deatherage. “The school-board liberals, which they all are, wanted to meet with the liberal commissioners. I’ve never been able to trust them and it’s almost a comedy of errors that when they got together, they couldn’t trust each other either. It’s a Peyton Place thing.”
Beaufort County Superintendent Jeff Moss said Thursday he had been contacted by the SBI less than a month ago. He said the agency was investigating “many issues,” but he would not comment on them or give the exact date of his interview without the go-ahead from the SBI.
Moss said he didn’t know why McRoy would want him removed from his post and Moss said his job was “all student centered.”
“I think the job of the county commissioners should be to fund the school based upon the needs of the school and not on personality,” he said. Moss said he was not at the King Chicken meeting and only learned about the SBI letter after the fact. He said he did not send the letter.
Because Seth Edwards’ wife, Kim, is a lawyer for the school board, the district attorney said he turned the case “completely over” to the SBI and the attorney general. Edwards said he did that “ two or three weeks ago.” The case is in the state’s special-prosecution unit, he said.
“They don’t have original jurisdiction in a case like this ... but I’m leaving it completely up to them to decide if any action should be taken,” the district attorney said.
Spruill speculated the investigation was a political maneuver. “The whole circumstance, I would guess, is an effort ... to sway public opinion in favor of the school board,” he said.
Spruill said the county would move forward with its plans to appeal the July jury decision that ordered the county to give the schools an additional $765,783. In all, the school system will receive $10.2 million in county dollars for the 2006-2007 school year.
“Historically, the district attorney’s office has been very open with us ...,” Spruill said. “The fact that we haven’t heard anything about it until now ... suggests to me that the investigation’s not even being taken that seriously. ... It’s business as usual as far as we’re concerned.”
By NIKIE MAYO, CHRISTINA HALE AND DAN PARSONS, Staff Writers
The State Bureau of Investigation is probing a meeting between some Beaufort County commissioners and members of the Beaufort County school board based on an anonymous letter.
County Manager Paul Spruill said Thursday he and commissioners were surprised by word of the investigation, but that it’s “business as usual” in the county offices.
“It’s a mystery to me from the county’s point of view,” Spruill said. “The district attorney nor the SBI — not even the attorney general’s office has contacted my office or the county commissioners or the county’s legal council.”
The SBI has held face-to-face interviews with school board members, school board Chairman Bryant Hardison said Thursday. Hardison said he was interviewed two weeks ago about what occurred in a May meeting among Commission Chairman Jay McRoy, Commissioner Robert Cayton, school board member Mac Hodges and himself.
The meeting was held at the King Chicken restaurant on Carolina Avenue. Hardison said McRoy called the meeting to discuss the schools’ budget and said the schools would not get the money unless Superintendent Jeff Moss were fired. McRoy, Cayton and Hodges could not be reached as of press time.
Hardison said he knew a letter was sent to the Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office, but that he had no idea who sent it. The letter was not immediately available, but District Attorney Seth Edwards said Thursday it was “dealing with the funding dispute between the commissioners and the school board.” Edwards said the letter had “public documents” attached.
Hardison said: “I certainly don’t enjoy what is going on, and while I didn’t like what happened, you know, that’s life.
County Commissioner Stan Deatherage also did not know where the letter came from.
“I would expect the letter came from the school board or one of its surrogates,” Deatherage said in an interview Thursday. “The school board has played its hand and with nothing else to do, they brought in the SBI. But I haven’t seen the letter — only heard about it from our county manager.
“It’s a matter of a bunch of liberals getting together and signing liberal deals, then they started tattling on each other,” Deatherage said. “They should never have met out of public purview; it’s not right. I believe that if public matters are being discussed, the public should know.”
“I’m not trying to cover for our commissioners, they did something wrong,” said Deatherage. “The school-board liberals, which they all are, wanted to meet with the liberal commissioners. I’ve never been able to trust them and it’s almost a comedy of errors that when they got together, they couldn’t trust each other either. It’s a Peyton Place thing.”
Beaufort County Superintendent Jeff Moss said Thursday he had been contacted by the SBI less than a month ago. He said the agency was investigating “many issues,” but he would not comment on them or give the exact date of his interview without the go-ahead from the SBI.
Moss said he didn’t know why McRoy would want him removed from his post and Moss said his job was “all student centered.”
“I think the job of the county commissioners should be to fund the school based upon the needs of the school and not on personality,” he said. Moss said he was not at the King Chicken meeting and only learned about the SBI letter after the fact. He said he did not send the letter.
Because Seth Edwards’ wife, Kim, is a lawyer for the school board, the district attorney said he turned the case “completely over” to the SBI and the attorney general. Edwards said he did that “ two or three weeks ago.” The case is in the state’s special-prosecution unit, he said.
“They don’t have original jurisdiction in a case like this ... but I’m leaving it completely up to them to decide if any action should be taken,” the district attorney said.
Spruill speculated the investigation was a political maneuver. “The whole circumstance, I would guess, is an effort ... to sway public opinion in favor of the school board,” he said.
Spruill said the county would move forward with its plans to appeal the July jury decision that ordered the county to give the schools an additional $765,783. In all, the school system will receive $10.2 million in county dollars for the 2006-2007 school year.
“Historically, the district attorney’s office has been very open with us ...,” Spruill said. “The fact that we haven’t heard anything about it until now ... suggests to me that the investigation’s not even being taken that seriously. ... It’s business as usual as far as we’re concerned.”
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| Local residents concerned about radio-read meters |
tunne rat wrote on Jul 6, 2009 8:55 PM:
that is the biggest propganda word that every came out of butterfields and rino jones mouth in the past hundred years .
just 2 water boys for the obama socalist party , and a hand full of red necks that dont have a clue about whast they are talking about . "