Just how far the NAACP has fallen from the days of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. can be found in the sad, reflexive acts of a North Carolina NAACP leader to the firing of two Chapel Hill sanitation workers. On 15 November 2010, Reverend William Barber, leader of the North Carolina NAACP, demanded that two fired Chapel Hill sanitation workers be rehired before Thanksgiving.

As reported by the local media, Messrs. Kerry Bigelow and Clyde Clark were fired by the town of Chapel Hill on October 29th, following more than a month of paid suspension and an internal investigation. The town had received complaints that rose ”to the level of serious incident,” according to a September letter from Lance Norris, Chapel Hill's public works director.

As Pulpsters can imagine, in order for Chapelboro Progressives to fire two people of color, something really bad must have happened, something way over the line and not even a close call. While town officials can’t reveal the details due to legal appeals by the two former workers, it has been revealed that the town contracted with Capitol Associates Industries (CAI), a Raleigh based human resources organization, to investigate the behavior of the former workers.

What behavior? According to Mr. Norris, Mr. Clark had received five written warnings and a suspension since 2000. The town also had received complaints from town residents who were ”afraid to leave their homes when solid waste was collected”. Mr. Bigelow had “engaged in several confrontational encounters with your supervisors, including assigned crew leaders over the past two years “Apparently, both Bigelow and Clark had been ”demonstrating hostility” towards residents and their neighbors for several months.

In May 2010, the town agreed to engage CAI for human resource related services of up to $60,000 through June 30, 2011. According to Catherine Lazorko, town spokeswoman, CAI has investigated three serious complaints and held two customer service training exercises for employees, at a price of $22,548. Unfortunately, Reverend Barber isn’t constrained by these facts. According to him, ”The city spent $60,000 of town money to hire a private investigator. That is … wrong.”

Reverend Barber goes further in supporting the use of intimidation and insubordination. ”This is wrong what the Town of Chapel Hill has done … What was done to these two men shows unilateral disrespect. It's wrong, it's egregious … We can't stand for it.” Apparently seeking independent review of allegations of misbehavior is showing disrespect. Making people afraid to leave their homes isn’t showing disrespect.

Buoyed by such Progressive support, last week, Messrs. Bigelow and Clark filed a charge of retaliation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and a grievance with the town. The NAACP and UE 150 municipal workers union called for the town to rescind its CAI contract. No allegations were made of misconduct on the part of CAI in investigating the two fired workers..

Perhaps the flavor of the NAACP response is best captured by a recent letter to the Chapel Hill News by Ms. Miriam Thompson. She starts by characterizing CAI as “an anti-union biased rogue outfit.”. She continues saying, “Capital Associated Industries' (CAI) position on workers' rights are like the extremes of the Tea Party and challenge the town's historic support for the dignity its workforce, public workers' right to collectively bargain and its support for repeal of our regressive state law that denies public workers this right.”

Wow, that’s Progressive communication at its finest. The right to intimidate the public is tied to dignity in the workplace and the right of collective bargaining. Tea Party bashing is thrown in for good measure.

Would you like to know more about the allegedly evil CAI?

According to CAI, it’s “a membership organization emphasizing long-term relationships with North Carolina employers. It’s not about invoices, consulting models or long engagements.

We want to help you create the best workplace for your employees and we’ll do that any way you want. It may simply be telephone advice from our HR experts to prevent or minimize an employee problem. It could be training at one of our scheduled sessions on a wide-range of management and HR skills. It could be a site visit from one of our HR pros to accomplish a long-needed project or pay plan. Or you may just need the data we collect in nearly a dozen annual surveys of area employer pay practices, benefits policies and health care costs. We are here to play the role that is right for your company right now.

CAI members have online access to critical news, information, research and advice. You’ll find much of that here. You’ll also find additional details on services that will help you maximize the benefits of membership within your organization.“

Sounds pretty evil. CAI talks about making the best workplace for employees.

What did CAI do to earn the hateful wrath of Progressives? CAI's President, Mr. Bruce Clarke, along with many other organizations in the state, opposed General Assembly legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The problem? Essentially, the EFCA would do three things. It would require employers to recognize a union if a majority of employees sign cards requesting that union – a process known as “card check.” Under current law, card check alone isn’t enough to form a union. Rather, if enough employees sign the petition cards, employers must call for a secret ballot election that’s overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency. Employees can then vote in that election to join a union. It would require binding federal arbitration to settle disputes between a new union and an employer. It would make penalties for labor violations more severe.

According to Mr. Clarke, if secret balloting is optimal for every other election in America, why not union elections? “Union organizers and businesses are both able to make their cases in those elections. If a decent employer has time to do that, they’re going to win the election Clarke Unions want to circumvent secret ballots because they don’t want to lose the elections.”

How evil of Mr. Clarke to want secret balloting. Doesn’t he know that intimidation in the name of a Progressive value is acceptable behavior? Why not throw in a little insubordination as well?

With the Pulp noting recently the Orange County Commishes' desire to continue their profligate spending in buying an obsolete library site in Carrboro, things must be looking up for the local economy, right? Certainly taxable sales and sales tax revenues to the County must have returned to the halcyon days of FY 2007-2008, right? Only the dreaded and reflexively-demeaned-by-Progressives “teabaggers” would be spouting off about fiscal discipline, right?

Unfortunately, such is not the case. Orange County is not out of the sales tax hole created in part by the Great Recession. Moreover,the most recent figures from the State Department of Revenue show a disturbing, not a comforting, trend for the County.

The peak of taxable sales for Orange County occurred in FY 2007-2008 at an annual total of $971,591,672. Here’s the annual trend since that peak.

The good news is that FY 2009-2010 was better than FY 2008-2009. The County is up from the 4.6% loss in taxable sales in FY 2008-2009. The bad news is that it’s still 1.0% down from FY 2007-2008.

Unfortunately, however, here’s the data from the two reported months in FY 2010-2011.

Both July and August 2010 were down from their respective months in 2009. August was down by 7.6%, with July down by 11.5%. Up until that time, the trend had been a steady improvement from the previous year.

Pulpsters shouldn’t expect either to hear this news reported by the local media or to hear the Commishes explain how they must curtail local government spending. After all, you’re good for making up the difference.

Here is a table with the monthly figures.

MONTHLY REPORT OF STATE SALES AND USE TAX GROSS COLLECTIONS AND TAXABLE SALES Data are compiled from reports and remittances made by taxpayers, and are classified according to sales and use tax registration numbers. Detail data from this report may not be directly comparable to that in reports for other months because of corrections in registration numbers affecting collections and taxable sales within the business, county, and city classifications, and changes in the sales and use tax law. NO county sales and use taxes are included in this report.

Also, no animals were harmed in the making of the report either.

A study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reveals that the 50 states face a combined $112,300,000,000 revenue gap next year. If the revenue predictions are as rosy as this year, the gap could be as much as $60,000,000,000 higher.

Where does North Carolina stand? It’s 13th on the hit parade, with an expected gap of $3,000,000,000 or ~15.4% of the budget.

The good news is that North Carolina isn’t in the position of the State of Illinois - $15,000,000,000 in the hole or ~ 46.2% of its budget.

Here’s the scoreboard:

In the November 2010 election, 45,790 registered Orange County voters cast ballots. That’s about 45% of the 102,462 registered voters. Almost half of those votes were along straight party lines.

Despite the abundant prevalence of automaton voters, the Progressive ¼% increase in the local county sales tax was voted down, in a replay of the failed attempt to impose an increase in the tax on the sale of real property in the county in 2008. In a close vote, about 51% (21,810) were against the vote and about 49% (20,755) were for it.

Inexplicably, about 3225 voters cast ballots, but didn’t vote on the tax issue. That number was more than enough to have implemented the tax.

Query, did the automaton voting play a major role in the defeat? Straight party line voters may have forgotten to flip the ballot and see page 2 where the referendum issues (not only the sales tax issue, but the felon sheriff issue which was voted in by an 80% majority) were located.

Here’s a map showing the vote by location.

The darker green color is for precincts voting more than 60% for the tax, with the lighter green being voting by more than 50%, but less than 60%. The red color is for precincts voting more than 70% against the tax. The orange color is for precincts voting more than 60% against the tax, but less than 70% against the tax. The yellow color is for precincts voting more than 50% against the tax, but less than 60% against the tax.

See a pattern?

In most of North Carolina, the most solid investment one can make is to buy farmland.

But Orange County isn’t like most of North Carolina. Apparently, Chapelboro farmland has lost half its value since 2006.

In 2006 OWASA purchased the Ray Farm (400 Jones Ferry Road, at the corner of Old Greensboro Highway). Although listed as 76+ acres, for tax purposes it’s listed as 73+ acres. The Ray farm backs up to OWASA owned land surrounding the University Lake reservoir, part of the OWASA system. In 2006, the OWASA board decided that owning more buffer land within the University Lake watershed was a “good idea”, good enough to spend $2,200,000 on the purchase. The farm came with a conservancy easement limiting the development

Four years later, OWASA has another “good idea”. Sell the Ray Farm for estate residential development. The property can be subdivided into four estates, some with University Lake views.

What’s the asking price? $1,100,000. That’s half the 2006 OWASA purchase price, less than the $1,286,064 assessed value. You can see the listing.

Why is OWASA selling close, in-town farmland with lake views for half what it paid four years ago? Don’t worry your water rates can continue to rise faster than your income to make up the difference.

In most of North Carolina, the concept of building a bricks and mortar, single purpose, public library gives municipal leaders pause for reflection. They see the effect of the Internet. They see the explosion in electronic publishing. They question the future of the traditional library.

But as Pulpsters know, Orange County is Progressive. It's not like the rest of North Carolina. It’s free from the constraints of questioning the spending of money on obsolete functions. Yes, if you want to start a buggy whip factory, then come to Orange County!

Progressive thinking takes note that Chapel Hill has a library. Heck, they're going to spend tens of millions of dollars to expand it. Thus, neighboring Carrboro feels neglected. It wants one too. It's all about how you feel, not what is financially prudent.

It should come as no surprise that the Commishes have decided to purchase 2.69 acres in urban Carrboro to open a new county library branch at 210 Hillsborough Road. Although, the county hasn’t revealed the purchase price, from the assessed value and the sale of land from the parcel in 2007, it’s clear the price will fall between $500,000 and $1,000,000. This library site is only about a mile from the existing county Carrboro library facility located in the McDougle School complex off Old Fayetteville Road.

The library site was bought by the Resnicks in 2006 for $850,000 from the Lloyd Morgan Senter heirs. The Resnicks split the property in 2007, selling off the house and 0.53 acres for $352,000. That split left the library land parcel. Tax value for the land parcel was $548,760 after the split.

Remember, the county is spending this money at the same time it’s asking you to approve a ¼% local sales tax increase. Apparently, the thought hasn’t occurred to the Commishes that such a tax increase could be avoided by not building obsolete and redundant facilities, such as a Carrboro library. Again, the Chapel Hill town library is only a little over one mile from this new library. They are connected by Chapel Hill Transit. What's the need for the freestanding Carrboro library (as opposed to the McDougle co-school library), other than an emotional want?

Don’t remind the Commishes that they just sold a building in front of the Lake Hogan Farms development with plenty of parking on Homestead Road in North Carrboro that could have been renovated into a library. Also, don’t remind them about a 4.5 acre property for sale at 610 Homestead Road for $450,000 – or about $100,000 per acre, HALF the price of the Greensboro/Shelton Street site.

Also, don’t remind the Commishes that it might be cheaper simply to hand out $25.00 annual passes for Carrboro library patrons to use the UNC Chapel Hill libraries, all served by bus lines.

As can be seen from the map below, the library parcel (blue) is right next to the Carrboro Elementary School (yellow). Perhaps the Commishes don’t know that the school houses (you guessed it) a library! So they are spending over $2,000,000 to build a new library facility next to an existing school library.


Oh, what are the library-walkable parcels in green? Why they’re owned by Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton. It’s good to be king!