New Hanover County Attorney Fees and the Potential Danger of the Amotion Process

The final tally is in and the New Hanover County Commissioners spent $67,794.86 in attorney’s fees in the appeal of Berger’s removal to New Hanover County Superior Court. Mr. Berger was ultimately returned to his seat last month by an order Superior Court Judge James Gale. The attorney’s fees spent by the county are approximately 5 times Brian Berger’s annual salary as a New Hanover County Commissioner, this information and the information for the attorney’s fees is all public information which is available under North Carolina’s Public Records Law. Unfortunately for the residents of New Hanover County, due in part to the federal shutdown, some of the programs there have been cut over the last two weeks including welfare programs for those who are in need.

In a letter which was sent to New Hanover County, some of the actions taken by me, were described, “as a result of the injection of irrelevant and/or spurious issues and other actions.” I may have Spurious Anglin printed on the back of future softball jerseys, it seems to have a ring to it. Following the use of amotion in New Hanover County, a dangerous precedent has been set in the State of North Carolina and partisan political boards have resorted to removing their fellow members. This was done down in Hope Mills and Tonzie Collins was removed from office last month. Also, there are other local governmental bodies which have investigated using amotion also. Hopefully, in the next session the state legislature will pass a law banning the use of amotion in North Carolina and pass a general recall bill for local governmental officials. This is the correct action instead of local governmental boards conveying upon themselves the authority to remove other members. The danger in the amotion process being used is that eventually an extreme circumstance that warrants removal from office will not be any type of official misconduct, felony criminal convictions, etc. It will be that the official that is removed is just a member of a different political party or they refuse to vote with the other members on a certain issue. If they can do it and get away with it, why not do it? The answer is there is no reason not to do it. Politics both in the State of North Carolina and the U.S. as a whole is now a zero sum game. You have to oppose the actions of someone who is of the opposite party at every turn and this makes compromise extremely difficult. Hopefully with this in mind, the NC Legislature will pass a bill preventing the future use of amotion and the governor will sign it. Otherwise, the use of amotion is likely to continue.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20131015/ARTICLES/131019793/1177?Title=Failed-effort-to-remove-Berger-cost-county-68-000&tc=ar