They’re not the first people to get in a lather about a Facebook post.
An online survey on the social networking website by Lenoir County Commissioner J. Mac Daughety upset both commissioners and those on the Kinston City Council at a joint meeting Thursday night.
Daughety said some of his constituents who live outside the city limits are not happy about paying for city utilities, in what he said was a form of taxation without representation.
Mayor B.J. Murphy brought up the post with Board of Commissioners Chairman Reuben Davis, asking to have Daughety take down the post.
Daughety has not, and said Murphy was in the wrong for asking a fellow elected official to stifle his opinion and infringe on his First Amendment rights.
“It is a responsibility of elected officials to listen to the needs and the complaints of its citizens,” Daughety said, reading from a prepared statement. “And if possible, seek the best solution to their problem. After all, we are called to serve.”
Murphy and Mayor pro tempore Joe Tyson said those who must subscribe to Kinston services is set by state law, and the board isn’t in a position to make changes.
“I think we all understand and conclude and agree on there’s nothing you can do about this topic,” Murphy said.
Other commissioners are also not happy about not being consulted on the matter, and Tyson said he viewed it as a prelude to an attack on the city.
“Is this what the county commissioners want to do?” Tyson asked. “Do y’all want to hurt the City of Kinston? Do you want to bankrupt us?”
He said the cost of running the utility would be spread to the other customers if Daughety had a bill drawn up and passed in the state General Assembly.
In Murphy’s letter to Davis, he begins, “Trust is important for us to make progress on many issues.”
Murphy cited trust as one reason, right now, he doesn’t trust Daughety to look out for the city on regional issues, and why he was with the commissioner at a meeting of the Greenville City Council following the city-county meeting.
The cities and counties of Lenoir, Pitt, Wayne and Wilson counties are beginning to coalesce around a “Quad East” concept in which the localities pool their resources and power together. One such project is bringing Interstates east of I-95.
The city and county governments agreed to support a plan, advanced by the region as a whole, to turn U.S. 70 and U.S. 264 into Interstates, and link highways together to form a regional loop.
The Board of Commissioners and City Council are expected to pass resolutions supporting the effort soon.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.