Bear in mind that these meetings go on far too long and due to the problems with past hired management the town council deals with too many mundane issues that should be handled at the town dept. level. One such one was Tuesday night when a church was before the council getting an ok to put up a tent for a revival. This is absolute silliness that this decision made it to the council chambers. It should have been a form filled out and rubber stamped for approval and be done at dept. level. Similarly the issue that night regarding putting up signs for a charity event. Just get it approved in some fashion at the town hall and move forward. But now it seems the council must deal with such minor things and the town council meetings go on for hours of needless discussion.
Speaking of needless discussion council members Emerly Ashley and Andy Moore spend at least a half hour on if FOR SURE will NCDOT and/or the project developers were responsible for IF a turn lane was to be needed for an soon to be built apartment complex and to make sure the town would not be on the hook. We understand Mr. Moore's and Mr. Ashley's concern there after so many snafus of recent where the town's taxpayers ended up having to pay the freight where they should not have had to and we appreciate their efforts. With that said this issue too took way more time than needed. Put your dept. head in charge with instructions and if they do not perform fire them. Issue solved. Most competent department heads expect no less and frankly desire the responsibility.
Of course none of the above discussions come close to the absolute farce that transpired about 45 minutes into the Tuesday meeting when District One Commissioner Charles Williams all but accused Downtown Development Director Chris Johnson of stealing $50000 from his district. This in public with no evidence but hearsay and the desire of Mr. Williams we suppose to look good. I tell people my job after retiring in Smithfield is to keep Chris Johnson's ego in check and Mr. Johnson jokingly tells me I got a full time position. However Chris is not a thief, rather more a huge given of time to the best interests of Smithfield, most times without just compensation. Oh, he got the nice person of the year award from the SS Chamber this year, but that with about $1 will get you a coffee at his local downtown hangout Melody's. Fortunately Councilman Moore said basically that in standing up for Mr. Johnson sorta kinda anyway. Uhhh...just where were the other council members and mayor here in standing up for the Downtown Director? We think we know why they did not stand up, but will leave it at that here. To further point out how bizarre these moments were note the audience was turning to each other and behind them to ask something like "do you believe what just happened". To the well known person sitting in front of me I just said "hey this is why I come to the town council meetings better entertainment here than I could see on any of my vast cable channels at home." It was all I could do but not stand up and let it all hang out and that without even being sword in, but modesty kept me at bay and THAT as others can tell you took a lot of willpower. So here is what I would have said to Mr. Williams if I had stood up.
" Mr. Williams I have served on the Smithfield Downtown Development Board with Chris Johnson, I know Chris Johnson, Chris Johnson is a friend of mine, and Mr. Williams YOU'RE NO Chris Johnson."
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