Four commissioners in the hills
Scoop doesn't usually chronicle the weekend activities of our local politicos, but it's worth noting that four county commissioners hung out in the North Carolina mountains Saturday.
Don't have too many details, but the roster was Democrats Carolyn Coleman and Kirk Perkins and Republicans Linda Shaw and Steve Arnold, along with some family members. Arnold helped host the get-together at a northwestern N.C. home that Coleman described as "palatial" during Tuesday's agenda-setting meeting.
Coleman said the commissioners didn't talk much about politics, though she added that Arnold brought up reducing the board's size from 11 to 7 (there were fewer commissioners when he joined the board in 1990.)
And then there was this note from Arnold: "I even got Linda Shaw on a four-wheeler."
Shaw said the gathering gave commissioners the opportunity to relax and get to know each other a little better outside the rough-and-tumble world of county government.
Among the commissioners not at the gathering was Melvin "Skip" Alston, the liberal Democrat who is often at odds with the conservative Arnold. If Arnold hosts another mountain get-together, don't expect Alston to show up.
"I would have at least liked to get the invitation," Alston said, "so I could turn it down."
(A note: A gathering of six of the 11 commissioners constitutes a quorum under the open meetings law.)
Comments (1)
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Nate,
While the commissioners are almost always predictably ugly in their interactions with one another and in how they conduct business, there are moments that catch you completely off guard.
Your post captures one of those moments.
These four commissioners were generous to share even as much as they did of their private get-together, but I thank them for sharing with you what they did, and I thank you for passing along the details.
It becomes easy to form and hold onto stereotypical views of the commissioners, based on their conduct patterns.
It's good to be reminded that they too are more complicated than we usually prefer to acknowledge.
There have even been tidbits shared about Skip Alston over the years that have forced me to realize that he's more complicated than how he usually chooses to present himself.
For this post, he chose to show his more commonly exposed portrait of human ugliness.
Unconnected things sometimes seem to connect.
I read Tuesday's article about Margaret Keesee-Forrester and was struck by the heroic qualities that seemed to surround her approach to living and representing.
She seemed to exemplify some of the "purple" politics of which David Hoggard so eloquently wrote in Wednesday's opinion pages.
And then I stumbled across your post, and somehow it seemed to fit an odd pattern of connect-the-dots, as if some of Keesee-Forrester's apparent goodness and decency had rubbed off on four commissioners.
It's hard to know exactly what to make of the four commissioners getting together like that.
Just on the surface, it makes me hopeful that some of the commissioners might make a stronger, more sincere effort than ever before to treat each other (and EVERYONE that they represent, including county staff members) with greater respect and dignity.
If Skip Alston, Billy Yow, Paul Gibson, Bruce Davis, and any of the other commissioners want to continue playing the childish, petty games that each and every one of them has played at some point or another, let them.
Just as long as the rest become part of a stronger, better, far superior majority willing to move forward, leaving the common ugliness of the past far, far behind.
Thanks again, Nate, for sharing.
Sincerely,
Hardy
Posted on August 17, 2006 2:26 AM