2011 Redistricting Public Hearing Nash, Halifax, Edgecombe Sites–Source: Rep. Angela Bryant

 

2011 Redistricting Public Hearing NASH, HALIFAX, EDGECOMBE SITES   Site Date Day of Week Time Place   Nash     April 13   Wednesday   3:00  pm   Nash Comm. College Halifax May 7 Saturday 4:00 pm Halifax Comm. College     Edgecombe   May 7 Saturday 9:30 am   Edgecombe Comm. College   REDISTRICTING PUBLIC HEARINGS     The Joint Redistricting Committee has announced a schedule for public hearings throughout the state.    You, your organizations, and your colleagues are invited to attend one or more of these public hearings. We need to hear from you on all matters related to legislative and congressional redistricting, including but not limited to suggestions on districts, statewide plans, and matters related to compliance with federal and state law, especially the following topics relating to the Voting Rights Act:   1. Proposed legislative and congressional districts or plans.   2. Opinions or evidence regarding whether the state is still experiencing racially polarized voting in statewide elections, legislative or congressional elections, or any other related elections. We are particularly interested in elections that have occurred in counties covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act as well as areas of the State outside of Section 5 counties that have been or may be the subject of litigation under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.   3. The meaning and impact of the decisions by the United States Supreme Court and North Carolina Supreme Court in Bartlett v. Strickland.   4. The importance of drawing districts based upon citizen voting age population and any recommendations on how census data can be used to estimate citizen voting age population.   5. The continuing presence or continuing effects of evidence known as the “Gingles factors” including but not limited to: (1) the extent of any history of official discrimination in the State or political subdivision that infringes upon the rights of members of a minority group to register, vote, or otherwise participate in the democratic process; (2) the extent to which voting in elections of state or political subdivisions is racially polarized; (3) the extent to which voting in elections of state or political subdivision has used large election districts, majority vote requirements, anti-single shot provisions or other voting practices or procedures that may enhance the opportunity for discrimination against the minority group; (4) if there is candidate slating the extent to which members of the minority group have been denied access to that process; (5) the extent to which members of the minority group in the State or political subdivision bear the effects of discrimination in such areas as education, employment, and health, which hinder their ability to participate effectively in the political process; (6) whether political campaigns have been characterized by overt or subtle racial appeals; (7) the extent to which members of the minority group have been elected to public office; and (8) the responsiveness on the part of elected officials to the particularized needs of members of the minority group.   6. Any and all other matters related to compliance with Section 5 or Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.   7. Any and all other matters you believe should be considered by the General Assembly in creating legislative and congressional districts or plans.   Finally, we appreciate any help you can provide in publicizing our hearing schedule and encouraging interested citizens to participate at these hearings.   Thank you for your consideration and assistance. Please send any information for consideration to all of the Legislators listed below:   Committee Member — Rep. Angela Bryant at angelab.ncleg.net or mail to: North Carolina House of Representatives 542 LOB 300 N. Salisbury Street Raleigh, NC 27603.  919-733-5878 AND   Chair –Representative David R. Lewis at David.lewis@ncleg.net, or mail to: House of Representatives 534 LOB, 300 N. Salisbury St. Raleigh, NC 27603 919-715-3015     PUBLIC HEARING GUIDELINES Redistricting Committees of the 2011 General Assembly 1. Speakers need to sign up on the "Speaker Sheet" in order to speak.   2. Speakers will have up to 5 minutes for presentation to the Committee.   3. Registration for speaking will begin 72 hours in advance of the hearing online at http://www.ncleg.net/Redistricting, up to ____ speakers, and 1 hour prior to the convening of the hearing at the hearing site, and continue until the end of the hearing.   4. Speakers will be called according to the order of registration.   5. If a speaker is not present when called, the speaker will be skipped at that time. Time permitting at the end of all registered speakers, those skipped will be allowed to speak.   6. The presiding chair, at his discretion, may change these guidelines.   For additional information on the Redistricting process, please visit the General Assembly web page at http://www.ncleg.net/Redistricting.    For those unable to attend a public hearing, written comments may be submitted for inclusion in the record.  To submit public comment, please visit the website to make comments on line.  Written comments can also be mailed in to Redistricting, Attention Erika Churchill, 300 N. Salisbury St. Suite 545, Raleigh, NC 27603-5925.

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See related:

Edgecombe County Democratic Party after the convention is still without an effective chair to lead the county party

Edgecombe County Democratic Party Safe Negroes Voted Against Me At The Convention

See related:

Edgecombe County Democratic Party

Edgecombe County Democratic Party Safe Negroes Voted Against Me At The Convention

Click on picture to watch Video (59 minutes)

On Saturday, April 16, 2011 I want to thank Taro Knight for nominating me for 2nd vice chair as a county officer. I also want to thank all of the precincts who voted for me.

Roosevelt Higgs nominated Robert Byrd incumbent.

Well I didn’t go to the convention to run for anything however I was asked did I want to run for the chair position and I said no. One thing they are not ready for me because I am capable of running the party without a lot of drama. I had 0 ZER0 drama when I was the interim county chair when Rev. Roy Gray resigned his post in 1998 and also when Dorothy Joyner resigned her post in the early 2000’s. I know I did a damn good job because I had my mess together every meeting.

I have served as 3rd vice chair, 2nd vice, 1st vice and interim chair of the party so I am very much familiar with the Party Plan of Organization. I resigned under the leadership of Higgs back in the early 2000’s and I have not been interested in serving as a county officers because of Safe Negroes within the party have promoted Higgs drama and still continue to do so however he was stripped as a county officer.

I received around 68 votes to Byrd’s 107.

Now a party that talks about getting young people involved although I am 48 I am not in the category with the other officers who are chair around 65, Gladys’ Shelton 1st vice chair is 86, Robert Byrd 2nd vice chair is 65 or plus, and former secretary Leah Vines was 65 or plus. I had to leave the meeting to go video my daughter’s former classmate’s funeral and I heard that Viola Harris around 52 was elected to serve as secretary because from my understanding Vines had long resigned her post shortly after being appointed last year but the chair Allen Mitchell has never made the county executive committee aware. Stephanie Hunter who is 30 plus is the treasurer.

I have no problem with older folks serving up to a certain age because I am older than some folks my self. But to be in the 60 to 80 something category and not doing anything, what good is holding the office but continuing to talk about getting young folks involved? They want to have a title but too damn bad there are not official titles for the office of do nothing but then again yes it is because the Edgecombe County Democratic Party is just that.

Now back to the Safe Negroes who didn’t support me. There were 3 black precincts in Rocky Mount who have lots of votes and they are chaired by Deacon Bernard Bullock, Rev. Lawrence Taylor and Ava somebody. I didn’t receive any of their votes because Bullock don’t like me, Taylor had to do what Edgecombe County Public Schools Chair Evelyn Wilson tell him. Attorney William Solomon who served as the Young Democrats Chair in the past finally showed up again since speaking at a previous convention didn’t support me either. Ava is in the precinct with Shelly Willingham who also don’t like me but Willingham was not present. I can’t remember which one of these precincts Rev. and Edgecombe County Commissioner Wayne Hines is in but he didn’t support me either. They were all sitting together and voted along the same lines. Now don’t think this is all of the Safe Negroes I just named a few. I will be doing a post later listing the Safe Negroes of Edgecombe County who in my opinion, I repeat in my opinion continues to hold us right where we are.

Well I did a Higgs on them, I accepted the nomination so that I could address the convention and also so I could capture on video the Safe Negroes who are holding us right where we are. In my speech I was addressing that group that they didn’t have to like me but know that I will do what is good for the party.

But one thing about me I know I could be good for the party because of my resources, technology skills and connection to politicians across the state.

See the video for yourself and see the Safe Negroes in action.

See related:

Edgecombe County Democratic Party

Edgecombe County Democratic Party after the convention is still without an effective chair to lead the county party

Click on picture to view Video (59 minutes)

Allen Mitchell continues to lead the party to nowhere because he is not political savvy, have no skills to run a meeting and no skills when it comes to technology.

When it comes to the county officers of the Edgecombe County Democratic Party it continues to be the party of do nothing. It is sad that I have to agree with all of what Roosevelt Higgs had to say about the county chair Allen Mitchell. But if Allen Mitchell had done what he should have done, Higgs would not be a member of the Democratic Party.

I told Mitchell last year that I received some calls from Pitt County that Higgs was down there campaigning for Republican C.B. Daughtridge who was running against Democratic Senator Clark Jenkins. Mitchell told me he believed it because he took pictures of Higgs putting up signs for Republican Daughtridge at Edgecombe Community College in Rocky Mount. So why didn’t Mitchell produce the pictures and let the county party deal with Higgs? Because he is scared of Higgs like some others within the party especially Shelton.

I received a letter from Mitchell on Friday asking to support him for the county chair position. I was hoping when I got to the meeting there would be someone else running but when I arrived I was approached and asked did I want to run and I said no. The person said Higgs is going to nominate himself. Well that was nothing new Higgs does it every election but then he backs out after he does his speech for office. He does that just to get to speak on the floor and boy did he let the chair Mitchell have it. It was funny as hell to me.

I went to work at 5:00 am and when I arrived at the meeting Senator Clark Jenkins had already given his address and Mitchell was at the approval of the minutes on the agenda.

Stephanie Hunter treasurer was not present and this is the 3^rd meeting that I have attended and she was not present. Higgs gave the treasurer’s report. Why him he lives in Tarboro with his mother but serves as 1^st chair of a precinct out of Speed. He has not lived in Speed since the flood after his mother’s property was bought out by the county. He lived in a camper trailer on the lot until the county made him move.

Back to the treasurer’s report Higgs did it because he asked Nellie Hunter Stephanie’s mother to run for precinct chair years ago and then by Stephanie being the youngest person to attend the meetings he also asked her to serve since she met the 36 age criteria that one of the county officers should be. Nellie have not attended the meetings regularly since she was ousted as precinct chair.

Hunter told me years ago she felt obligated to Higgs because he asked her to serve as precinct chair. Higgs uses that leverage against Nellie and Stephanie so he is able to manipulate them.

Stephanie lives around the corner from the chair Mitchell they are neighboring precincts. So why didn’t she give the report to the chair?

During the treasurer’s report I asked Higgs what did he say about the check that I turned back in that I received from the party because he said something about it was for poll workers. I said I want the record to show that I do not get paid to do anything in the party but if I was to get paid they could pay me for my video taping something that comes out of my pocket. Higgs said it was listed under poll workers. Gladys Shelton 1^st vice chair went on to say that I did some work at the polls with computers. Mitchell said it was said the party would pay anyone who did some work on the computers. Well what he is referring to is the Edgecombe County Democratic Party FaceBook page in which Christopher Kent and James Knight Jr. were suppose to work that. Kent set up the page and I just happen to stop by the office on the day he did it. He put me down as an administrator so that I could post information on the page and I have done that. I have asked the Mitchell for email addresses so that I could send the party an invite to join the page. I have yet to receive any addresses.

And then it was drama time election of county officers. Mitchell attempted to give some ground rules for the voting process. Higgs challenged him on the rules but see video for further details. Mitchell turned this part of the meeting over to Shelton 1^st vice chair to carry out the election.

Robert Byrd 2^nd vice chair nominated Allen Mitchell for chair.

Roosevelt Higgs nominated himself.

Mitchell were given 3 minutes to address the delegates. Mitchell thanked Byrd for nominating him and for the 2nds that he received. He thanked those who have served for the past 2 years. Mitchell said as we look today to elect leaders for our party for the next 2 years as we hear the questions what went wrong, we know why we lost. The question is what are we going to do about it. That which is gone is gone. As we sit here today in the county and as we look at the books, Mitchell said we have over 2800 registered voters on the books. (He meant 28,000.) Mitchell said he will try to go around to the precincts to work with chairs and vice chairs to hold workshops to come up with an educational strategy to try to get people to the polls. (As a precinct chair I have heard nothing from Mitchell over the 2 years about education and/or other.) Numbers will do no good if people don’t vote.

Mitchell said 2^nd point he is a true Democrat and a true Democrat and will only work to get Democrats elected. He said you are not going to catch him doing anything else for any other party. He said if he can’t work to elect Democrats he is certainly not going to support the opposition and you could take that to the bank.

Mitchell said his 3^rd step we are working on young people and we hear this a lot and we do need to get our young people involved. He said right now we are trying to re-organize our young Democrats to bring them back in the fold and it looked favorable. (Attorney William Solomon former chair Young Democrats Of Edgecombe County showed up again since he spoke at the convention during the last county convention. He did nothing and I never heard anything from him after continuously telling him I would work with him.)

Mitchell asked for our support.

Higgs said he didn’t write out a speech. He said in times like these you don’t need a speech. He said our country, nation, state and county is hurting. He said one reason why we are hurting is because we don’t connect with each other. He said he don’t worry about what is going on in other counties not even in Raleigh and that he feel obligated to reach out and do what he can for Edgecombe County.

Higgs said we have witnessed 2 years of nothing happening in the Edgecombe County Democratic Party. He said he says this without reservations. In the last election if it had not been for Dr. Thomas L. Walker and the Edgecombe Nash Black Political Caucus and the candidates themselves getting out in the community and worked to make things happen you would have a better understanding today. He said because of their efforts it makes it look like the party did more over on main street than they really did. It was a waste of money and a waste of time what the party did. If you look at the treasurer’s report, Higgs said he thank God for our Democratic Party treasurer Stephanie Hunter had not alerted us (he and the ENBPC) we would be standing here today with less than $200.00 in the county party treasurer. But due to her being willing to share with the ENBPC what was going on with the county party treasurer the ENBPC made a contribution to our party. He said they were beginning to cancel the check to the party when they saw people who were suppose to be volunteering getting paid for their services. Higgs said when the ENBPC (as if he is not on Walker’s payroll) was over in Rocky Mount doing the same thing the party was doing and not getting paid and they had a staff. He said while the party had a chair and a Get-Out-The-Vote Coordinator John Wooten who didn’t know anything getting paid.

Higgs said so he is running today to bring some real leadership to the party. He said Mitchell and Wooten were not solely responsible because we as the executive committee of the party allowed some of this to happen when they were doing things on their own and we not holding them accountable. He said we didn’t report back to them what they were doing. He said they called a meeting and if it had not been for Shelton 1^st vice chair they would have gotten more of the money.

Higgs then asked for our vote.

After the precincts caucused for 2 minutes to decide how they would vote, Higgs as usual backed out of the race. And then he talks about a waste of time. But not really. He does what he does so he can address the party. He knows his days as a county officer has been long over and the only reason he is on the executive committee is because he continues to lie that he lives in Speed.

During the county meetings leading up to the past election, Mitchell allowed Higgs to promote the Edgecombe Nash Black Political Caucus and I told him that that should not be happening. I told Mitchell Higgs was going to use that against him. Higgs have said many times in the meetings over the years that the work was done outside of the party.

So why is our treasurer reporting to the Edgecombe Nash Black Political Caucus? So is she a member now?

There need to be a call meeting to recall the chair Allen Mitchell and the treasurer Stephanie Hunter positions on the county executive committee because it is obvious that they do not have the best interest of the party at stake.

See related:

Edgecombe County Democratic Party Safe Negroes Voted Against Me At The Convention

Edgecombe County Democratic Party