What began as a drive to protect the land around the Moore County Veterans Memorial in Carthage has become a sometimes acrimonious debate between Veterans and the Board of Commissioners that has dragged on now for four months.
In an attempt to settle the dispute, the Moore County Board of Commissioners approved, during their Tuesday, August 7 meeting, a list of members to serve on a new committee formed to determine how best to protect the Memorial.
But those appointments -- approved three-to-one, with Commissioner Tim Lea dissenting -- may have sparked much controversy than is quelled, because the veteran who has been most active in attempting to keep the Memorial issue before the public and the Commissioners, Westsider Chuck Spelman, was removed from the list of recommended appointees.
Spelman, a retired Army Major, is President of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 966; he has been a key player in the effort to have the land around the Veterans Memorial in Carthage protected, after learning that the Bojangles' restaurant chain had offered to purchase a portion of the property for a fast-food restaurant.
“What is at issue is ensuring the protection and preservation of the purpose and sanctity of the Moore County Veterans Memorial,” said Spelman earlier in the meeting.
The Commissioners, during their August 7 meeting, asked the original Veteran's Memorial Committee to prepare a list of recommended nominees for the new committee. Spelman's name was one of six on that list, presented in writing to the Commissioners.
Commissioner Lea’s motion to keep Spelman on the committee -- noting that he was specifically requested by the Veterans -- died due to the lack of a second from any of the other Commissioners.
Spelman told The Times, “I just want the truth to come out,” adding, “this was a volunteer committee. We all volunteered to be on this committee. All I ask for now is the truth.”
The Commissioners ultimately decided on five names for the Veteran’s Committee to include: Ruby Hendrick, Joanne Atkins, Carolyn Mealing, Robert Cook, and Raymond Doby, who organized the drive to have the Memorial built.
In another three-to-one vote, with Lea dissenting, the Board appointed Commissioners Nick Picerno and Jimmy Melton to represent them on the Memorial Committee, with Melton chairing the meetings.
Also included on the panel were County Social Services Director John Benton and Planning Board Chairman Robert Hayter. Both are Veterans, Melton said.
Commissioner Lea asked that Benton serve in an ex-officio capacity and not be allowed to vote, since it could be seen as a conflict of interest. However, this request died due to the lack of a second.
Commissioners Melton and Picerno, along with Hayter and Benton, will serve in a voting capacity on the committee.
County Manager Cary McSwain, Clerk to the Board Laura Williams, and representatives of the County Planning and Legal Departments will also attend the meetings of the panel, but will not vote.
“This particular thing -- the Memorial and everything -- has gotten completely out of hand,” said Melton, “And it’s affected some real fine people . . . I will do everything in my power that this Memorial will be as Mr. Doby set it out to be: One of the most precious things that Moore County has done.”
Although the Commissioners agreed to meet with the Veterans to begin hammering out the details of a resolution to protect the land adjacent to the Memorial, no date for the initial meeting has been set. Because the new committee is an advisory Board to the Commissioners, public notice must be given of its meetings and the meetings themselves are open to the public.
Board Splits on Drafting Memorial Resolution
The Board tied two-to-two on a motion by Commissioner Lea to have County Attorney Misty Leland move forward with creating draft legal documents that would protect the area around the Veteran’s Memorial. Commissioner Craig Kennedy was absent from Tuesday night's meeting.
Lea, in a motion seconded by Picerno, asked that the drafts documents outline two key points:to guarantee the land around the Memorial remains “open space,” and to stipulate that the County and Veterans would co-own the land, with the County picking up the tab for insurance and maintenance of the grounds.
But, with Caddell and Melton in opposition, the motion failed to pass, and will be brought back up at the Board's Tuesday, September 4 meeting.
Both of the key points in Lea's motions were recommended by Chairman Larry Caddell at the Board’s August 7 meeting -- a fact that was brought to his attention Tuesday night by both Commissioner Lea and the Veterans in attendance.
“All we talked was in generalizations the other night,” said Caddell. “What we made a motion to do was appoint a committee to get together and go over the data.”
Lea asked that the legal documents be drawn up before the new committee meets, to give the panel something to work with, adding that nothing would be set in stone.
“In the last meeting, as been referenced, Mr. Chairman, you stated on more than one occasion that the land should remain open,” said Commissioner Lea.
“I love people that quote me on everything,” said Caddell. “I said it would be better off than putting a fifty-thousand-square-foot building on it to leave it open.”
In this case, it appears that Caddell's memory is faulty. A review of the recording of the August 7 meeting confirms that Caddell did in fact say he would only vote in favor of a resolution to protect the land around the Veterans Memorial if all of the land remained “open space.”
“The only way I would ever vote on it [the resolution] is if it was left to limited to open space, period. That's the only way I'd ever vote on it,” said Caddell during the Board’s Tuesday, August 7 meeting. “If you want to leave it open space, leave it open space; but don't leave in there office space and all this other stuff."
The Board did unanimously accept a presentation given to them by the Veterans Memorial Committee which outlined what the Commissioners had discussed in open session with the Veterans on August 7, namely, to keep the land open space and co-own the property with the County.
Caddell: No Back Door Deals
Chairman Caddell has insisted throughout the four months of debate over the Memorial that he has not been involved with any negotiations concerning selling the property next to the Veterans Memorial in Carthage to Bojangles'.
“There was a comment made during the last meeting about back door negotiations,” said Caddell, who proceeded to read two letters to the public, one from Bojangles' property broker David Atkins, of Atkins Property, and the other from Eric Newman, General Counsel of Bojangles’ Restaurants, Inc.
“Mr. Larry Caddell, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Moore County, NC has had no direct conversations with me nor have I met with him regarding any discussion involving Bojangles’ interest in purchasing property in Moore County,” wrote Atkins.
Atkins is the broker who presented the County with a formal offer to purchase 1.3 acres near the Memorial as the site for a Bojangles' restaurant, an offer that was distributed to the Board of Commissioners by County Manager Cary McSwain and discussed in an October 2011 closed session. The proposed purchase was also dealt with behind closed doors in February 2012 and May 2012 in discussions that an attorney specialized in NC Open Meetings Law has advised The Times were improper.
The second letter Caddell presented, from Bojangles' attorney Newman, said there has been no contact with Caddell or any other Commissioners.
“We [Bojangles] are not going to proceed until the County resolves its issues,” wrote Newman. “Mr. Randy Kibler [CEO of Bojangles] immediately instructed the real estate department to take no further action to pursue the parcel adjacent to the Memorial.”
VVA President Spelman, who spoke to Bojangles' CEO Kibler on August 10, said during Tuesday's meeting that Kibler was “very upset about having his restaurant in the news with such negative connotations.” Spelman said the Veterans have no complaint against Bojangles'.
“We have the utmost respect for Bojangles',” said Spelman, “It is a fine organization that does a great deal of good for Veterans. Although Bojangles' is the restaurant at issue it could easily have been any fast food restaurant.”
During their August 7 meeting, the Commissioners passed a resolution to suspend any discussion of purchase offers for the land until the new Memorial committee has made its recommendations to the Board.
