Thread: NC-Board gives support to Johnston sheriff

Published: Sep 24, 2008 12:30 AM Modified: Sep 24, 2008 05:23 AM
Board gives support to Johnston sheriff
Members reject call for Bizzell to resign

Pope issued a statement on behalf of Johnston leaders.

Statement from Johnston County commissionersCookie Pope, chairwoman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners, on behalf of the entire Board of Commissioners, would like the citizens of Johnston County to know that we are in support of Sheriff Steve Bizzell's successful efforts to protect the citizens of Johnston County against crimes. Sheriff Bizzell has apologized for any inappropriate remarks he made.
As children, we learned that a wound never heals as long as you continue picking at it. We are committed to uniting our community, and we expect the forces that would like to divide our community to support our efforts to heal.



Johnston County commissioners have brushed aside calls for the resignation of Sheriff Steve Bizzell over his derogatory comments about Hispanic immigrants by issuing a statement supporting him.
"As children, we learned that a wound never heals as long as you continue picking at it," commissioners' Chairwoman Cookie Pope said in a statement issued Monday on behalf of the seven-member board. "We are committed to uniting our community, and we expect the forces that would like to divide our community to support our efforts to heal."

Leaders of about two dozen immigrant and civil rights groups signed a letter Friday urging the commissioners to ask for Bizzell's resignation after The News & Observer published a story this month in which he made derogatory comments about Mexicans and illegal immigrants.

Bizzell later apologized for the comments, saying he did not mean to impugn law-abiding Hispanic residents.

Commissioners said their show of support for the embattled sheriff was meant to respond to county residents concerned for Bizzell's future as sheriff -- not the state and national civil rights groups that sent the letter.

"We were bombarded by our constituents wanting us to show support for our sheriff," Pope said.

Pope wrote the statement over the weekend, and then sent e-mail and called other members of the board to get their approval.

Such a practice could be a violation of open meeting laws, said Amanda Martin, attorney for the N.C. Press Association.

State case law shows that a series of phone calls can constitute a meeting of a public body, particularly if the board takes action based on the calls.

If calls leading up to the statement were efforts "to formulate a response to the calls for Sheriff Bizzell's resignation, or to in fact vote on his termination or retention, those actions should not have taken place by a series of phone calls," Martin said.

Both Pope and Stewart said board members never considered asking for Bizzell's resignation.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and other civil rights groups are investigating whether the sheriff's department has engaged in racial and ethnic profiling. But commissioners said local residents still overwhelmingly back the sheriff.

"They understood and I understood him to be correct in his venom toward the criminal element regardless of ethnic background," Stewart said.


marti.maguire@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4841



http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1230045.html

Good news.

Illegal immigrants cost the taxpayers of North Carolina a billion dollars annually.
-NC Congressman Partick McHenry, 10th District

We are committed to uniting our community, and we expect the forces that would like to divide our community to support our efforts to heal."

Nice choice of words.