Thursday evening was the second time in 10 days that the Chowan County Board of Commissioners faced an overflow crowd of citizens in Edenton's Swain Auditorium to consider remedies for the fiscal crisis that currently has Chowan County on life-support.

With a drop-dead date of Sept. 29 looming to get its financial house in order before risking a takeover by the state's Local Government Commission, Chowan's Commissioners and County Manager Peter Rascoe appeared anxious to get this behind them as soon as possible.

The options that were presented to citizens had been tweaked from 10 days earlier. It seemed obvious that some serious effort had been put forth to reinstitute some of the jobs that had previously been axed; this without increasing taxes beyond those numbers originally proposed. The commissioners and county manager should be applauded

for these efforts.

Chairman Ralph Cole opened the meeting and immediately turned it over to County Attorney John Morrison. Morrison was noticeably less glib than in his public debut as Chowan's new county attorney at Swain 10 days earlier. Morrison brought the folks up to date on the investigation as to any wrongdoing and mentioned how the state auditor's office would be joining the State Bureau of Investigation in efforts to resolve just what happened to Chowan's $29.5 million nest egg.

Rascoe then presented the county's revised options for Chowan's financial rescue, presumably for the folks to see, hear, digest and respond. Cole then opened the floor to

public comments.

In fiscal situations as dire as Chowan's, thoughtful consideration should be given to any input from those who are paying the bills — the taxpayers. Cole set limits of one to two minutes for citizen comments — not a great deal of time for the average citizen who often has to spend the first minute simply trying to overcome the anxiety of speaking in front of 900 plus people.

Cole eventually relented on his imposed time restraints when others in the audience stood up and offered their minutes to speakers, who although having exceeded their time, were finally zeroing in on their

particular point.

One such citizen was John Sams, a retired Navy commander. Sams and his wife had taken out an ad in Wednesday's local paper presenting an option for the commissioner's consideration that included the formation of a citizen's advisory committee to review all aspects of the budgetary process. They would then report back to the commissioners in October at a public hearing on their findings and recommendations.

Sams turned to the audience and asked how many present would support such an effort. An overwhelming majority raised their hands yes, applauding loudly and yelling their affirmations. Following, he asked the same question of the commissioners and only one responded in

the affirmative.

Sams also complimented the board for coming up with significant savings for the county by renegotiating bank loans that would result in improved cash flow although extending the debt service for a greater period of time. He asked "If you can find such creative means in 10 days why not take another couple of weeks and look for more savings?" Another round of thunderous applause ensued.

Most citizens who commented spoke of the financial constraints and hardships they, their families and/or businesses were already enduring with escalating energy costs and spiraling local unemployment. Others defended the tax increases as necessary although unfortunate. When the public hearing portion of the meeting closed, Cole asked for comments from the commissioners.

First to speak was Commissioner Jimmy Alligood, who launched into a soliloquy that included attacks on come-here's who were here seeking low taxes, as if somehow this were relevant to the issue. He was resoundingly booed and silenced, but not before he made a motion for the commissioners to accept option 2, which increased Chowan's tax rate by effectively nine cents.

Commissioner Bill Gardner spoke next and apologized to his mother who was in the audience for his displaying bad manners in verbally chastising an elderly gentleman who spoke earlier on essentially a he said,

she said matter.

Commissioner Jerry Downum lost his cool when he yelled at Sams earlier saying "Where the heck were you when we had these meetings?" Commissioner Kenny Goodwin, before seconding the motion to accept Option 2A (Alligood had moved to accept option 2) said he was embarrassed by the behavior of the citizens in attendance inciting the ire

of many.

Cole, without any discussion from the commissioners or consideration of any citizen input, called for a vote. In a surprise to absolutely no one in the room, this group, as has been their custom for five years, voted 7-0 to approve. But this time they were all in lockstep in voice intonation and yelled "Yes" as if saying "Take that!"

The meeting never officially ended as most stood up yelling their disapproval for the arrogant political display just witnessed.

This was not the commissioners'

finest hour.

Bob Steinburg, a resident of Edenton, is chairman of the Chowan Republican Party