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Gene White addresses City Council
Developer says Gene White
had vendetta against him
The city's running of water
lines to Downing Street
Subdivision and reimbursement
of money to the developer drew
sharp criticism from former city
hite
TAK ADA
and developer Jim Lybrand.
Lybrand said after the meet-
ing White. had a vendetta
against him.
"You brow beat me into mak-
ing payments which were im-
proper,” White told City
Councilmen Rick Murphrey and
Dean Spears, who promptly de-
nied the accusations.
Murphrey said Council voted
unanimously in January 1994 to
run the water line the route that
White suggested after a meeting
they attended with White, Jim
Lybrand and then City Manager
George Wood soon after the
two commissioners took office
in 1993.
"We thought taking a short
cut would save the city money
and George thought so too,"
said Murphrey.
"This is really a moot point
because the board took action
on the request."
White said he took the inci-
dent as a "screaming personal
attack” because he refused to do
something that was a violation
of sub-division regulations.
"Clean it up anyway you wish
but it was wrong," he said to a
packed house at Tuesday night's
Council meeting.
"You insisted on making the
payments and you insisted that I
agree with the illegal pay-
ments."
We're not talking politics
here."
Spears, angry at the insinua-
tions by White of personal at-
tacks against him, said "I ran
for Council because money was
being spent improperl i
n"
Spears.
‘This is just another example
of why we have a credibility
problem now," said White who
said that sub-division ordi-
nances had been mandated
since 1988.
White said at stake was the
allocation of 50 percent of cost
for instaliation of water/ sewer
lines outside and inside the city
to the developer when the poli-
cy is that the developer pay 100
percent of the cost of lines run
outside the city limits.
White said that the commis-
sioners questioned the policy if
the city limits were "nearby" as
in the case of the Downing
Street development near the
Country Club.
White maintains that costs of
water/sewer construction must
be fair to all and that previous
developers wanted the same
concessions and had not re-
ceived them.
White said Council took ac-
tion on January 25, 1994 on a
motion by Murphrey, second-
ed by Councilman Jerry White
to reimburse Lybrand for 50
percent of the total cost of the
project and portion of line in-
side and outside the city limits.
White asked Council mem-
bers if they understood the situ-
ation and if they wanted to re-
scind their action.
See White, 2-A
A proposal to limit terms of
office of city officials to two
years effective with the upcom-
ing city election in October was
proposed Tuesday to City
Council by retired city planning
director Gene White.
Before the marathon meeting
was over at almost 1 a.m.
‘Wednesday, White had fired off
several blasts at Councilmen
Rick Murphrey, Ralph
Grindstaff and Dean Spears,
calling for the resignations of
Spears and Murphrey for al-
leged violations of the public
trust, and laid the blame for the
city's money woes at the feet of
City Council which he said had
lost credibility and confidence”
of the citizens.
He also said he would circu-
late a petition demanding that
city officials get the billing sys-
tem in shape, stop conflicts of
3 by, SON vl) 5
”
interest and favors, get employ-
ees out of politics, change audi-
tors and make no utility adjust-
‘ments including field estimates
unless they are made by
Council in open session.
White said that 413 signa-
tures of registered voters is re-
quired for a petition to modify
the present form of government
in which the mayor and seven
council members serve four
year terms.
Kings Mountain has a total of
4,130 registered voters and state
statutes require 10 percent or
413 petitioners to request the
change.
"I have checked with the
North Carolina League of
Municipalities on the legal pro-
cess and if this is what Kings
Mountain citizens want I feel
the process can be completed in
See Terms, 2-A
Terms limits proposed
Members accused of conflict of interest
First term councilmen Rick
Murphrey and Dean Spears
were accused of conflict of in-
terest by former City Planning
Director Gene White Tuesday
night and both vehemently de-
nied it.
White said that both commis-
sioners should abstain from vot-
ing in Council meetings or utili-
ty meetings on discussions that
involve Spectrum Dyed Yarns,
the city's largest water user of
which Murphrey is Vice-
President of Sales, and Ruppe
Hosiery of which White
charged Spears held stock in
the company.
Spears said he sold his stock
on November 30, 1978 in
Ruppe, Dixon and Spears which
operated in the old Lambeth
Rope building on Phifer Road
for 12 years in the 1970's.
White claimed Murphrey
should have also excused him-
self from the utility committee
and board meetings when dis-
cussions began about raising
water rates and making conces-
sions about gas rates and Spears
should have excused himself as
a voting member of the utility
committee when discussions
arose about errors in under-
billing of Ruppe and seven oth-
er customers for electricity
charges.
"Why are we billing Ruppe?"
White quoted Spears from his
city board meeting notes.
See Conflict, 2-A
Huge crowd attends Tuesday night's meeting of Kings Mountain City Council
Council urged to keep
City auditor Darrell Keller,
backed by Craig Barfield and
Vance Holleman of the state
treasurer's office and City
Manager Chuck Nance, urged
Kings Mountain City Council to
stick with the 1994-95 city bud-
get and not roll back rates and
cut city taxes as Mayor Scott
Neisler pushed.
And representatives of the
Local Government Commission
said the recent downgrade by
bond an security raters is evi-
dence that the city is in the
worst financial condition in 40
years.
"Focus on reality and not
speculation and stop tearing the
city apart with politics," said
Keller who challenged the may-
or to be a cheerleader and not a
divider.
Jim Rennirt of Eaton Corporation, City of Kings Mountain Water/Wastewater Director Walt Ollis,
making presentation, Mike Killian of Motor Panels, City Pretreatment Director Ronnie Tignor, making
presentation, and Bill Thompson of Polygram Manufacturing & Distributing, left to right, are pictured at
the first annual industry appreciation breakfast hosted by the city Tuesday.
"It's going to take two to
three years of a tight conserva-
tive budget and cutting of
spending to come out of this se-
rious financial condition which
did not happen over night," said
Keller.
Barfield agreed with Keller's
assessment and said Kings
* Mountain's money problems
started in 1989-90 when City
Council cut the tax rate from 50
to 38 cents per $100 valuation.
"This is a serious situation,"
said Barfield. "We were here in
May and we are back here
tonight.
"Usually we like to handle
these problems by mail."
Barfield applauded the efforts
of the city in cutting expendi-
tures. ;.
Holleman said the city took a
Industries
Three Kings Mountain indus-
tries - Motor Panels, PMDC and
Eaton Corporation - were hon-
ored Tuesday by the City of
Kings Mountain with plaques
for complying with all water
pretreatment regulations man-
dated by the Environmental
Protection Agency and the state.
Seven other industries -
Anvil Knitwear, Clevemont,
Spectrum, Mauney Hosiery,
Kings Plush, Buckeye
Anodizing & Stamping and Dye
Masters were honored with cer-
tificates after no reportable sig-
nificant non-compliance was
noted for four consecutive re-
porting periods.
Forty-seven representatives
of local industry attended the
first annual appreciation break-
fast at Holiday Inn. Industry
picked up the tab.
Ollis pointed to industry on
step toward better financial
health by upping user fees and
taxes and instituting tighter
budgetary controls.
But Mayor Scott Neisler said
funds were haphazardly mis-
handled. Councilman Rick
Murphrey immediately objected
to his remarks.
"Have you seen my memo-
randum to Council on my pro-
posal to get the 8 percent back
into the general fund?" asked
Neisler of Holleman and
Barfield.
The mayor pushed the two
visitors for responses to five
pages of questions but both said
they needed more information
and would be happy to take the
material back to Raleigh with
them.
"I feel like I'm on trial here,"
P&Z Board
delays plan
A proposal from W. D. Kerns
Jr. to build nine units of patio
homes on Williams Street will
be presented again to the Kings
Mountain Planning Board at the
March meeting, according to
the developers.
Thursday night the Planning
Board took no action on the re-
quest, indicating that specific
in the sketch plan that Kerns
and Ronnie Whetstine present-
ed for consideration.
Kerns said the delay will hold
up plans for the proposed devel-
opment which would include
upscale, all brick single family
homes from 1500 to 1600
square feet plpns attached
garages.
See Kerns, 2-A
budget
said Barclay.
"I feel like I'm only getting
part of the picture from your
questions," said Holleman.
"You have been seeing only
part of the picture," said
Neisler.
"You are talking maybe
someday that you'll have money
in city coffers but at June 30
you had no cash," said Barclay.
"I see nothing to be overly
optimistic about," said
Holleman.
Barclay said the city's proper-
ty tax is way below that of other
towns with the average in ex-
cess of 47 cents per $100. Kings
Mountain's tax rate is 36 cents
per $100 valuation.
Commissioner
See Budget, 2-A
Norma
cited for good record
the KM water/sewer system as
diversified - from producers of
truck bodies and transmissions
to airplane fabric yarns for fa-
mous designers to labels, bat-
tery equipment manufacturing,
machinery rebuilding. CD
manufacturing, finished weav-
ing apparel, boilers, hydraulic
components, magnetic convey-
ors and other military applica-
tions.
Eaton Corporation installed
its second generation treatment
system. Water was processed
off site and the permitted dis-
charge reduced to an average of
3.600 gallons per day. a 85.6
percent reduction in the original
permit. PMDC's usage dropped
from 25.000 gallons per day.
permitted. to 2300 gallons every
other day through what Ollis
termed a "terrific recycling pro-
gram’, squeezing every drop
from a gallon of water from the
process.
Motor Panels complied with
all categorical requirements.
Parameters each month were
well below permitted alloca-
tons.
Kings Plush began a major
cleanup on its own. A portable
belt press was used to clean out
a lagoon and a diffused air sys-
tem was installed.
A heat recovery system and
new more efficient numeric
dyeing machines were installed
at Mauney Hosiery. A rotary
filtering system removes solids
from discharge.
Buckeye Anodizing recycles
water. Orders and production
have increased.
Combustion Engineering and
Commercial Intertech were
leaders in waste control.
A
see Industr, AA
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