0
Bloodmobile Here Monday
The Red Cross Bloodmobile
will be at First Baptist Church
Monday from 12 noon until 5:30
p.m. for the annual Kings Moun
tain community visit.
Collection goal is 100 pints.
Mrs. Martha Scruggs, director
of the Bloodmobile, said the Red
Cross is in an emergency status
for O-negative and O-positive
blood and in a tight status for
B-positive and B-negative.
“We are asking all of the
citizens with those types of
blood to come, but we are in
need of every blood type,” Mrs.
Scruggs said.
»)
4 Huffman Airs Complaints,
But In Executive Session
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By GARY STEWART
Co-Editor
Kings Mountain commis
sioners, in a 4-3 vote decided by
Mayor John Henry Moss,
denied allowing a city employee
to air grievances in open meeting
Monday night, but following a
two-hour executive session gave
him a unanimous vote of sup
port.
Ted Huffman, supervisor of
the Public Works Department,
and his attorney, Andy Neisler,
tried to appear before the board
to answer charges that Huffman
had used city equipment and city
employees while he was con
structing a new home in the Obi
on Community.
Huffman said the charges had
been made by two employees
whom he had terminated nine
and 18 months ago and Neisler
appealed to the board to hear
Huffman's answer because
“street rumors” were being cir
culated.
During the executive session,
Huffman produced cancelled
checks and signed affidavits pro
ving to the board that city
employees who worked on his
new home did so after their city
workday was over.
After returning to open ses
sion, Mayor Moss told the
crowd, which included a large
number of Public Works Depart
ment employees who had come
to support Huffman, that the
board had “received statements
from Ted Huffman relative to
his concerns, after which the
board accepted his explanation
as information and the board
was unanimously satisfied.”
The board then voted
unanimously to accept Huff
man’s explanations.
Huffman, who has worked
with the city for three years, re
quested to be heard in open ses
sion, he said, because he had
been unable to air his grievances
through other procedures.
City Attorney George
Thomasson protested loudly
agaisnt Huffman doing so in
open meeting and told the board
that “the General Statutes of
North Carolina require person
nel matters be discussed in ex
ecutive session.”
Thomasson and Moss pointed
out that the proper procedures
for Huffman airing his
grievances would be either
through the personnel commit
tee, which consists of commis
sioners Humes Houston, Nor
man King and Jim Childers, or
in an executive session.
ACT Supports
Bobby Crawford
The board of directors of the
Cleveland County Association
of Taxpayers in a special
meeting Tuesday night in Shelby
voted unanimously to support
write-in candidate Bobby
Crawford in his appeal for a new
county commissioner election.
Crawford, who along with
Duran Johnson and John
Caveny Jr. barely lost a recount
recently, filed a petition in
Cleveland County Superior
Court Tuesday calling for a new
election.
Meantime, John Caveny Jr. of
Kings Mountain, who was
reportedly considering
withdrawing as a candidate if a
new election is ordered, said
after the meeting that “Last
night 1 was given facts that I was
not previously aware of and
some ideas 1 had not previously
considered. I am convinced that
my statement to the Shelby Dai
ly Star last week was premature
and 1 support the appeal.”
CX>RRECTION
A atory appacoring in lha
Thurt., Ian. 22 adition of tha
Harold concarning tha
raalgnolion of Ratr. Kannath
Gaorga as Dbactor of tha
Kings Mountain Program for
tha Aging contalnad a
aantanco which statad tha
Advisory Council votad
unanimously to raquast that
an amployaa of tha program
ba dlsmissad. Tha story
should hava said tha council
askad that tha amployaa not
contlnua in tha Aging Pro
gram.
Rav. Gaorga said this waak
thot "I am not In any way
daslrlng to go back os dirac-
tor or to contlnua in city
amploymant. My main con-
cam is for this ona statamant
to ba corractad bacausa tha
Advisory Council and tha
Dlractor of tha Program did
not raquast that anyossa ba
tarmlnatad from city amploy
mant
”1 hopa this claars oU mat-
tars and tha Kings Mountain
Aging Program contlnuas to
oparata for tha good of our
aldarly citlsans,” ha said.
The petition, which was
drawn up by Crawford’s at
torney Tom Kakassy of
Gastonia, asks the court to
review the decision of the state
elections board calling for a re
count rather than a new election
and asks for a new election.
The filing of the appeal will
block the taking of oaths for re
elected commissioners Jack
Palmer, Coleman Goforth and
Hugh Dover slated for Monday.
Petitioner alleges that the
defects in voting procedures, as
well as in the ballots employed in
the election of Nov. 4,1980, are
so substantial and are to such an
extent in violation of State
Statute, as to render the decision
and Order issued by the State
Board of Elections insufficient,
as a matter of law, to remedy the
substantial defects as alleged by
the petitioner. Specifically, peti
tioner complains of the following
defects:
•The machine and hand
ballots prepared by the
Cleveland County Board of Elec
tions were deficient in that
voters who wished to write in
the names of candidates for
County Commissioner were pro
vided insufficient space to do so,
in violation of G.S. 163-140 a.
•The voters who marked
straight tickets and then attemp
ted to write in the names of unaf-
filiated candidates, such as Mr.
Crawford, were denied the opi-
portunity by the tabulators to
have their votes counted;
paragraph 4 of the decision and
Order of the State Board of Elec
tions insured that this violation
of G5.163-70(a) was repeated in
the recounting of the ballots.
• Paragraph 7 of the decision
and Order of the State Board of
Elections specified that, “Where
a voter marked the straight
Democratic circle and also wrote
in some, but less than three,
names for the office of County
Commissioners, such ballots
shall not be counted for any of
the candidates whose names
were printed on the ballot or for
the candidate or candidates writ
ten in.” Petitioner alleges that
this provision, again, violates
G.S. 163-70(a).
Petitioner alleges that the
amount of votes disputed is suffi
cient to change the results of the
election in question.
“1 would like to air my
grievances here in public because
I have not been allowed to do so
at any other time,” Huffman
said.
Three commissioners - King,
Childers and Bill Grissom
-favored handling the matter in
open session. The other three
-Corbet Nicholson, Humes
Houston and Jim Dickey - voted
to go into executive session.
Mayor Moss then broke the tie
to go behind closed doors.
The board did, however, allow
Huffman and Neisler to sit in on
the executive session, during
which time the charges were
discussed candidly, according to
Neisler.
Neisler said he did not inter
pret the open meetings law to
mean that personnel matters
were “required” to be handled in
executive session, as Thomasson
said.
‘The open meetings law says
they may be handled in ex
ecutive session, but doesn’t say
they have to be,” Neisler said.
“But,” he added, “it was pro
bably better. We wanted to have
it out in the open, but in ex
ecutive session we could be more
candid. It was a lot easier to
carry on a discussion.”
Huffman and Neisler returned
from executive session with big
smiles on their faces, indicating
they were well-pleased with
what went on.
Huffman- later gave tHe
following reasons for requesting
to be heard by the board:
“Serious charges and accusa
tions have been surfacing for the
past seeral weeks concerning my
integrity and honesty. Most of
these charges were being
brought about by former
employees of the city, who had
previously been terminated for
various reasons.
“In turn, two of the commis
sioners were following up on
these charges, with the
assistance of the Mayor, without
having confronted me at any
time with any of the charges.
‘This is why I came to the
board of commissioners meeting
seeking an open meeting ... to
produce evidence that I was not
guilty of any of the allegations.
However, the open meeting did
not come about because of the
Mayor ctisting the deciding vote
to go into executive session.
“During the executive session,
I produced all the necessary
documentation to convince all
board members that I was not
guilty of the aforementioned
allegations.
“I am completely satisfied
with the way the matter was
handled and I will continue to
work with all board members
and the mayor to perform my
job to the best of my ability.”
Ted Huffman, right, Andy Neisler try to air grievances in public, but City
Attorney, George Thomasson, left, protests ...
Without Proper Receipt,
KM Woman Is Evicted
Rv GARY STEWART
CoEdltor
Cleveland County deputies,
acting on a court order, Wednes
day morning evicted tram Pine
Manor Apartments a* Kings
Mountain woman who claims
her rent was paid up through.
January, but to a former
manager who is no longer
employed by U.S. Shelter of
Greenville, S.C., which manages
the 100-unit complex.
Deannier Epps, who had been
living in the government-
subsi^zed apartment for two
years, said several other tenants
had done the same, but were also
facing eviction.
Mrs. Epps, who has four
children and a niece living with
her, produced a cash register-
typte receipt for $300, which was
signed by the former manager,
but included no indication of
what the $300 was spent for.
Another tenant, Terry
Feemster, claims she paid the ex
manager $209 for two months
rent and utilities, and later paid
the same amount to avoid evic
tion.
Virginia Sims, current
manager, refused to answer
questions concerning the evic
tions. But attached to her office
wall was a two by three feet
postered copy of the official
receipt form, which stated the
tenants must have an official
receipt that ‘looks like this.”
Gary Hediger, vice president
if
Terry Feemster, left, Deannier Epps
of U.S. Shelter, said his company
is investigating the allegations
against the former manager and
that auditors and company of
ficials were at Pine Manor
Wednesday to hear any com
plaints.
Hediger said one teannt had
produced a receipt and was
credited with paying the rent.
Twenty others, he said, could
Belongings put outside apartment
not produce a valid receipt and
paid.
“We are more than happy to
let them stay if they produce the
receipts,” he said. “We want
them there because it’s costly to
us to evict them.
“We manage propeny all over
the country, and this is not the
first time something like this has
happened,” he added. “That’s
why we put the sign up there, so
everybody can see it.
Mrs. Epps and others earlier
talked to local magistrate Jim
Dickey to see what could be
done about their problem, and
Dickey suggested they report it
to the police department.
Robert Dodge, detective with
the Kings Mountain PD, also
talked with several tenants, but
said he has not received any
complaints from the manage
ment of Pine Manor.
‘The state won’t extradite the
man for a misdemeanor,” Dickey
said. “And 1 won’t issue a war
rant for a felony unless it has
been investigated.”
The General Statutes of the
State of North Carolina defines
both larceny by an employee
(GS 14-74) and embezzlement of
property received by virtue of of
fice or employment (GS 14-90)
as felonies.
Both Dickey and Dodge said
the receipts shown them were
written on adding machine-type
paper and did not indicate what
the money was paid for.