The lack of progress in Mount Olive during his first term as mayor was not his fault but was intentional on the part of the board to make him look bad, Mayor Jerome Newton said during a surprise speech at last Monday’s town board meeting.
Before the public forum portion of the meeting, Newton deviated from the official agenda and said he wanted “to go over a few things” for new commissioners and citizens to ensure there was “clarity” going into the new year.
He began his second term as mayor in December after running for reelection unopposed.
Appearing to read from a prepared statement, Newton began by explaining how the town’s form of government didn’t allow its mayor to vote on issues brought before the board.
“The commissioners have overall operative power over the town,” he said.
He went on to say certain commissioners, none of whom he named, had been conspiring against him from the moment his victory was announced to make sure nothing would be accomplished while he was in office.
He said one commissioner told him as soon as election results were in: “You don’t have our support. We don’t trust you. We don’t respect you.”
“So what you have today in Mount Olive is because no success was supposed to take place during my tenure as mayor,” Newton said. “There was intent to make me appear incompetent to ensure I would not be reelected.”
He said the last two years were challenging, “not because I did not have a plan, not because things were not in place, but because initially the mayor did not have the support of anyone on the board or the staff – not commissioners, not the town manager, not the town attorney, not even the town clerk,” he said. “In other words things were blocked.”
Five of those people were present: Mayor Pro Tem Delreese Simmons, Commissioner Vicky Darden, Town Attorney Carroll Turner, Interim Town Manager Glenn Holland and Town Clerk Sherry Davis.
None of them responded to the mayor’s remarks during the meeting, but Turner looked surprised when his name was mentioned and Davis glanced in the mayor’s direction after he mentioned her role.
Newton made several additional statements as he continued describing his view of his first term:
“Some of the commissioners met behind closed doors to strategize.”
“The town manager told department heads and staff not to communicate with me.”
“The town attorney hid things from me.”
“No matter what my intent was to move this town forward, it was not going to happen while I was in the chair as mayor.”
“I hope there will be no more of the underhandedness, the shadiness or the sabotage ….”
Newton concluded by thanking those who “saw through the smokescreen” and voted for him.
“As we move forward, I ask we move forward together,” he said.
At the end, some audience members applauded.
Newton’s latest speech contradicted comments he made at the December board meeting when he said: “We no longer have the luxury of pointing fingers on past administrations because we are it. What happened in the past happened in the past.”
In telephone interviews, current board members’ reactions to the mayor’s comments varied, but all seemed hopeful his remarks would close the door once and for all on how things were done in the past so they can focus on doing what’s best for Mount Olive’s future.
Commissioner Darden said she didn’t know beforehand Newton had planned to address the board and audience as he did but added: “Sometimes people just need to get something off their chest and let others know what they’re feeling.”
Simmons was caught off guard.
“I was shocked,” he said when asked if he was surprised by the mayor’s comments. “Maybe he was wrong in the way he presented it, but when you’re tired, you’re tired.”
“I think it would have been more beneficial if he had given the public a list of the initiatives he tried working on,” newly elected Commissioner Gena Messer-Knode said. As an elected official the mayor should have reported any secret meetings he was aware of because those would have violated the state’s open meetings law, she added.
Commissioner Harlie Carmichael was not on the board last term either, but said he’d been aware of some of the things Newton claimed to have experienced.
“I hope one day we can put these things behind us and move forward,” he said.
Newly elected Commissioner C.J. Weaver’s thoughts were similar: “Obviously he felt he needed to say it. I’m glad he did, and I hope now we can move forward.”
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