THE KENLY CONTROVERSY:
IS IT RACISM?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
It’s been several weeks now since the white police chief of 21 years, four of his full-time officers (white), and two town clerks in the racially-diverse Johnston County town of Kenly - population approximately 2,000 - handed in their resignations, citing “a hostile work environment” since the hiring of a new Black Town manager. The town attorney is supposed to deliver a report by the end of the month to the Kenly Town Council as to why the resignations occurred, and who was responsible.
An outside law firm is conducting the investigation for that report.
In the meantime last Monday night before a packed audience of concerned residents and the Town manager looking on, the Kenly Town Council decided to form a committee to hire a new police chief, and rebuild its police department.
The mass resignations have made national news, something Kenly town business leaders, let alone its elected council, feel they have to quash soon if they are to attract new industry, jobs and residents to the area.
Kenly, which is 35 miles southeast of Raleigh, has a council-manager form of municipal government. The town’s population is 48 % white, 34% Black. The town council recently issued a proclamation joining the municipalities across the state and nation in recognizing June 18th as “Juneteenth.”
Was the reason for what happened racism, sexism, a long overdue official accountability, or a little bit of all three?
According to media reports, the Kenly Town Council - which has at least two Black members on it - unanimously decided to hire Justine Jones, who is Black, as the new town manager back in May from among 30 candidates after a nationwide search.
She officially started her job June 2nd.
A quick look at Ms. Jones’ background and qualifications, as posted on the town of Kenly’s website, suggests that along with two Master ’s
degrees, she certainly has the requisite experience to run the town government , especially having worked at various positions in local governments in Minnesota, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina over the past 16 years.
Has there been a wrinkle in Ms. Jones’ work experience?
According to published reports, Jones sued her previous employer in Richland County, S.C. for gender and racial discrimination after she was terminated there as manager of research in March 2015. That lawsuit was later voluntarily dismissed, reports state.
Still, a Kenly press release stated, “Jones was selected during the most recent recruitment process conducted by Triangle J Council of Governments….Her experiences and background have thoroughly prepared her for her new role as Town Manager for Kenly.”
For her part, Jones was looking forward to serving Kenly.
“I am honored that the Council has entrusted me with the responsibility of being Kenly’s next manager,” stated Jones in the Kenly press release. “Kenly’s diversity and dynamic potential offers intriguing challenges and a promising future of growth and prosperity that I am excited to become a part of. I welcome the challenge of overseeing the Town’s operations and I am looking forward to working with the Mayor, Town Council, and the talented and committed Staff of Kenly. In this short time, I have learned I will be joining a dedicated Team that possesses an extensive understanding of Kenly’s services. Together we will continue providing excellent services to our community.”
So what went wrong? The town of Kenly seemed happy with Justine Jones, and she seemed excited to be working for them?
For all of the Kenly town employees who resigned July 20th, their last day on the job was August 2nd. The entire Kenly Police Dept. handed in its papers, and two Johnston County deputies have taken up the slack.
One interesting fact that stands out is that, according to published reports, all of the resignation letters cited an alleged “hostile work environment,” beginning with Manager Justine Jones’ hiring, raising the question of what transpired between Jones, the Kenly police chief, four of his officers and two administrators.
“I have enjoyed my time working at Kenly Police Department and had fully intended to remain employed with the town, but unfortunately decisions are being made which make me question what the future will hold for all town employees,”wrote former Chief Josh Gibson in his letter. Gibson later confirmed that he was referring to Jones as the source of the “unfortunate decisions.”
Gibson also reportedly wrote in a Facebook post, “"the new [town manager] has created an environment I do not feel we can perform our duties and services to the community." Gibson later deleted that post, but later told WRAL-TV that he would return to the Kenly police force if Justine Jones were dismissed.
Gibson also appeared on Fox News “The Ingraham Angle,” and, with his attorney present, complained to the conservative host Laura Ingraham that Manager Jones was instituting new restrictive rules that he had a problem complying with.
“She came in, first of all, to start giving us tasks and all these projects all the time. And unfortunately, we are – we only have five officers and I was working double shifts at the time to try to keep up officer safety and be there with the officers in case something happened,” said Gibson, who claimed the manager wrote him up for being late if he wasn’t sitting at his desk, among other things “She wrote me up for going to businesses and talking with businesses. She wrote me up for talking with council members I’ve known for 20 years,” Gibson opined.
Some Black residents have told CNN that the Kenly police force has a history of harassing Black residents, and that Chief Gibson and his officers didn’t like being told what to do by what they perceived to be an "angry" Black female boss.
Reportedly, the previous Kenly Black town manager as a Black male who had to leave for an alleged personal difficulty..
Jones has met with the Town Council behind closed doors for several hours, but since then, nothing has come of it publicly.
After a recent closed door emergency meeting of the Kenly Town Council, residents split for and against the new town manager, with some saying that she is only doing the job she was hired to do, while others opined that the resigned officers were like “family.”
Some white Kenly residents even told local television stations that Jones “doesn’t like police.”
The Kenly Town Council meets every second Monday of each month, which would
place the next regular meeting on September 12th. However, because of the investigative report,
a special emergency meeting could be called sooner.
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LAWSUIT TO ALLOW
UNAFFILIATED VOTERS TO
SERVE STATE ELECTION BOARD
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Fact - as of July 30, 2022, there are 2.5 million unaffiliated voters in North Carolina, more registered voters than Democrat or Republican.
Fact - there are no members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) who are registered unaffiliated, and never have been. As is custom, whichever political party wins the governor’s race, gets to appoint three of its party’s members to the five - member board.
Historically, that’s been either Democrat or Republican.
That fact is ensconced in North Carolina law, which bars anyone who is not a member of either party from serving.
Fact - a lawsuit was filed by Common Cause NC, a nonprofit advocacy group, on August 5th against House Speaker Tim Moore and NC Senate Pro tem Phil Berger to allow unaffiliated NC voters to serve on the five-member state elections board.
Why? Because, the lawsuit states, unaffiliated voters constitutionally are North Carolina citizens too, and deserve to have more influence on the state elections process.
The fact that there are more of them registered to vote than either Democrats or Republicans now means given any upcoming elections, unaffiliateds will decide who will serve office on the local county and state levels.
“The state law barring plaintiffs and all other unaffiliated voters from serving on the State Board serves no public or valid purpose but instead is a means to entrench the Democratic and Republican political parties in power and give them exclusive control over the supervision, management, and administration of the elections system.”
The lawsuit maintains that that is unconstitutional.
Given how more and more young people are becoming politically independent of either the Democratic or Republican parties because they see the deep political divisions as being polarizing to establishing efficient government, the lawsuit maintains that if an independent candidate were to win the governorship one day, he or she, by law, would not be allowed to appoint members to the NCSBE.
“This law is destructive of our democracy because it undermines citizens’ confidence in the elections system,” the lawsuit maintains. “Limiting service on the State Board to members of the Democratic and Republican parties encourages citizens to believe that election officials are chosen to look out for their parties’ interests rather than see that elections are conducted fairly for all.”
The Common Cause NC lawsuit has individual North Carolina registered voters who are unaffiliated.
“The individual plaintiffs are voters who are qualified and desire to serve on the State Board and are barred from serving on the Board because of their status as unaffiliated voters, in violation of their constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of association and equal protection,” the lawsuit says.
“It is crucial to the American system of government that the public have confidence in the fairness and nonpartisan administration of election, the suit continued.
As of press time Monday there has been no response to the lawsuit from either House Speaker Moore or Senate Leader Berger.
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