2007: Back to the future (2)

My second local highlight for 2007 is by far my favorite story of the year.
Yes, it's our own local "family values" republican turned perverted hypocrite: Mr. Coy Privette.

On July 19th, Former state legislator Coy C. Privette, a Cabarrus County commissioner and Christian activist, was arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution.

Privette, 74, was led to the Rowan County magistrate's office. He was charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution. Privette on two occasions allegedly paid the prostitute, Tiffany Summers, with checks and then reported those checks as stolen, officials said.

When Privette had to appear in Court I was right there with him.
His attorney entered a guilty plea. Not surprising if you heard all the evidence the Rowan County DA had:

Mr. Privette had rented a room in 2 motels under his own name. Closed circuit camera surveillance in those motels showed Privette and Summers entering the premises. Summers had taken pictures of Privette with her Camera cellphone, which she handed over to police. Summers then also agreed to make some phone calls to Privette which were recorded.

Rowan County district attorney Bill Kenerly agreed to defer prosecution which means if Privette meets the conditions of the court orders, the charges against him will be dismissed. Those conditions include supervised probation for the next year, completing 48 hours of community service, which I'm not sure he's done yet, paying court fees and continuing psychological counseling (I'm sure he needs it).

The charges Privette was convicted of were misdemeanors and according to state law you can't force a County Commissioner to resign after being convicted of a misdemeanor.
Why Privette was never prosecuted for allegedly falsely reporting some of his checks stolen, which is a felony, is a question you have to ask his fellow republican Cabarrus County District Attorney Roxann Vaneekhoven. The answer might be important, because if Privette was convicted of a felony he would automatically lose his seat on the County Commission. The only excuses I've heard so far on why Privette wasn't prosecuted for a felony basically come down to "we have too much work to do" and "we have so little time that we want to concentrate on prosecuting more serious crimes".

It's pretty funny to look back at some of the political views Privette in the past always claimed to have and then look at this prostitution conviction. When he was still an NC State legislator for example, he sponsored legislation to require schools to teach sexual abstinence and the sanctity of marriage.
Can you say HYPOCRITE?

At first Privette blatantly refused to resign as a County Commissioner, stating that:

"I realize the mistake I made in my private life affects my reputation. This mistake has been dealt with, and I am ready to move forward."

I wonder if he was also "ready to move on" when the whole Clinton-Lewinsky scandal broke?

But thanks to the ever increasing public pressure, of which I, and about 100 other people, was a small part of, and the continued press attention, Privette finally caved in and announced at the September County Commissioner meeting that he would resign. At the same meeting he also had the balls to say the following:

"All Republicans talk about being conservative," Privette said. "But there's a difference between talking the talk and walking the walk."

Apparently Mr. Privette needs to listen to his own words every now and then.

Why, 4 months after he announced his resignation, Privette is still very comfortably sitting in his County Commissioner seat, is a very good question which I'll try to answer in an upcoming post on this very blog.

Heck, these days you apparently can't even publicly say anymore that what Privette did was wrong. Hopefully that'll change in 2008.

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What a bunch of chickens!

They chickened out!
In an unbelievable example of "back room politics", the Cabarrus County Commissioners decided tonight to indefinitely table a resolution to censure their fellow Commissioner Coy Privette.It was clear to everyone attending that this was a deal that they arranged and talked about before tonight. Even some TV reporters were convinced this was premeditated and told me so.

Not even 2 minutes into discussing the resolution to censure Privette, which was drawn up by Commissioners Jay White and Grace Mynatt, Jay White himself made a motion to table the issue. All the other commissioners agreed within 10 seconds, without even blinking. It was an astounding spectacle to behold.

What made them change their minds???
How can you go from having the County Attorney look into ways of having Privette kicked of the board to not even want to talk about a resolution that basically would only tell Privette he's been a bad boy???
Why can't we tell a politician that hiring a prostitute 6 times is not exactly a kosher thing to do, especially not if your whole political career is built on supposedly being an example of "high morals"?

I strongly believe that the people of Cabarrus County deserve an explanation from the County Commission. Why did you do this? Why sweep this under the rug???

The only reason I can come up with is that the Executive Committee of the Cabarrus Republican Party got together with their Commissioners and asked them not to censure Privette in a desperate attempt to keep their Party together. If there's another explanation, I would love to hear it.

It is clear that a majority of the people of our County do not want Privette on the board any longer. Any sane person knows this and the County Commissioners surely know this too.

The County Commission wants this issue to disappear, never to be spoken of again. I can assure you the complete opposite of that will happen. Stay tuned.


P.S.: For anyone interested, this was the complete text of the proposed resolution:

On December 4 2006 Coy Clarence Privette took the oath of County Commissioner pursuant tothe laws of North Carolina to faithfully execute the Office of County Commissioner implicit inthat oath is the obligation that he set an example of high moral standards and conduct himself in a manner that fosters respect for the truth.

Whereas Mr Privette while county commissioner of Cabarrus County engaged in an
inappropriate relationship with a prostitute in a Salisbury hotel room on six occasions from May 4 through June 25 2007;

Whereas Mr Privette while County Commissioner of Cabarrus County was charged and
arrested on July 19 2007 with six counts of aiding and abetting in prostitution;

Whereas Mr Privette while County Commissioner of Cabarrus County plead guilty on August 22 2007 to six misdemeanor counts of aiding and abetting in prostitution;

Whereas Mr Privette's conduct in this matter is unacceptable for a County Commissioner of Cabarrus County, demeans the office of County Commissioner and disrespects the laws of the land which he swore to uphold;

Whereas Coy Clarence Privette through his conduct in this matter has violated the trust of thepeople of Cabarrus County;

Whereas future generations must know that such behavior is not only unacceptable but also impinges on the integrity trust and respect of the Board of County Commissioners;

Therefore be it resolved that:

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners does hereby censure Coy Clarence Privette
County Commissioner of Cabarrus County and does condemn his wrongful conduct in the
strongest terms;

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners recognizes the historic gravity of this resolution and trusts and urges that future Cabarrus County Boards of Commissioners will recognize the importance of allowing this statement of censure and condemnation to remain intact for all time;and

Be it further resolved that:

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners now moves on to other matters of significance to the people of Cabarrus County for the benefit of the people of Cabarrus County.

Nice resolution! Unfortunately it has now landed in the waste basket.

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Tomorrow the gloves are coming off.

This Monday evening our County Commissioners are having their, usually very entertaining, public get together again. It promises to be a doozy.

One thing the Commissioners will consider is a resolution to "censure" their fellow Commissioner Coy Privette.

I'm sure I don't need to repeat the whole Coy Privette saga, which started with him hiring a prostitute 6 times. There are plenty of posts on here that will tell you the whole story in detail.

"Censuring" Privette is basically the same as publicly reprimanding him. It's like giving him a slap on the hand, without any legal effect.
It is pretty much the only action Commissioners can take since there is no legal way to remove another Commissioner from the board for being convicted of a misdemeanor, which "aiding and abetting prostitution" 6 times is considered to be.
Some highlights of the proposed censure resolution are:

Mr Privette's conduct in this matter is unacceptable for a County Commissioner of Cabarrus County, demeans the office of County Commissioner, and disrespects the laws of the land which he swore to uphold.

...violated the trust of the people of Cabarrus County.

Future generations must know that such behavior is not only unacceptable but also impinges on the integrity trust and respect of the Board of County Commissioners.

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners does hereby censure Coy Clarence Privette County Commissioner of Cabarrus County and does condemn his wrongful conduct in the strongest terms.

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners recognizes the historic gravity of this resolution and trusts and urges that future Cabarrus County Boards of Commissioners will recognize the importance of allowing this statement of censure and condemnation to remain intact for all time.

Ouch!
Mr. Privette has already announced that if his fellow Commissioners censure him, he "will have a lot to say", so this meeting promises to be very entertaining.
Keep also in mind that Privette announced 2 months ago that he was resigning, if he got to handpick his successor and if his house got sold. Problem is, until today, there has never been a "for sale" sign posted on His lawn and the Cabarrus GOP refuses to look for a successor until Privette leaves his post.
Trust me folks, Coy isn't going anywhere for quite some time and until he does these Commissioner meetings are some of the best entertainment you can watch on TV.

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Coy Privette isn't resigning (yet), seems to blame his wife.

I had a blast at the County Commissioner meeting last night. It was hard not to laugh out loud and at one point I did.
The antics of Coy Privette are getting more and more ridiculous. All the other Commissioners really can't stand him anymore and it shows. At one point Commissioner White accused Privette of not being able to read and there were a lot of "testy" exchanges between Commissioner Carruth and Privette.

The item on the agenda that dealt directly with Coy Privette was a "report by the County Attorney, Richard Koch, on possible actions with regard to Commissioner Privette". Richard Koch told the commissioners their legal ability to take action against Privette, such as restricting his participation on committees, was limited.
Koch said any move to curtail Privette’s activities as a commissioner would probably be overturned if challenged in court.
However, They could "censure" him, which is basically an official reprimand.

Commissioner White then made a motion to publicly censure Coy Privette, stating “I’ve heard judges say one time is a mistake, two times is a pattern,” he then added “Six times is a history.” (You will remember that Privette was convicted of 6 counts of "aiding and abetting prostitution".)
County Attorney Koch suggested that such a resolution should be drafted in advance of the vote being taken. All the Commissioners agreed with this and so the censure resolution is to come before the board next month.

Privette has stated he would resign his seat when a replacement is named, and only after his house in Kannapolis is sold. He's said moving away is the only reason he would leave the board and his possible resignation wouldn't have anything to do with his legal troubles. *cough* liar *cough*

The problem is that it's pretty hard to sell your house if isn't for sale at all. I drove by there again today and there is still no "for sale" sign on his lawn and his house isn't listed on any Realtor website. When asked about this by reporters yesterday, I heard Mr. Privette explain that his wife doesn't want to have any people in their house until it is in "tip-top shape" and that "there were painters over there today".
Apparently it took Mr. Privette a month to be able to hire painters.
Of course while i drove by his house I also didn't see any painters, nor any vehicle in the driveway. It certainly doesn't look like there is anyone at work in that house and from the outside it looks in perfect shape to be sold.
When asked by a Charlotte Observer reporter when his house would be ready for the market, he answered, "I don't have the slightest idea."

When it comes to finding a successor, Mr. Privette is in a complete stalemate with the Executive Committee of the Cabarrus County Republican Party, because Privette doesn't want to resign until a successor that he likes is chosen, while according to state laws the Republican Party can't search for a successor until there is a vacancy on the board.
Privette said that Robert Freeman, a previous member and chairman of the Board of Commissioners, would be his first choice as a successor. It figures that Mr. Privette would say that since Mr. Freeman has always been in the back pocket of Privette and I'm sure Coy would love to have a puppet that he could control on the Board of Commissioners.

Regarding the censure resolution to be presented next month, Privette told a Salisbury Post reporter during a recess at Monday's meeting that he wanted to see what it contained.
"They might say something favorable about me," Privette said.
I think Mr. Privette will be sorely disappointed.

So next month's Commissioner meeting promises to be one filled with fireworks.
Keep the evening of November 19 free on your calendar, I might need you to be there ;-)

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The next chapter in the Privette soap: tomorrow!

As a kid I used to watch "Dallas" on TV with my parents.
I must say that these days Coy Privette outperforms Dallas By far.
From refusing to resign as commissioner after hiring a prostitute 6 times, to announcing he will resign after all, to basically saying he will only resign if he can handpick his successor, to saying he will resign after his house will get sold while his house isn't even for sale, this soap keeps going on and on.
I wholeheartedly invite you to join me at the County Commissioner meeting tomorrow, because this is the best live entertainment you can see and it's totally free!

The meeting starts at 6.30 in the County Governmental building on Church Street in Concord. You can click here to see a map and get directions.

You might recall the last chapter in the Coy soap as i reported about it in an earlier post.
As far as I know the story hasn't really evolved much since then, although I'm sure there have been a lot of discussions going on behind closed doors. Basically, Privette refuses to resign until he agrees with whoever succeeds him, while the Executive Committee of the Republican party (who by law needs to appoint the successor) refuses to discuss any successors until Privette resigns.
To turn up the pressure on Privette, his colleague commissioners have asked the County Attorney to make report on how they can limit Privette’s role as representative of the board and the county. They will receive that report tomorrow and then decide on further actions.
Knowing Privette a little by now, I'm sure he'll pull another surprise out off his hat.

Speaking of soaps, there's another one on the program for tomorrow. Commissioners will also review a “final” (we've heard that before) compromise proposed for the controversial 480-bed downtown jail housing unit. Commissioner Grace Mynatt has worked with local residents, who filed a lawsuit against the City of Concord for granting the county a conditional use permit to build the jail, to find a redesign that could meet current jail space needs, but also end the lawsuit.

Other important items on the County Commissioner meeting agenda tomorrow are:

* Commissioners will consider beginning the process to issue up to $145 million in certificate of participation bonds (COPs) in January to address major school construction funding.

* Commissioners agreed to partner with Kannapolis and contribute up to $168.4 million in taxes for 20 years from a district surrounding the campus to pay off bonds for community improvements needed for the campus’ success.
Commissioners want to see if the county’s contributions to the bonds may begin to decline once Kannapolis sees revenue from campus taxes.

You can find the complete agenda for tomorrow's meeting on the Cabarrus County website.

It promises to be an exciting meeting tomorrow. I'll see you there.

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The Privette circus is keeping its tent firmly pitched.

You might recall that Coy Privette last week announced his intent to resign as Cabarrus County Commissioner. It turns out that you're a fool if you believed him. Of course you're a fool if you ever believed him before, but I digress.
You see, the key word in his statement back then was "intent".
What it comes down to is that Mr. Privette will only resign if he gets to hand-pick his successor and if his home in Kannapolis gets sold.

In an article published in The Independent Tribune today, the Privette soap continues:

Privette, 74, said in a statement Tuesday that “a committee of non-partial community leaders” should be appointed to consider candidates for the seat he plans to vacate.

There's one problem. What Mr. Privette is demanding isn't even legal.
State statutes say there must be a vacancy on the county commission before the local Republican Party can begin seeking a replacement. The North Carolina General Statutes state:

If the member who vacated the seat was elected as a nominee of a political party, the board of commissioners, the chairman of the board, or the clerk of superior court, as the case may be, shall consult the county executive committee of the appropriate political party before filling the vacancy, and shall appoint the person recommended by the county executive committee of the political party of which the commissioner being replaced was a member, if the party makes a recommendation within 30 days of the occurrence of the vacancy.

Since Coy hasn't resigned yet, there is no vacancy.
As you can tell the statutes also clearly say that the executive Committee of the Cabarrus County Republican Party needs to recommend a replacement for Mr. Privette, not any other group or committee.

“The Cabarrus County Republican Men’s Club Executive Committee could be that vehicle to recruit such a group to seek out prospective appointees for the public to consider,” Privette said in his statement.

Contrary to Mr. Privette's "glory days", the Cabarrus Republican Party these days is run by a more moderate group. The last "bastion" of extreme right wing republicans is exactly the Republican Men's Club, so it figures that Mr. Privette would like to get them involved.

The second condition Coy cited for him to retire was that his house in Kannapolis would have to be sold. If he sells his home in Kannapolis and moves to a retirement community in Thomasville like he announced, he will have to resign because he will no longer live in Cabarrus County. The problem is that Mr. Privette's house doesn't seem to be for sale.

Privette’s home doesn't seem to be listed on the market, and there is no “for sale” sign in front of his home. I know, because I drove by his house this afternoon and took this picture:

Do you see a "for sale" sign?

In a reaction, his fellow commissioners are once again exploring their options to limit the activities of Privette as a commissioner. They had a "censure" item on the agenda of the last Commissioner meeting, but at the start of that meeting Mr. Privette announced his "intent" to resign, so his fellow commissioners dropped the censure debate. It seems now they will revive the debate at their next meeting.
So watch for the next episode of this soap then.

It's almost sad to see a guy that used to be a very influential politician turn himself more and more into a crazy, sad, embarrassing old man. Almost.

This story will, no doubt, be continued...

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Talking the talk and walking the walk - Privette resigns

As promised I showed up at the Cabarrus County governmental building this past Monday at 6 pm for my protest against Coy Privette. With me were 15 other folks. A smaller turnout than I had hoped for, but I guess it's better than nothing.
There was plenty of press around and you can catch our protest in a lot of the press coverage from that night.
In newspaper articles:

* Independent Tribune
* Charlotte Observer
* Salisbury post

On TV (please ignore my face, it's not a pretty sight):

* WSOC TV
* WCNC
* News 14

As you know, the Cabarrus County Commissioner meeting started at 6.30 in the building we were protesting at.
Mr. Privette snuk in through the parking garage and was intercepted there by Beth Feeback, a reporter from the Concord Standard newspaper. Mr. Privette said he didn't care about the protest, but proceeded to ask how many people showed up. When Ms. Feeback told him 15, he replied "15 people? That's some demonstration," and chuckled.

Of course Mr. Privette didn't know at that time that exactly one protester showed up to support him. That one protester was "Ric" Starnes.
He drove by as we were standing outside and was honking and hanging half out of his car while screaming at us in a rage.

At 6.25 pm we stopped our protest so I could head on in and participate in the public speaking opportunity during the County Commissioner meeting. I had prepared my 3 minute speech and brought the 105 emails I had gathered, through the coyresign@gmail.com address, from people who wanted Mr. Privette to resign. I had planned on handing all those emails to Coy himself after my comments.

Right before the Public comment moment however, Mr. Privette had planned a "preemptive strike".
He requested to speak and read a prepared statement.

"I believe it is important that I publicly disclose my intentions to resign as a Cabarrus County commissioner as soon as matters are resolved related to whom my successor may be."
"It has been very important to me that the citizens who elected me have a strong voice to speak for them and that my successor will be someone who will have the courage to speak out even when he or she may be in the minority on a particular subject."

Once that's resolved, Privette said, he'll submit an official letter of resignation.
In other words, Mr. Privette said he will resign but only if the Republican party can find a successor who's as much of a crazy ass conservative as he is.

"All Republicans talk about being conservative," Privette said. "But there's a difference between talking the talk and walking the walk."

When he made that last statement, I had a very hard time trying not to erupt in loud laughter. Keep in mind that this comment comes from a man who once sponsored legislation to require schools to teach sexual abstinence and the sanctity of marriage, yet was caught having sex six times with a crack whore.

After Mr. Privette's comments it was My time to speak. Of course my prepared speech at this time didn't serve any purpose anymore, So i just told Coy that i had received 105 emails and thanked him for getting people interested in politics again (snark).
I closed off by saying that I wholeheartedly agreed with Mr. Privette when he said that there was a big difference between "talking the talk" and "walking the walk".

After the meeting Privette gave an interview to WCNC TV in which he claimed that his announced resignation had nothing to do with the prostitution charges against him or all the protests against him, but that he and his wife have just decided to move to a Thomasville retirement community. They had planned to retire there for years and decided recently to make the move now.
Right.....
If you believe that, I have some waterfront property in Arizona that i want to sell you. Hearing him say that made me even happier with the fact that he will resign. A person that can tell a bald-faced lie like that without even blinking doesn't need to be making any political decisions again. And even if you believe him to be speaking the truth, which he wasn't, he totally cheated his voters less than a year ago by running for re-election. Because why would you do that if you had been planning to retire in Thomasville for years?

The Republican party executive committee will now have to come up with someone to succeed Mr. Privette. This person will be in office until next years' election and not until 2010 like Mr. Privette was supposed to. So next year there will be 3 County Commissioner seats up for election instead of the 2 that were already planned (Bob Carruth and Joni Juba). Commissioners' Chairman Bob Carruth said he's heard four names unofficially mentioned as possible replacements -- former commissioner Robert Freeman; Mark Smith, a former commissioner candidate; and David Black and Larry Griffin, both former chairmen of the local party.

I look forward to seeing who they will come up with.

For Mr. Privette I have 2 words left: good riddance.

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My case against Coy

Ever since I started my protest asking for the resignation of Coy Privette, I've talked to dozens and dozens of people on this issue. Most are positive about what I'm trying to do, but every now and then I get a reaction from a Privette supporter (yes, they still exist), asking if I never made a mistake, if I'm not a "forgiving person" etc...

What they don't seem to get is that for me personally this isn't about the hiring of a prostitute. If any other person had done this (including any of the other County Commissioners) I wouldn't make such a big stink about it.
For me this is all about the kind of person Mr. Privette has portrayed himself to be and about how this "mistake" has made his whole carefully crafted image crumble to the ground.

So let me sum up the reasons why I personally believe Mr. Privette should have resigned as a County Commissioner already:

1. Total hypocrisy

What bothers me most about this case is not the details of what was done, but the total hypocrisy behind it.
Mr. Privette has built most of his political career by persuading his voters that he was a sound religious man with high moral believes. He also never hesitated in the past to judge other people over their “moral decline”. Now we find out that Coy Privette’s public image was all a lie.
If the foundations of your whole political career seem to be a lie, how can we ever believe you again?

2. Lack of sound judgment and common sense

What Mr. Privette did was really bad, but the more disturbing aspect of it is his total lack of judgment and common sense. Most of his actions in this case were just plain stupid, e.g. renting rooms in your own name, paying a prostitute with (blank) checks and posing for pictures with her. If you lack common sense in silly things like hiring a prostitute, how can you possible be entrusted with things as important as the well being of our community?
If his judgment is that poor how can he represent us in a reasonable way?
How can we believe that Mr. Privette will make sound political decisions that will affect our daily lives for years to come?

3. Lack of respect

Doesn’t Mr. Privette think his community deserves the same respect as the various Christian organizations he immediately resigned from even before he was convicted of anything? Wouldn't he expect any other elected official in Cabarrus County to step down under the same circumstances?

I want to close by saying that I believe this also wasn't a one time mistake (he admitted to 6 counts) and if you believe what several people have told me, including several high ranking republicans who should know, this allegedly has been going on for years.

I hope to see you at the protest meeting in front of the County Governmental building on Monday at 6 pm!

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Coy Privette to the people who elected him: screw you!

Take action and protest with me. More information at the end of this post.

Coy Privette showed a big middle finger to his Party and his constituents today.
A statement he released clearly states he will not resign as County Commissioner.

"I realize the mistake I made in my private life affects my reputation. This mistake has been dealt with, and I am ready to move forward," the Republican said in an e-mail to area reporters.
"I intend to continue to serve the citizens of Cabarrus County."

First of all I want to say that no, the "mistake" he has made (at least 6 times) has not been dealt with. Privette is under supervised probation for a year, hasn't done a minute of the 48 hours of community service yet he was sentenced to and I'm sure the "psychological treatment" he was receiving isn't over yet either.
In a statement Coy Privette handed to the press right after his sentencing in court, he says:

"I am going to be dedicating considerable time and effort to repair myself. I am already seeking professional attention to this end."

I guess that by "considerable time" he meant exactly a week???

Coy privette has lost all credibility as a politician and admits to needing psychological help, yet wants to pretend that everything is business as usual.
The arrogance Privette displayed today by just wanting to carry on as if nothing has happened is incomprehensible.

Since Mr. Privette obviously can not understand why he should resign, the people of Cabarrus County will have to tell him.
The time for action has come!

You can help in several ways:
First of all you can surf to the websites of the Charlotte Observer and the Independent Tribune and participate in the polls these two papers are running on their front page, let it be known that you want Coy Privette to resign. I know from an insider that Mr. Privette pays close attention to these online polls, especially the one from the Independent Tribune.

Second, please send an email to coyresign@gmail.com and explain to Mr. privette why you want him to resign. Please try to stay at least halfway polite. All received emails will be personally handed to Mr. Privette at the next County Commissioner meeting. By not sending your emails directly to Privette we can keep track of the number of people who are asking him to resign, since Mr. Privette himself can not be trusted to give anyone accurate numbers about how his constituents feel.

Third, show up at the next County Commissioner meeting in Concord on September 17. A protest will be organized right before the meeting (6.15 pm) so the local press can see that the citizens of Cabarrus County are not willing to pretend nothing has happened. We will then also attempt to give all the emails you've sent to Mr. Privette himself.

This is not about political revenge. I'm openly inviting any citizen from whatever political party to join me in expressing our outrage. For political strategy purposes it would be much better for me as a Democrat to leave Privette on the commission, he would be an easy target for a next election. No, this is about doing the right thing and "practicing what you preach" Mr. Privette.
I'll see you at the next County Commissioner meeting.

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Observer asks Privette to resign - pressure mounts

The Charlotte Observer published an editorial today that asks Coy Privette to resign.
It's nice to see a newspaper getting it exactly right and saying what I've been thinking as well:

"his criminal actions highlight a lack of judgment. He championed morals to fuel his political career, and clearly did not practice what he preached."

Mr. Privette has received a very sweet deal in court the other day.
His criminal record will be expunged if he completes 48 hours of community service and serves a year of probation. For some strange reason he will not be prosecuted for filing a forged affidavit, which would carry much more severe penalties, even though that is why the whole investigation started in the first place.

And to respond to some republicans that tell me "what about Clinton?", there's a ton of difference between those cases. The most important being that Monica Lewinsky was not a prostitute! She didn't get paid for her services by blank checks that later got falsely reported stolen. It was sex between consenting adults. Furthermore, Bill Clintons political career wasn't build on being the "champion of morals". Bill Clinton also didn't need "psychological treatment", which Privette was ordered to get and is already receiving. Do you really want a politician who is supposed to represent and take decisions for you to have psychological problems?

Even though I'm definitely not a fan of Privette, I'm not asking him to resign because I like to get rid of him, but because it is the right thing to do.
If I had political motives I would ask him to stay on, because he'd be such an easy target in a next election and I'd love to see him replaced by a Democrat at that time.

However, If you claim to be the "party of family values", you should act like it.
Mr. Privette, resign now.

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My day in court with Coy Privette - Guilty as charged.

Today was our republican county commissioner Coy Privette's day in court after being charged with 6 counts of "aiding and abetting" prostitution back in July.
I decided to get up early and go watch this circus.
I arrived at the Rowan County Court house in Salisbury at 8.30 am. The Court session was supposed to start at 9 am.

At 8.55 am Tiffany Summers arrived, the woman Mr. Privette paid for her "services".
She was immediately confronted with the press corps that had showed up "en masse". After giving no comment she entered the building.

Since the court cases were handled alphabetically everyone quickly figured out Mr. Privette wouldn't show up for quite some time (we were told 10.30 am).
Everyone went to get some coffee and returned an hour later.

At 10.25 Mr. Privette and his lawyer were escorted into the building by several police officers, while being swarmed by cameras.
I managed to get into the courtroom right in front of him and took a seat with the rest of the press corps (apparently when you show up with a little notepad and pen everyone assumes you're press).

At 11 am his case started.
Mr. Privette's lawyer entered a guilty plea on all charges.
Rowan County district attorney Bill Kenerly agreed to defer prosecution which means if Privette meets the conditions of the court orders, the charges against him will be dismissed. Those conditions include supervised probation for the next year, completing 48 hours of community service, paying court fees and continuing psychological counseling that he had already initiated (some people might say there are other republicans who also might benefit from psychological treatment).

Mr. Kenerly then listed the details of the case and the evidence they had against Coy Privette.
The whole investigation started on June 27th after Tiffany Summers cashed a check from Coy Privette for an "unusually high" amount. His bank then contacted Mr. Privette who stated that the check was stolen. The bank reimbursed Mr. Privette and contacted Kannapolis police in the matter.
When police interrogated Summers about the check she immediately said that it was a payment for sex and went on to tell the whole story.
Police found out that on several occasions Mr. Privette, who's 74, had rented a room in 2 motels under his own name. Closed circuit camera surveillance in those motels showed Privette and Summers entering the premises. Summers had taken pictures of Privette with her Camera cellphone, which she handed over to police. Summers then also agreed to make some phone calls to Privette which were recorded. In all I would say they had a very solid case.

Mrs. Summers case was heard at 11.30 am. She pleaded guilty to one charge of prostitution after being offered a deal by the prosecution. She only got 60 days of unsupervised probation, didn't have to pay any fines or court costs and couldn't have any contact with Privette anymore. She basically was rewarded for cooperating so well with the investigation. Afterwards I was able to talk with her lawyer, Mr. James Davis, for a bit who stated that his client basically "walks out the door" and said that he thought it was a "fair and reasonable arraignment". He also stated that they were offered this deal by the prosecution about 2 weeks ago.

When Mr. Privette exited the court he didn't say anything but handed out a statement which thanked everyone for their support and stated "As I undergo much needed personal and spiritual reflection I sincerely ask everyone to keep me in their thoughts and prayers in my journey to earn back the trust that I have lost.”

This last sentence hints to me that he doesn't plan to resign as a County Commissioner, although I don't see how someone who's receiving "psychological treatment" can be a good and effective Commissioner. When press asked Mr. Privette if he would resign, His attorney simply stated "We'll address that later."

Since apparently a commissioner in Cabarrus County can not be forced to resign after being convicted of a misdemeanor, it is up to Mr. Privette personally to decide his political future. I hope he makes the right decision, but it wouldn't be the first time Coy Privette surprises everyone.

Update 07/23: Apparently our local NBC affiliate WCNC had an exclusive interview with Tiffany Summers. The article shows some of the pictures of Privette that she took with her cellphone and explains the reason why Privette reported checks stolen. A friend of Summers tried to cash the checks because Summers herself didn't have any ID. When the bank called Privette and asked questions about the checks he didn't recognized the friends name and said the checks were stolen.

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Cabarrus Commissioner meeting highlights: Coy lives! - no decision on jail yet.

I just got back from tonights' County Commissioner meeting.
Commissioner Coy Privette crawled out of the cave he's been hiding in since his "aiding and abetting prostitution" charges, just to come vote on the main issue on the agenda: "the Jail compromise".
Mr. Privette didn't look too good physically. He looked tired, worn down and seemed to have aged a few years in the past weeks.

I had expected there to be a big turnout of jail opponents at the meeting (like we had at last month's meeting), but instead the room was only 2/3 full and only 2 people spoke during the public comments moment at the beginning of the meeting, one for the compromise and one against.

The actual item on the agenda that dealt with the whole jail issue was to approve an amendment to the contract of the Ware Bonsall architectural bureau, which would pay them to come up with schematic drawings and models of the kind of jail housing unit that the compromise talked about. You can read more about the outlines of that compromise in yesterdays' post on this blog.

As you could read yesterday, the order for the schematic drawings would cost the county $375,000. I was surprised to hear that this is the price for just some schematics and models that will give you an impression of how the redesigned jail housing unit would look. These are definitely not "ready to build" plans.
It would take 3 months to come up with these models. If the county would then decide to go ahead with a redesign, it would take another 6 to 8 months before definitive plans would be ready and the bidding process could start. The bidding process would end another 3 months after that.
Conclusion: if the County wants to redesign the building, it would take at least another year before they could start the actual construction.

There was some confusion about how many beds the redesigned building could hold. Apparently Commissioner Mynatt and White had used some wrong numbers when debating a compromise with the jail opponents. Mynatt said she wanted to meet with the architects again and this time use the correct numbers, so they could conclusively say how many jail beds a redesigned housing unit could hold.
After this the commissioners decided to table the issue and vote on it next time. Kind of an anti-climactic end to the evening if you ask me: they decided not to decide yet.

Tomorrow I'll talk more about some of the issues (and there were a lot) that were raised in the whole debate tonight. See you then!

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Coy Privette will play the leading role in an exciting week for Cabarrus County Politics.

Coy Privette is set to play the staring role in a busy political week for Cabarrus County.

First of, we have the County Commissioners meeting in the County Governmental Center, tomorrow at 6.30. The one item on the agenda that will draw the most interest deals with the whole downtown jail issue.

During their last meeting the Commissioners agreed to try and reach a final compromise on the design of the jail building. This debate is not about the Jail Annex/Sheriff's headquarters building which you can currently watch being constructed on the corner of Corban Ave SE and Corban Ave SW. The issue of the debate is the actual jail housing unit which is to be built directly behind the annex. Commissioner Mynatt and White were charged with meeting with opponents of the current jail plans and try to reach a compromise over a new plan. In return for the new plans opponents would drop the lawsuit they have pending against the City of Concord, challenging the city's approval of a conditional use permit for construction of the jail.
The 2 commissioners and the jail opponents did indeed come up with a compromise proposal and the complete County Commission will vote on this proposal during Monday's meeting.

The proposed compromise from plaintiffs cuts two stories from the main housing unit, reduces the number of beds to 288, extends the housing unit to the east and relocates a laundry and loading dock. Combined with a 96-bed jail annex set to open at the downtown site this fall, that would make for a total of 384 inmate beds.
A reconfiguration of the jail project will require $375,000 and three months of design work. While the redesign would cost the county $375,000 now, the reconfigured building would cost $19 million less than the current design.
However, Jail and county officials have said projections show that 350-384 beds would be at capacity upon the opening of the new jail. So the $19 million not spent if commissioners choose the redesigned jail will be spent to purchase land and build another housing unit at an out of town site. Nobody seems to know right now if that $19 million would be enough to build that new jail unit.

Two commissioners, Joni Juba and Bob Carruth, seem to want to stay with the current design. Two others, Grace Mynatt and Jay White, seem to favor a redesign.
That would leave Commissioner Coy Privette, who has not attended a commission meeting since he was charged July 19 with six misdemeanor counts of aiding and abetting prostitution, to cast the deciding vote. In the past opponents of the jail could count Privette on their side. It remains to be seen if Privette will show up at tomorrow's meeting to support them again. According to an article in the Independent Tribune, Privette told County Manager John Day that his attendance at the meeting is “under consideration.” I highly doubt that he will show up. If he doesn't he will apparently have completely given up on his political career and he will abandon a lot of jail opponents who have voted for him in the past. It's time to put up or shut up Mr. Privette.


In his second staring role Coy Privette will show up in the Rowan County Court house on Wednesday, to hear the verdict on His prostitution charges.
From what I could find out online it appears that his case is set for Wednesday morning August 22nd at 9 am in Court Room 1 of the Rowan County Court House in Salisbury. His Judge apparently will be Beth Dixon, a registered Republican.
The charges Privette faces are misdemeanors, so more than likely if he's found to be guilty he will just get a slap on the wrist and will have to pay a fine. As a consequence though his political career will be over.

I plan on attending both "events" and will tell you more about my observations right here.

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The Concord Standard: "Privette should resign".

This weeks edition of our "hometown newspaper", The Concord Standard, has an interesting editorial with the all-saying title "Privette should resign". You can read the complete editorial on their website.
It clearly states that "he should resign immediately from his seat on the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners."
Apparently they came to the same conclusion as I did: "The cloud of six charges of aiding and abetting prostitution will be far too much of a distraction for him to effectively serve on the board."
The Concord Standard can hardly be accused of having a "liberal bias" in the past, so I'm sure this article might come as a surprise to some republicans, but the editorial just demonstrates some common sense.


Mr. Privette doesn't need to resign because of what he did, but because of the fact that his pending court case doesn't allow him to concentrate anymore on his job as County Commissioner. Privette needs to concentrate on his family and defense and allow somebody else to replace him on the Board. The best proof of this is the fact that Coy Privette didn't show up at the recent Board of Commissioners meeting. If "regular" people don't show up for work, they get fired. Mr. Privette apparently can't get fired, so he should resign.

Even his own republican Commissioner colleagues are coming to that same conclusion according to another article on the front page of the same paper. It quotes the republican chair of the commissioners board, Bob Carruth, as saying "If I were to switch places with him, I would have to consider stepping down."

Coy Privette will have his first day in court on August 22nd. If he would be found not guilty of any charges he can get his job back as far as I'm concerned, but the likely hood of that happening is about as big as Fox News endorsing Barack Obama for President.

Mr. Privette, resign already and let Cabarrus County move forward while you deal with your personal issues.

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Where's Coy?

As I predicted, Coy Privette didn't show up at the Cabarrus County Commissioners meeting tonight.
Instead he had his lawyer release a statement this afternoon stating:

“Dear (County Manager) John Day and Fellow Commissioners: The issues on the agenda tonight are very important to the citizens of Cabarrus County. My attendance may distract from the issues; therefore, I will not attend the commissioners meeting tonight.”

Translation: I'm too embarrassed to show my face and certainly don't want to answer any pesky press questions and explain my actions to the people that elected me.


At this point I'm thinking that Mr. Privette will keep hiding until the day he has to appear in court (August 22nd). Maybe he's hoping this whole thing will just blow over.
Hopefully after his court date he will draw the conclusions that he should have already drawn this week.
Of course, Privette is not guilty until convicted in a court of law.
But like I read in a column in the Charlotte observer this weekend :

"We should also say that it's unlikely the State Bureau of Investigation would issue warrants against a sitting public servant without feeling sure they've got the goods."

Tonights meeting began with Chairman Bob Carruth asking that the public “reserve comments for blog sites.” Maybe he reads mine??
Carruth called the situation “a shock.”
“It’s certainly not something we want to see happen,” Carruth said.

Most of the Commissioners meeting was spent on another debate over the downtown jail. More on that in a later post.

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Do we really need to talk about the sex life of an old man?

Cabarrus County Commissioner Coy Privette seems to have "skipped town", probably waiting until this whole sex scandal storm has blown over.
Should we even be talking about this whole thing? Shouldn't we let the guy just deal with his personal problems? In the case of Mr. Privette I think we should talk about it and I'll explain why.


Coy Privette's whole political career is built around being a person of "high moral values". Now it seems that that whole reputation was just a lie it directly influences how He can or can not serve as a politician any longer.
As I said before, for me this case isn't really about the sex, it's about the total hypocrisy of a politician. I'm not interested in all the lurid details of what Coy Privette did specifically, I'm interested in the hypocritical aspect of it.
I know in John 8 it says, "The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone..."
The problem is that Mr. Privette has done nothing but throw stones his whole life.
One example: Coy Privette called a friend of mine who organized a vote on serving liquor by the drink in our local bars and restaurants an "agent of the devil".
We all know that we're not perfect, but I don't feel like telling someone how they should or should not have sex, if they should drink and/or gamble or not. Coy Privette did.

This was not a one time mistake, Coy Privette is charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution. I also have a strong suspicion (not hard evidence) that this has been going on for a much longer time. A friend of mine that works in the medical field here in Cabarrus County stated to me that "If you knew what I know you could have seen this coming for years".
This person of course didn't want to elaborate, since there is such a thing as medical confidentiality. I'm not sure if i even want to know more.

The problem is that even if Privette, 74, were convicted of the charges, Cabarrus County Manager John Day said "Privette’s fellow commission members do not have legal power to remove him from the board."
Shouldn't we make sure that we have that legal power?
Once convicted, a commissioner should be required to resign from the County Commission especially (and this is not the case for Privette) if convicted of a crime that is in anyway related to his position as a County Commissioner (e.g. taking bribes).

I believe that if Mr. Privette thinks he's innocent, he should take a leave of absence from his County Commission seat so he can fully concentrate on his defense and his family. If Mr. Privette knows that he's guilty of the charges he should resign.
His first chance to make up his mind is this Monday's County Commissioners meeting.
I'll be there, but I have a strong suspicion that Coy will be nowhere in sight.

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Coy no lee informes (or Coy's english resolution part 2)

As I wrote on Sunday, Coy Privette, republican Cabarrus County Commissioner, plans to introduce a resolution at next Monday's commissioner meeting recognizing English as the county's official language. The resolution doesn't just want to proclaim that we speak English (I'm sure nobody needs a resolution to know that English is the dominant language here) but it also calls for all ordinances, programs and policies adopted by Cabarrus County to be done in English only. In addition, it says all documents, regulations, orders, transactions, proceedings, meetings and publications should be in English.

I have since then done some online investigating and came up with some interesting findings.

Apparently Mr. Privette doesn't read studies and reports about the biggest project in his own city since decades.

Last October the city of Kannapolis revealed a study it had ordered that investigated how well it was prepared for the arrival of the North Carolina (biotech) Research Campus.
The study, made by the Atlanta research company Market Street Research, thoroughly investigates the strong points and weaknesses of Kannapolis when it comes to catering to this huge new project. One of the weaknesses it lists is "in terms of its citizens being able to welcome a diverse group of newcomers".

"There is no question that an influx of researchers and scientists to NCRC will make Kannapolis more diverse. It is critical for Kannapolis to create an atmosphere that is open and welcoming to people with different backgrounds and lifestyles. This requires new services and programs (i.e. publishing documents in multiple languages)."

You can read the whole study right here.


The biotech research campus is expected to deliver 35,000 new jobs to our area. Since he's from Kannapolis i'm sure Mr. Privette doesn't want to give the impression he's working against the biggest new employer his city will have. Then why does he introduce a resolution that's the exact opposite of what the new Research Campus needs?

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¿usted habla inglés?

As reported in the Cabarrus Neighbors section of the Charlotte Observer, Coy Privette, the biggest right wing nut job on our completely republican County Commission, is pushing for the County Board of Commissioners to adopt a resolution recognizing English as the county's official language.

The proposed resolution calls for all ordinances, programs and policies adopted by Cabarrus County to be done in English. In addition, it says all documents, regulations, orders, transactions, proceedings, meetings and publications should be in English.

Privette defended the measure: "It's not discriminatory to these Hispanics at all to ask them to learn English so they can take advantage of the economic opportunities here. It is their civic duty."

First of all, with this ordinance you wouldn't "ask" them to learn English, you force everyone to.

I don't think anyone disputes that English is the official language here. I agree that everyone that plans to spend the rest of their lives here should learn English to fully participate in society. However if you expect every immigrant here to be fluent in English as soon as they arrive you should have a language test before you let anyone enter the country.
As an immigrant myself (non Spanish) I don't recall anyone ever giving me that test. If you don't expect everyone to know English as soon as they get here, i believe you should provide translation for some government services.

Privette, who taught English in China for 10 years, said he was expected to know Chinese if he needed to speak to someone in the Chinese government while he was there. It's pretty funny hearing Mr. Privette proclaim that we should do things here exactly as they do it in the biggest communist country in the world. Further more it would be interesting to hear if He was fluent in Chinese as soon as he got there, or if he needed translation for a pretty long time before he learned any Chinese. I'm pretty sure he never got fluent in Chinese at all, maybe someone can correct me.

Cabarrus County Departments are bound by federal laws requiring them to provide language assistance to their customers. Such a resolution would defy those state and federal rules, which supersede county ordinances. Of course Privette knows this and knows that His ordinance wouldn't change a thing and might in the worst case scenario even provoke a series of lawsuits. I don't think we need to have our local government involved in any more lawsuits as it is.
Also, in 1987 the state of North Carolina already declared English as the official language.

So since the real reason for Coy to come up with this resolution can't be to actually change anything, what might be his real reason?
Maybe pandering to his racist redneck following?
This resolution would just be a gratuitous statement of intolerance. Measures like this are being used to exploit anti-immigrant sentiment and fan the flames of ethnic conflict.

By constantly coming up with stupid resolutions that don't help our county along at all, but that stir up animosity Mr. Privette has made himself pretty unpopular with a big group of the population. He even managed to piss off a big part of his own republican party by suggesting that some of our Commissioners are RINO's (republicans in name only) and has launched nasty smear campaigns against them in the past, but that's a whole other story.

In the past election republicans had a very good opportunity to get rid of Coy, by voting for 2 republicans and one very moderate Democratic candidate (there were 3 commissioner seats up for grabs). After studying the election results it looks like about 8,000 people that voted for a republican candidate voted for the other 2 republican candidates (not for Coy) and left their 3rd vote unused. I heard a rumor that republican Commissioner Bob Carruth came up with the same analysis. Those republicans could have used that 3rd vote and cast it for a very moderate democrat that was running. I guess for those 8,000 republicans that was one step too far. I don't want to hear anymore republican whining about Coy Privette though, they had their chance.

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