This Week in Leland Corruption

21-25 April 2024. plus Mailbag Complaint!

Apr 25, 2024

Rhonda Florian of Better Govt for Leland, asks us to sign a no tax petition to Leland Town Council. There is a new rally on 30 April at 2pm. BE THERE!

She writes:

Leland Citizens: Urgent! We Need Your Help!
The Town Council is careening towards inflicting untold destruction on the citizens of Leland. We need your help to stop it!
Please put the following dates on your calendar and come out to help us.
April 30, 2:00 p.m. at Town Hall: Stop the Madness Rally
Please attend the rally. Let us know if you would like to speak. Help us show the Council that we mean business and we will NOT STOP until they hear the will of the people.
May 2, 6:00 p.m. at Town Hall: Special Council Budget Meeting
We need EVERY Leland citizen in attendance. We are fighting for our lives. Help us save our town.
May 18, 6:00 p.m. at Town Hall: Regular Council Meeting
Again, we need EVERY Leland citizen in attendance. We don't know when the Council will vote on the budget, but it may be at this meeting. We MUST make our opposition known!
What else can you do?
Sign and forward our petition to Cancel Leland Town Hall Expansion. https://chng.it/L84YFzmk9n
Like and follow our Better Government for Leland facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557992605906
Contact Representative Frank Iler and tell him you support a recall option for the Town of Leland. Frank.Iler@ncleg.gov.
Contact Representative Bill Rabon and tell him you support an annexation moratorium for Leland. Bill.Rabon@ncleg.gov.
Now is the time for ALL LELAND CITIZENS to put aside any petty rivalries and stand united to save our town. The incompetence, mismanagement, and abuse of our town has gone on long enough.
WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!

I signed the petition, and encourage others to do so too. I have also been in contact with iler. I will post my letter at a later date.

The $5.5 million Leland Purchase of 964 River Road Revisited

One thing that the Leland council could do is sell assets to balance the budget. The property that Leland bought before the end of 2023 is a curious one in that it was so expensive, and then, of course, was annexed into the town. I always smell corruption when a town violates the ban on forced annexation by violating the spirit of the law.

I hope the short session in the GA (ongoing as I write) will provide Leland voters with some relief.

At the outset, I cannot connect any familial entanglements with the property and anyone in or presently out (but was once in) of Leland government.

The facts as we know them: A family by the last name of Baker owned the property in question. The name of said company was and still is, Baker NC Properties LLC. The company is registered to this house. It is/was in the family for a long time judging from public record. So, there is nothing at all suspicious about any of this. It is rather odd that this company (the founding father?) lived in a small 1800 sq. ft. house and has 34 acres of very expensive waterfront property. I still have not figured this out. Why not develop it for yourself? The family had money, so….it’s odd. [ed. note: the family company in question is a real estate investment company].

At any rate, the business was moved to Florida by (I think) the son. See that fact here.

When the property was put up for sale for almost 6 million, a developer made a bid and made an offer to develop high rise coffin apartments. The residents near it rose up in outrage.

The land was in between Leland and Belville but, astonishingly, unincorporated. As we learn from this story, Leland was already in talks with the owner to have it annexed into Leland. Why? Because it was zoned as AG/R and in order to build livable coffins, it needed to change to high density residential. Leland was just the corporate ticket for that project:

The development would require a zoning change from rural residential to multi-family. Project leaders said they are seeking to annex the property into Leland and requesting a conditional zoning of the property to a conditional multi-family district.
Belville Mayor Mike Allen said an agreement was signed 20 years ago, long before he became mayor, that says Belville cannot make an offer to annex that property into the town. However, he said, that agreement ends later this year.

So Leland had its sites on this property for a while. Shock!

The developer pulled out of the project, which left the land vacant. It should be noted, the annexation talks continued despite the pulling out of the developer. The land was relisted for about 6 million again. Then, the owner dropped the listing to 5.5 million, and Leland came in and bought it ON THE SAME DAY the listing dropped.

Here is the deed.

I have to break this story and ask: How dumb is Leland? This is a quid pro quo. For the listing to drop and on the same day an offer and acceptance of said offer transpires, in real estate, is unethical. I know, you are astounded Leland would do this!

Here is Leland’s announcement, which says nothing. Some people smell corruption. No kidding. In the meantime, Leland is saying nothing. They spent 5.5 million for vacant land, and are…sitting on it, but they are making the voters pay for their extravagant spending habits.

Final note: I compared various campaign finance reports to the current members of the town council. There is no contribution between Baker and any council member.

Mailbag—Raysis Edition

I received an email from a reader who took offense at one of my posts where I called certain unscrupulous town lawyers as “shysters.”1 This person incorrectly defined the term as a slander to the Jews. It most certainly is not. I tried to explain the etymology of the word to no success. Propaganda works this way where any factual defense of the real meaning of things cannot get past the cloud in one’s mind.

Marshall McLuhan spoke about this. Sad!

So this person held to the definition in their own mind after I explained the word does not mean what that person thought it meant. Then this person responded that WOP is a derogatory term, why use the word shyster? Shyster had meaning that never pertained to race or a certain people, and was never a derogatory toward a specific people, while WOP has always been a slander on a certain race of people. In other words, WOP and Shyster are not comparable. Woke much? We must compare like with like. To make a mistake like this as the reader did is a failure in logic. In essence, the reader has been duped by nefarious propagandists who changed the word for their own purposes.

To set the record straight, the word comes from the early 1800s. It is German in origin. It is a particular American term, or phrase. It was so coined because there was an unscrupulous lawyer in NYC (where else). His name was Scheisser. The word literally means an unscrupulous crooked lawyer. It is not connected to race (or in this case the Jews).

Now there is a word connected to the Jews that is deragatory. That word is SHYLOCK. For those who know, it comes from a character in one of Shakespeare’s plays—the Merchant of Venice. He was a cheating merchant, who had no empathy. THAT word has been utilized to make derogatory toward the Jews.

It should be obvious that the two words are not connected in any way. However, many sensitive people confuse the two words wrongly, thinking that Shyster (Scheister) means Shylock. It does not.

I do not mind being challenged. I encourage it. If you got a beef, bring the goods. But if you do not do so factually, expect me to push back. In this case, the person had already made up his/her mind, and never acknowledged the fact of the word as originally defined. Words mean things, and I choose them carefully. I do not take what the left defines words as, and neither should you because you end up making language meaningless doing so. We cannot have a conversation unless words have meaning.

A day later I received this email from same person, which I quote in full:

i (sic) will not debate the issue with you. i (sic) find the term offensive but i (sic) guess your religion does not care about other groups

For one thing, I was not debating, I was pointing out your error. You just cannot make up words to suit your fever dream. This person is either a leftist, or a troll, or even a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Either way, we need to succeed in our common goal—oust the Leland Town Council.

This brings me to a political point that must be made as the coalition against the present Leland governance continues.

When I worked on campaigns for the Republican party, we always had to deal with Democrats and assorted leftists trying to infiltrate our campaign. We had to be on the look out for these people. One of the telling characteristics is that they act nice at first and then try to cause dissension among the ranks. These people pretend to be on your side, but then find enemies in their midst….always. They always make shit up like the person who wrote me. They are illogical and dishonest.

The writer who objected to my use of a word is like one of those. This person, as you can see above, accused me of being raysis because of my “religion” or something. When people do not listen to facts, do not want to deliberate, and then call you a name when you will not bend to their will, they are practicing the same characteristics they accuse you of. Piss off leftist Boomer. You have the same mindset of the present Leland Town Council.

My advice going forward, is be on alert be smart, and be on the lookout for these people. They are not the friends of the anti tax coalition in this town or county. Candidates will make themselves known soon. When that happens, look for fake people like Frank Williams and Bankrupt Bozeman try to ruin the talented candidates we end up supporting. Williams, as you know, ran fake Republicans against all anti tax conservatives in the last county commish election. Look for Leland to try the same. Be on guard.

We cannot eat our own. Reasonable voters from all walks of life have now joined together on the local level. This is a rare ocurrence. We need to stick together. Focus on the goal, and let’s win. When chaos agents like the writer who emailed me come in your midst, do not be distracted and show them the door.

American Savage

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