FRANKLIN COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
101 WEST NASH STREET
P.O. BOX 909
LOUISBURG, NORTH CAROLINA 27549
(919) 496-1469
www.FranklinNCGOP.com

May 31, 2006

www.StiresforSenate.com

May 31, 2006 Franklin Times
Louisburg, North Carolina

Stires ideas stifled by Dunston
By CAREY JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer

A Franklin County resident and state Senate candidate plans to take his ideas for school funding directly to the Board of Education after he says he was silenced by commissioners.

Chuck Stires signed up to speak during the commissioners May 15 meeting to respond to a May 8 request that he offer alternative funding options for education.

Just moments before the May 15 meeting, Stires said he spoke briefly with Commission Chairman Sidney Dunston and handed him a copy of his presentation.

When it came time for public comment, though, Dunston said he and Stires had already discussed the matter and Stires was not offered the floor for comment.

“I gave Chuck Stires his five minutes,” Dunston said recently, referring to the May 8 meeting.

Stires said he still wanted to address the board in time for the joint meeting commissioners held with the school board on May 23.

He said he was at a loss as to why he was not allowed to address commissioners on May 15.

Stires said he did not make an objection during the meeting because he was unaware of the rules governing public speaking. According to the board’s policy regarding comment, speakers shall sign up to speak and they are offered five minutes to speak.

The policy does not say when comment can be muted, other than to say the total period for comment should not exceed 30 minutes.

www.StiresforSenate.com

“I don’t know if (Dunston) didn’t want to hear it or what I had to say,” Stires said. “I didn’t want to make a spectacle up there.

“... It’s not that big a thing, but not being able to speak is certainly significant, but it’s not worth pursuing any further,” said Stires, who will be up against Sen. Doug Berger in the fall election.

“In the future, I’m assuming he will respect my right to speak,” Stires said.

Stires did say that when he presented Dunston with a copy of his presentation before the meeting, Dunston told him that he would not allow Stires to give a political speech.

“He said I gave one last time,” Stires recalled. “He said you will not give one tonight.”

Dunston had no further comment.

Included in Stires’ funding alternatives were a public/private partnership for funding; an alumni endowment; allowing for corporations and businesses to fund specific wings or educational specialities; charter schools; standard architectural plans; and plans to allocate school land as part of the subdivision process.

Stires said he didn’t reinvent the wheel coming up with the alternatives to school bonds, but he would have like the opportunity to address the issue, publicly.

“I am quite irritated, now,” Stires said. “The guy says he wants to hear my alternatives and then he’s not interested.

“I will try to pass it along to the school board.”

www.StiresforSenate.com