Those of you who have been with us since the beginning of our journey — since the day, back 2019, when we published our first story on newoldnorth.com — know that together, we have accomplished a lot.
But the truth is, getting a community back on track is not as simple as identifying a multi-million-dollar budget deficit in a school district or calling out race-baiters who seek to divide us for personal gain.
It takes more than “likes” or “shares” of a Facebook post — or comments beneath them — to truly strike fear into the hearts of those whose agendas are self-serving, the ones who run for office not because they care about moving Wayne County forward, but because they see an opportunity for a power grab because they have figured out that people around these parts have been too distracted to remain engaged and see them for who they really are.
So, we were more than a little bit concerned when less than 14 percent of eligible Goldsboro voters cast a ballot in a recent primary election that featured a six-candidate mayoral race.
We had hoped that collectively, we had learned that when we don’t make our voices heard, we end up with disastrous results akin to what is unfolding in the county Register of Deeds Office.
And if you have read our most recent story, you have learned about another consequence of apathy — even if you didn’t realize it.
Not to worry. We’ll gladly unwrap it.
Antonio Williams might, at the moment, be a Wayne County Commissioner, but his lawsuit — one that could very well cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars — reflects allegations that stem from his time on the Goldsboro City Council.
But before we get into the context of his complaints, it is worth noting that he got into office in the first place during an election year when a horrifying 9 percent of voters made a choice for the District 1 seat he would ultimately occupy.
The man received 169 votes.
Read that again.
He only received 169 votes and won an election.
But that didn’t stop him from challenging then-Mayor Chuck Allen, a man backed by thousands of city residents, as though they were on equal footing.
And therein lies the problem.
We know what some of you are thinking right now.
“He only got one vote during meetings. What’s the big deal?”
Well, the answer is not all that complicated if you’re “in the know.”
What if we told you that on more than one occasion — dozens in fact — Williams yelled and screamed during council meetings?
What if we told you he said, publicly, that the city should consider cutting funding for Friends of Seymour, the group that fights on behalf of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base every single day?
Don’t believe us?
Here’s the quote from June 2020:
“I support our base, but in these tight budget times, it is tough for me to justify to my constituents an $80,000 allocation of funds to a group that some members of the council are just learning about. We have cut the budget for a lot of our outside agencies. I do not think it would be fair to not look at cutting that budget. I hope Friends of Seymour can understand the complexity of our budget and our need to cut costs to where we are able to keep our city moving forward.”
Perhaps, we opined back then, somebody should have reminded Williams that there is no “moving our city forward” without, you know, that whole Air Force base thing — and the nearly $1 billion in economic impact it delivers to Wayne County.
But the shocking comments didn’t stop there.
He called council members and the city manager racists — on the mic during live-streamed meetings.
He falsely claimed Allen had vacated his seat because he had missed a few sessions to get treatment for what would turn out to be fatal brain cancer.
He sparred with the city attorney and made blanket accusations of corruption without proof.
And he lambasted — again, in public — a department head in open session.
It’s no wonder, back before Allen got sick, that he told us hardly anyone with merit applied for the city manager position after Scott Stevens retired in 2018.
The government employee pool is, he said then, a small group that follows what is going on across the state.
And according to Allen, it was thanks, in part, to Williams’ continuous antics, that Goldsboro got stuck with a manager, Tim Salmon, who had exactly zero municipal government experience.
That seems to have worked out well.
Well, unless you ask the dozens of former and current city employees who have told us working for Salmon is a nightmare and consider the fact that the city has still not resolved an audit nightmare that began years ago.
So, yes, it might seem like one vote is not a big deal.
But the truth is, elections have consequences.
And now, because it only took 169 votes to put him on the council — more people voted in local high school Homecoming court contests over the last few weeks — and he engaged in a very public back-and-forth with former Community Relations Director Shycole Simpson-Carter, a woman who sued the city because of it and walked away with $25,000, he is now suing Goldsboro for the way officials attempted to hold him accountable for his actions.
Had he never been on the board in the first place, none of this would be happening.
Forget about the claims and whether or not his lawsuit has merit.
On that front, we will let the legal process play out — and allow you to read his claims and make your own judgements.
But think about the disruption this lawsuit has caused inside City Hall — and the money we would assume we are paying in attorney’s fees to fight Williams in court.
It boggles the mind.
And at the very least, it, again, makes Goldsboro look like a circus. And at the worst, it distracts our city leaders from making any meaningful progress forward.
So, before you go to the polls in November — and if we haven’t made it clear, we believe every eligible voter should absolutely go to the polls — make sure you think about the future you want for Goldsboro.
Do you want Seymour Johnson to stick around?
Do you want a new council to hire a city manager who doesn’t respond to an audit crisis by insisting it’s no big deal because the city doesn’t, at the moment, need to borrow money — or one who doesn’t throw a temper tantrum when police and fire officials tell him their ranks are thinning at an alarming rate because Goldsboro’s salaries aren’t competitive with neighboring cities and townships?
Do you want a board that can express different viewpoints without that disagreement dissolving into a complete sideshow?
We do. We emphatically do.
We cannot, as a community, afford anymore mistakes. The ones we have already made are costing us as a community — in reputation and in dollars wasted.
Turning this around means demanding better leaders and to quit tiptoeing around what has needed to be said for years.
It is not racist to point out incompetence — shockingly obvious and downright scary incompetence.
Nor is it racist or party disloyalty to hold people to a standard and to expect leaders to behave professionally.
And it is scandalous to look the other way because you don’t want any trouble or are worried about losing the backing of your party.
And we cannot hire even one more person because of whom they know, their political affiliation or who their parents are — or because we just can’t find anybody who is really qualified.
Not. One. More.
We are full up.
And to make the latter happen, we need, absolutely, to find elected representatives who are willing to say the tough stuff and to stand up when tax dollars are wasted or when time is squandered dealing with faux outrage at suspected slights.
We need people like Wayne County Board of Education member Tommy Sanders, who isn’t afraid to ask questions and to speak up when something just doesn’t feel right.
That’s how you start to get the bad stuff taken care of and how you move forward as a community.
The rest is just telling voters what they want to hear, fancy footwork, more self-serving quid pro quo, and politics.
And all of us have had enough of that. More than enough.
Early voting began Thursday. It will take all of two minutes to make your voice count. And now, more than ever, all of us must do just that.
Don’t rush just to get boxes checked. Think long and hard about whom you would trust to lead our communities forward.
And before Election Day, we will give you as much information as we can to help you decide if you’re on the fence.
And as you start your process, also keep this in mind:
You already know what needs to be done. When people show you who they are, believe them.
Choose with that in mind and maybe, just maybe, we can realize the future our children — and grandchildren — deserve.
