The Pinehurst Hot Mess: A few election notes
This coming Tuesday will mark the end of the 2023 campaign season in the Village of Pinehurst. Lame duck and worstMayorEver John Strickland can quit bullying people for displaying signs for mayoral candidates other than ‘Parachute Pat’™ and finally drag himself and the lil’ missus BACK to Chautauqua and Bill and Hillary FOR GOOD.
There’s ONE real important thing to remember if you’re voting for Jeff Morgan or Kevin Drum for mayor. You ALSO need to vote for Lydia Boesch and Clare Berggren for village council. A Drum victory coupled with a Boesch and Berggren victory will leave us with a council consisting of Boesch, Berggren, Jeff Morgan, and Pat Pizzella. Pizzella will be all by himself in the corner with no allies. (He’ll have plenty of time to dream about the good ol’ days with Jack Abramoff in DC. )
A Morgan mayoral victory coupled with Boesch and Berggren wins gives us a
council that looks like this: Boesch, Berggren, Pizzella, and ONE vacancy. The vacancy will be filled by a majority vote of the council. Boesch and Berggren are Morgan allies, for the most part. So, the person chosen will likely be somewhat of an ally of those three. This scenario also puts ‘Parachute Pat’ and his ‘Friday Group’ goons on the sideline.
A Pizzella mayoral win, coupled with a BARB and Boesch win on council, gives us a team that looks like this: Jeff Morgan, Lydia Boesch, BARB, and a vacancy. That would result in a 2-2 split on council that would likely result in the vacancy being filled by someone somewhat palatable to the ‘Friday Group’ goons. (Same deal with Taylor and Boesch wins. Just change out BARB for Taylor.)
A Pizzella win coupled with Taylor and BARB wins would give the village a team that looks like this: Jeff Morgan, BARB, John Taylor, and one vacancy. The ‘Friday Group’ would have a 3-1 majority in picking someone to fill Pizzella’s council seat. THINGS WOULD BE EVEN WORSE THAN THEY ARE NOW. (*We predict the enactment of a hunting season or a culling period for vacation rental owners and tourists.*) The inmates would officially take control of the asylum.
SO, use your vote wisely. You might be voting wisely for mayor. But your choices for council will really determine how successful your mayoral choice will be IF he wins.
‘Parachute Pat’ and the ‘historic’ pine trees.
Pat Pizzella is following in the footsteps of his political mentor John Strickland, who is famous for last-minute slimings of his election opponents. ‘Parachute Pat is running TV ads suggesting that Jeff Morgan wants to cut all the trees down at the Traffic Circle and cover the whole place in concrete. Morgan never said anything of the kind.
Pizzella is playing to the crowd in-town that wants to do NOTHING about EVERYTHING. They fight every option or suggestion that is out there. Morgan admits that something — given the increase in traffic and the area’s economic growth — has to be done.
Last year, the village council got blindsided by some proposals from the state DOT regarding the traffic circle. Part of the problem stemmed from the obsession Strickland, Pizzella, and their Friday Group masters had with vacation rental property. A lot of other, more important issues – like traffic and the traffic circle – got put aside.
Pizzella droned on and on about not wanting to cut even one of the ‘historic’ trees at the circle. (He never did explain exactly what piece of history those trees took part in.)
The Traffic Circle is part of a state road. The DOT has the final say on what happens there. They do listen to local feedback. But Pinehurst is at a disadvantage. Strickland, Pizzella, and village manager Jeff Sanborn have reportedly antagonized and irritated state leaders so much that Raleigh is not interested in much discussion with Pinehurst. We’re not in charge of what happens at the circle — which will occur, at the earliest, in 2029. But the folks we’d need to impress and persuade are not interested in dealing with Pizzella, Strickland, Sanborn & co.
The Friday Group’s bully-boy tactics have really shot us in the foot in this area. We need to sideline them and let someone else steer for a while.
Pinehurst residents are faced with a choice. Continue on with ‘Politicians” bound to an unelected, unidentified, and unaccountable cabal of influencers, or elect a “team” of no nonsense LEADERS with the necessary energy, enthusiasm, determination, and professionalism to deal with the challenges that face Village. Morgan/Berggren/Boesch.
Which means Morgan would abandon his seat and someone no one voted for would be placed by four council members for a two year term – a long enough time for a unelected person to cause a lot of damage. An all voted for council is the only way to ensure the best outcome for our 18000 residents.
None of the candidates for Mayor of Pinehurst are bad people. They each have a view on the Village and how to go about leadership. From a local businessman’s viewpoint, I believe Jeff Morgan will be more focused on the important issues facing ALL the Village residents with openness, transparency and candor. .