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Empire v. Democracy

by Chalmers Johnson

 

Democracy North Carolina

Most Citizens Are Not Voting

in North Carolina

 

Hugo Neu Landfill

Dump Opponents Call for

Legislative Action

 

Civic Participation Index:

Voting in North Carolina, A Special Report by Democracy North Carolina
Text Box: Editor’s Note: In this interview with Wilmington City Council member, Pat Delair, CCV focuses on local government from the perspective of this fledgling Democrat and relative newcomer to the area. Talking with Delair, it’s easy to conclude that it is unnecessary to ask certain questions. What is government for? Does the environment matter? Does social justice really count? Should law enforcement be fair and impartial? One has the sense with this citizen-councilor, elected to office in 2006, that Wilmington has a devoted public servant. But does she know Wilmington? CCV: I’d like to start by asking a little about you and your background. Can you tell us a little about your origins and your education? DELAIR: I grew up in New Jersey. I was born in Syracuse, N.Y., but I grew up in New Jersey outside of the city. So, that had a major influence on me. My mom was extremely liberal and ecumenical, so we were constantly involved with a lot of different types of religions and things. It’s just a matter of course, she just thought that was really critical to our just being people. Of course, obviously my parents were important. My father was a conservative Republication. But, all the kids in my family are Democrats, liberal Democrats. So my mom always had more influence on us than my father did. I was fourteen years old when Bobby Kennedy was killed. I think at the age of fourteen I had more of a crush on him than I had political awareness. I did know what he was striving for. And of course that was during the Sixties when everything was kind of...up in the air about the war, about women’s rights and Black rights. And all sorts of things. It was a really interesting time to come of age. CCV: Tell us a little about your education. You’ve already talked about it... but in formal terms. Where did you go to school? DELAIR: Well, I went to Catholic School for a few years. And that had a very significant impact on me. I am very much, believe it or not, someone who does not want to cause problems. I’m not one of those people who wants to generate issues and problems just for the sake of it. So, that was kind of an interesting few years that I had. Then I went to college, I got a bachelors degree in accounting. And I went to SUNY—State University of New York. Up in Plattsburgh. One of the coldest places on the planet. And then started work for Cary Corporation after I graduated. In the International Division. Which was very interesting because I did get to do some international traveling. And during that time I went back to graduate school, while I was working. Then I moved from Syracuse, got married, and moved to Dallas, Texas. Then started to work for Otis Elevator. Then from there I took a transfer, I took my transfer to Charlotte, N.C., and that’s how we got back to the East Coast. I love school, so... I went back to Wake Forest to get another Masters Degree in Ethics. So I was in the religion program at Wake Forest getting a Masters Degree in Ethics when I took a restructuring package from Otis and decided I was going to retire early and come to Wilmington. Because I really loved Wilmington. So, there was a hardware store for sale. And, that’s how I got here. CCV: So you moved here to take over a hardware store. About what time was that? DELAIR: About 2000. CCV: So, you’ve been here since 2000. How was the business? DELAIR: Well it was fine, the hardware store was fine. What happened was I got involved with somebody who owned the feed store downtown, also. And that gentleman, he was in a bind financially. And I didn’t do my due diligence. And... it was not a good business deal. I bought the feed store and the property over on North Third Street, and that just turned out not to be a good business deal. And I have been struggling ever since. Trying to keep the businesses going, and keep the property. And of course the eminent domain thing happened with Cape Fear Community College in 2004. Which prompted me to... after defeating the college with that, that kind of prompted me to go into politics. Some people I was working with downtown to defeat the bond, they said, well you’ve got some name recognition now. We’d really like for you to run for office, and we’ll support you. And I never even considered it, ever. And I thought about it, and I said, you know, there is a need for just the average person in this community to be represented... CCV: One of the main questions I wanted to ask was what prompted you to get involved. You had this affinity with Robert Kennedy—had you thought about getting into politics before? DELAIR: You know, when I was in Charlotte, I thought about... it was interesting. I was building a house in Charlotte, and I had just gotten a divorce, and I was building a house. And I had to live in an apartment for a few months while the house was being built. And I hadn’t lived in an apartment since I was like, in my early twenties. And I just witnessed a different group of people that I had not been involved with for a long time. Because I’d always lived in upscale neighborhoods and didn’t like that experience very much to be honest with you. But that’s what we could afford to do, and that’s what we did. But I found people just did not have a voice. I mean it was just as simple as fighting the management at the apartment complex over something that was completely arbitrary. And, these people just didn’t have anyone to stand up for them. So, I thought, maybe I should become an advocate. A professional advocate. And then that kind of went by the wayside, and went on and did my business thing here. But I think maybe I’ve always had a feeling that if I could do it on behalf of somebody else, then that’s what I should do... . CCV: So when you came here you got involved in business. And your business led you into the downtown situation. What did you see here? You say you were aware of people who lacked a voice. How do you perceive that? DELAIR: Well a lot of times it was the people who did business with me. A lot of my customers were rural people, or people from Northside or the Bottom. And we would talk about different issues and things. And I started thinking. A lot of these people are just getting by. And when you are just getting by, any little twitch in the system or any little thing or anybody that throws you a curve ball at that point can really totally take you down. Because you don’t have the resources, they don’t have the voice or the resources. One little thing can tip the balance... CCV: So how... how did you see yourself as providing a voice? DELAIR: I thought I could bring to light any injustices that might be going on. Or, I could be the person who might get them the resources that might need, just through my position, being on council. And I just saw that... I don’t care about, you know, the convention center, or any other big project. I don’t think that’s what the city government should be working on. We’ve got a lot of problems in this community that have to do with infrastructure and public safety and things, and that’s what the municipality should be spending money on and working on. And it’s grunt work, and it’s not popular, and it’s not going to make the newspaper headlines and all that stuff. You know but that’s what we should be working on. And, I just felt that we weren’t focusing on the right things. CCV: Do you feel that you have been successful at addressing some of these. Or, are you running into obstacles? DELAIR: I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself. And I think other people who voted for me are putting pressure on me too. Because all of a sudden I had to hit the ground running. And I think a lot of council people, when they get elected, have a grace period where they can settle in a figure out what’s going on, and figure out what’s happening in terms of what your supposed to do and how do you do it. But I think my mandate was much stronger from the people who voted for me. They wanted me in there changing things immediately. And I wasn’t opposed to doing that, it’s just that there’s a lot of, “you can’t just do that”... I know that a lot of people would like to see me duke it out, you know they tune in hoping that I’m going to just lose it or something and take on a fellow council member. And I will not operate that way. If I start to operate that way then I’ve completely gone against what I’m striving for spiritually. CCV: So you don’t believe in a confrontational approach to politics? DELAIR: I don’t think that it’s necessary. If you do your homework, and get the facts, and state the truth, and illuminate the truth, and just stay very determine and focused on what you’re trying to do, I think that you can make change CCV: And so you believe in speaking the truth to power, and speaking to injustice? DELAIR: Totally. And it’s not going to be getting people to pat me on the back. But I think down the road, I firmly believe if you put the truth out there it will ultimately take on a life of its own and things will happen. And I just think I need to be the one who illuminates the public about what’s going on, because we are really bad communicators in this city. I don’t know whether it’s intentional, or not, but we don’t communicate well with the public. And I think the public deserves, because I think the public is intelligent enough. If you tell them what’s going on, they can assess it. They may not be happy. But at least you’ve give them the information. CCV: You described the people who are behind you. You seem to identify strongly with a particular constituency. Could you describe that constituency? DELAIR: You know, I think it’s pretty much based on the way the votes were laid out in that election. It’s pretty much all over the board. I am definitely not a representative of the status quo. Those are the two neighborhoods, the two precincts that I did not win. Pine Valley and Forest Hills, that kind of area. I have support in those precincts, people who have been here a long time and realize things are not as good as they could be. And that they have maybe been misled and that government has not been run properly, has not focused on the issues that government should be focusing on. But it’s all over the board... I have, several people have approached me who said they had been voting for some forty some odd years, and they are die-hard Republicans, and I was the first Democrat they voted for. I’m hoping that they’ll vote for me again. CCV: So what is it that defines your constituency? What unifies them and defines them as a group?


DELAIR: I think they trusted me to be honest with them. And I think they trusted that I was going to speak on their behalf. I think that they know that I cared about them. About the community. About our environment. Our neighborhoods. And I know it’s always a leap of faith for a voter. The first time they vote for somebody new. Cause you don’t know how they are going to change once they get in office. And I’m really trying very hard not to become typical. And to approach things the way I want, to treat people the way I want to be treated, and to approach things the way I’d want to approach them if I was in that situation.

CCV: How do you perceive Wilmington? Do you see Wilmington as a corrupt city?

DELAIR: No. Not at all. Obviously there’s a lot more corrupt places than Wilmington North Carolina. I just see Wilmington as being driven by the development interests. And I think a lot of the decisions that are made here are made on behalf of that group of people. And sometimes it’s a good thing, and sometimes you’re letting other things slip because of that. And I think the sewer is a good example of that. And I think the reason that we haven’t responded more quickly, and I think we have still not stepped up to the plate here and luckily the state is involved here and hopefully the state will step up to the plate. But I think the reason we haven’t stepped up in the past until now is because of those development interests. And I know there’s people who don’t want to shoot the golden goose, but you know the golden goose is our quality of life here. It’s not building houses. Long after our glass house is built here, we’ll still hopefully have a good tourism industry. And hopefully we’ll be shell fishing again, and hopefully the people in this community will be healthy and have a safe place to live and work, and things like that, so...

CCV: Okay, if you had to make a list of issues and rank them in terms of priority, how would you rank them. What would you say would be at the top of the list for Wilmington in terms of the problems that should be solved here?

DELAIR: Well, obviously the one that’s going to drive us is going to be the sewer. I think the second would be, and I still don’t know why we cannot attract companies to come here, with good paying jobs. Either industrial type companies, or white collar work. Because this is a great place to live. So, something’s going on that I haven’t quite dug into yet to figure out why that’s not happening. Wilmington would be the place, if I had a small business or a two hundred plus business I’d want to come here. So that’d be the next thing. We need to get jobs. I think it’s going to hurt us in the long run if we just become a retirement community. Because all a retirement community brings is service, low paying service jobs. So then you have a bunch of haves, and then you have the have-nots. And the have-nots are not even going to live in town any more. And the way Brunswick County’s run, they’re not even going to be able to live in Brunswick County. They’re just going to get really inflated out. You know you see it played out all over the country. We just don’t seem to learn from other people’s mistakes. In terms of how we are treating our environment. In terms of how to treat people who live here who are not wealthy. And you don’t want to lose your young people to other cities and replace them with retirees. I just think that that’s really short sighted.

CCV: So growth is at or near the top of your list, but you’re concerned about the way it’s being done?

DELAIR: And the type of people we’re trying to market to. They are very well off. I just think there needs to be a good blend of our jobs at all different levels. I don’t think we need to cater to just one corporation in town. The hospital is our largest employer in this community, as I understand, and the hospital just goes about its business, its enlargements and expansions, and doesn’t ask for money from the community. And I don’t think corporations should do that either. I am opposed to corporate welfare. I don’t see what good it does us. It impacts the other businesses that don’t get the money. So it’s just an unfair advantage to the business that comes in here and gets the welfare from us. There are other businesses in this community that could probably use that money too.

CCV: Okay, let’s go to law enforcement. We’ve got a crime problem. How do you see it?

DELAIR: I think that we’ve got an excellent chief of police with Chief Evangelous. I think he’s honest, straight forward, no BS, and he does understand the social implications of crime in the community. He knows it’s got to start in the schools, catching kids when they are younger. He’s said many times that you don’t want a young person’s first involvement with the police to be something bad. You want them to have some trust in the police department, in terms of being in the schools, and having some communication and forming some type of relationship and trust with the police. It shouldn’t be an “us-against-them” mentality. And, I don’t think it’s just a matter of throwing money at the problem to make it go away, but I know there’s a tremendous problem with attrition in the police department. The city is trying very hard to fix that by trying to attract the best people and keep them. And I understand that attrition is problem all over the country. But that’s got to be the first step is to try to get some longevity out of the police force. Some wisdom and some age helps to diffuse certain situations when they come up.

CCV: Do you think we have a problem with the use of force in Wilmington?

DELAIR: I don’t know, I think that’s sometimes objective, whether somebody’s using too much force or not. I’d like to see more police out in the street walking beats. And maybe that’s just not going to happen in 2007. I don’t know. Maybe things have changed so dramatically that you can’t do that any longer. It’s too dangerous for police to do that. I don’t know.

CCV: When a sheriff’s deputy feels that it’s necessary to serve a warrant on a college student suspected of stealing a computer game—and it’s necessary to bring a whole paramilitary assault team and break down the door in order to get in—do you think that involves an excessive use of force?

DELAIR: Yes, that whole situation was handled very badly. And unfortunately we still haven’t heard much from the sheriff about it.

CCV: And about the jail situation. We also had a man beaten to death in the New Hanover County Jail. Is this a pattern in this locality?

DELAIR: I don’t know. But I do have a sense that the two departments are run completely different. The sheriff’s department and the police department. There’s a whole different culture in those two departments, I don’t think they are similar in that way. I don’t. I may be completely wrong. But I do think that the leadership is completely different in those two organizations. And I think that reflects, the culture reflects out in the street in how the citizens are treated.

CCV: In the latest incident on Princess Street in Wilmington. There is some question about what actually happened in that. I think it was reported that the man had been shot multiple times. Wasn’t he just a crazy out there on the street without any clothes on—then grabbed at the police officer’s weapon? Do you think it was necessary in that situation to shoot the man several times?

DELAIR: I sat in on the briefing yesterday and I don’t know any of the details. I heard the preliminary details that the Chief release on Friday or Saturday. And other than that there’s been no other details... But I think the problem, if there’s a problem, you have to go back to the attrition rate in the police department. You have a twenty-six year old veteran. And in my mind, you have to be a pretty mature twenty-six year old for them to be a veteran and handle situations very clearly and with wisdom. And you’ve got a rookie working with a three-year veteran. And I think that might be a bad situation. So, if there’s an issue here it might be with the experience level in our police department.

CCV: But if a police officer in an attempt to subdue an attacker, or someone who is assaulting him or trying to take his weapon away, fires his weapon and shoots the man several times. Do you think that is an excessive use of force?

DELAIR: Well, it depends. What I have been told is that the gentlemen who was killed had gotten the police weapon and shot at the police officer at point blank range. And I think things deteriorated from there. And I think there was more things going on in the street at that moment than just two police officers and a naked guy. And that’s what we have to wait and see, because I wasn’t there, and the Chief wasn’t there, and the SBI’s doing the investigation, and that’s all until that comes out.

CCV: So, you don’t think the story has really been told?

DELAIR: I think there’s information that has not been put out there yet and I think they’re being really cautious, and rightly so to get correct information out to the community. I don’t see this as a situation in which they are hiding things. I think they want to be very, very sure that they get the correct information out there, and not hearsay, and not someone’s opinion. And I think firmly that Ben David will prosecute if it’s necessary. I don’t think there would be any type of a situation in which they would not do that. Just in light of what

 

Big Buck Bonanza in the Sunbelt 

A Wilmington City Councilor Speaks

Out About Money and Injustice

CCV Interview’s Pat Delair

April 13, 2007

—Continue to Next Page—

Carolina Civic Voice

                             Spring 2007  Vol.  7, No 1
Text Box: Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) “Some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream things that never were, and ask, why not.”