Two city officials spread disinformation about the majority of New Bern’s Board of Aldermen after vote to fill vacant alderman seat didn’t go their way.
Mayor Jeffrey Odham and Sabrina Bengel, the chairman of the city’s Municipal Services District and a commissioner on the Housing Authority board, made unfounded accusations against Mayor Pro Tem Hazel Royal, Alderman Rick Prill and Alderman Barbara Best after they didn’t vote to appoint Dana Outlaw to the vacant Ward 6 alderman seat in New Bern, NC.
The board remains deadlocked after multiple votes were split 3-3.
On Aug. 27, 2024, Aldermen Bobby Aster of Ward 3, Alderman Johnnie Ray Kinsey of Ward 4 and Mayor Jeffrey Odham, who lives in Ward 6, voted for Dana Outlaw, a former alderman and mayor. Aldermen Rick Prill of Ward 1, Barbara Best of Ward 5 and Mayor Pro Tem Royal of Ward 2 voted for Trevor Dunnell who was a newspaper editor as previously reported here. He later dropped out of the running.
On Oct. 21, Royal, Best and Prill voted for Darlene Brown, the former executive director of Craven County Partners in Education and Kinsey, Odham and Aster voted for Outlaw.
Who’s in charge?
The City of New Bern has a council-manager form of government. The Board of Aldermen is comprised of elected officials from six wards. Voters of each ward elect an alderman to represent them.
“The government and general management of the city shall be vested in the council,” according to general statute.
New Bern’s city charter says the Board of Aldermen makes decisions as a whole and the city manager serves at the board’s pleasure.
If there is a vacancy, the seat “shall be filled by appointment of the city council,” according G.S. 160A-63.
The mayor is elected at large and is recognized as the official head for ceremonial purposes, like attending ribbon cuttings, etc. He facilitates the BOA meetings as the presiding officer.
The board has rules of procedure, but it doesn’t look like the mayor is following them. City Attorney M. Scott Davis has said the mayor should not participate in debates.
The rules of procedure note, “If the presiding officer becomes actively involved in debate on a particular matter, he or she may designate another board member to preside over the debate. The presiding officer shall resume presiding as soon as action on the matter is concluded.”
Instead of turning over the gavel to Mayor Pro Tem Royal, Odham continues to debate. He has also discussed issues after being recused from voting due to conflicts of interest.
The mayor got upset when there weren’t enough members to hold an official meeting on Oct. 8. This wasn’t the first time there wasn’t a quorum. Every board member has missed meetings. Odham missed the July meeting, but no one said he was “missing.”
Why the outburst?
Jeffrey Odham knew that Alderman Prill would be out of the country on Oct. 8, so it would be his chance to appoint Dana Outlaw to the empty seat since Johnnie Ray Kinsey already said he would follow the mayor’s lead and Bobby Aster said he was voting for Outlaw.
Instead of moving to adjourn the meeting because there weren’t enough members for an official meeting, Aster and Kinsey sat silently as Odham used City Hall, staff, the city’s social media accounts and other resources to make unfounded accusations about the majority of the BOA who weren’t there to defend themselves.
Odham accused the three aldermen of having better things to do than conducting city business.
He told a local TV news station, “We’re here to serve our neighbors and three of the members of this board let down the neighbors in Ward 6 and it’s very disappointing.”
Sabrina Bengel repeated Odham’s narrative on social media for the next two weeks. She also made disparaging remarks about two of the candidates.
She questioned Trevor Dunnell’s ability to fill the seat because he was a member of the press, and he would have access to closed session meetings. Sabrina Bengel participates in the city’s MSD Board and New Bern Housing Authority’s Board closed session meetings and hosts an internet talk show where she opines about city and housing authority business. Dunnell is no longer the editor of the newspaper, and he withdrew his application for the alderman position.
Bengel questioned the candidacy of another applicant and said the applicant moved to the ward about seven months ago.
On Oct. 24, Odham posted an “unofficial” Facebook poll of alderman candidates for residents of Ward 6, but only people who were followers for 24 hours could comment or reply. He said the poll was for Ward 6 residents only, but his business partner, who lives in a different country voted.
In August, when Prill, Royal and Best wanted to send mailers to notify Ward 6 residents about the vacancy, Odham said it wasn’t in the budget. The estimated cost was $900.
The city conducted a private poll after the Aug. 27 meeting and Kinsey, Aster and Odham voted against the mailers as reported here.
They talked about a social media campaign to spread the word, but there were only two posts on the city’s Facebook page in August about the open seat.
Who’s representing who?
Prior to the city’s charter change in 2011, the Board of Aldermen voted on all matters and the mayor could only vote to break a tie.
On Jan. 11, 2011, the board considered an agenda item titled, “Public Hearing and Consider Adopting Resolution Amending Section 6 of the Charter of the City of New Bern as to Term Limits of Elected Officials.”
The actual resolution was to amend the city charter so the mayor could vote on all matters. It would also set term limits at two consecutive, two-year terms for the mayor and aldermen.
On a night when Alderman Victor Taylor of Ward 2 was absent; Alderman Dana Outlaw of Ward 6, Alderman Sabrina Bengel of Ward 1 and Dennis “Denny” Bucher of Ward 3 voted to change the charter to allow the mayor to vote on all matters and set term limits. Alderman Bernard White of Ward 5 and Alderman Johnnie Ray Kinsey voted against it.
The NC General Assembly changed the charter to allow the mayor to vote on all matters but did not set term limits.
Mayor Lee Bettis lived in Ward 1, so this allowed the residents of Ward 1 to be represented by two people, while the rest of the city wards had one representative with one vote.
The next election, Outlaw, Bucher and Bengel ran for mayor. Dana Outlaw won.
When Outlaw won, Ward 6 was represented by two people. As alderman of Ward 6, Jeffrey Odham had one vote and Mayor Outlaw had another vote.
In August, at the beginning of the process to appoint the Ward 6 alderman, Kinsey told the mayor that he would follow his lead and has followed him ever since. Who represents the people of Ward 4?
Odham said he wanted to fill the seat as soon as possible because he had to cover for Ward 6 because he lives in the ward.
On Sept. 24, Prill told Aster, Odham and Kinsey that he would be out of town for the first meeting in October and asked for the vote to be delayed until the second week in October. They said no. Odham, Kinsey and Aster denied Prill the right to represent the people of Ward 1.
Prill told Foster Hughes, the city manager, months ago and before the seat became vacant, that he would be away for the first meeting in October. He planned a trip to Europe.
During the Oct. 21 meeting, Prill asked Hughes if he told anyone on the board about his trip and Hughes said he couldn’t remember.
What happens when elected officials are denied the right to participate in key votes?
Although the aldermen represent each ward, together, they govern all aspects of the city. Their decisions impact everyone. The city manager’s monthly report for September shows the city’s current financial state here.
Effort to move New Bern’s 2025 election
There’s been an ongoing effort to move New Bern’s election to an even numbered year to align with the general election.
Last October, after only serving one year in office, then Aldermen Bob Brinson of Ward 6 asked the board to consider moving New Bern’s 2025 elections to an even numbered year so they could have more time in office and to save the city $70,000.
Two months later, Brinson filed to run for NC Senate for District 3.
In April 2024, Brinson asked the board again to move the elections to 2026.
Mayor Odham asked the city attorney, “Can you give us a drop-dead date on when you need a decision?”
“I’ve had Representative (Steve) Tyson (of the NC House District 3) on standby for several months knowing that you were contemplating this decision, he’s waiting for my answer in the morning to let the legislative staff know what to do, go or no go,” Scott Davis said.
Best, Aster, Prill, Royal and Kinsey voted not to change the election and Brinson and Odham voted to move it.
Brinson quit a few months later to hold a higher office as the state Senator for District 2 after Jim Perry resigned.
Despite political advertisements saying “Re-Elect” Bob Brinson, he wasn’t elected. He was nominated by the Republican Senatorial District committee for District 2 and Governor Roy Cooper appointed him as reported here.
Three years ago, Sabrina Bengel, Jeffrey Odham, Dana Outlaw and Bobby Aster were in favor of moving the 2021 election to 2022 to save $40,000 every four years. Barbara Best, Jameesha Harris and Johnnie Ray Kinsey said they didn’t want to move the election.
A few months later, the NC General Assembly authorized municipalities to delay elections for a year if there was a need to redistrict as the census results would take a few more months to report because of the pandemic.
The Board decided to redistrict so New Bern’s elections were delayed and their terms were extended.
Recent changes to local NC municipal elections
Mark-Anthony Middleton, the president of the NC League of Municipalities recently wrote an article, “Speaking Out: Troubling Trend of Local Partisan Election Mandates.”
He said, “Over the course of the last few legislative sessions, we have seen local bills—and some of them passed into law, others not—mandating that local elections be changed from non-partisan to partisan. It’s a troubling trend.”
He said the NC General Assembly passed a local bill (House Bill 1064) that would “require that all of the municipal elections in Forsyth County be held on a partisan basis.”
NewBernNow.com reached out to the Town of Lewisville and asked if the local officials were aware of the change to their charters.
Mayor Mike Horn said, “No, the bill was introduced without our knowledge, or the knowledge of the other municipalities affected by this legislation in Forsyth County (Clemmons, Rural Hall, Bethania, Tobaccoville, Walkertown and Kernersville.)
We asked if a public hearing was held and he said, “There was a Senate Committee meeting after the bill cleared the House Committee where the public had an opportunity to speak. The Mayors of Lewisville, Clemmons and Rural Hall were able to attend the committee meeting on short notice to speak in opposition to this bill. The committee members voted straight party lines with Republicans all in favor of this legislation.”
Alderman Bill Apple of Kernersville told NewBernNow.com that the Board of Aldermen wasn’t aware of the local bill that changed Kernersville’s election from nonpartisan to partisan until two days before it was passed.
He said it was slammed through without any input from local elected officials or the public. If it wasn’t for the NC League of Municipalities, the board probably wouldn’t have found out until the bill became law during a BOA meeting.
“There is absolutely no excuse other than blind party affiliation,” Alderman Apple said.
He said it would be an extra burden and cost to unaffiliated candidates.
Apple said as an unaffiliated candidate, he would be required to get a few thousand voters to sign a petition for him to run as unaffiliated.
“Otherwise, we would be required to file either as a Democrat, or a Republican, or a candidate that is ‘partisan’,” Apple said.
Another local bill was introduced this year that, “Prohibits conducting municipal elections in (The City of) Jacksonville in 2025” and it would extend certain terms of office. It was referred to the committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate on June 6, 2024, as noted on the NCGS’s website.
NewBernNow.com asked Jacksonville’s City Manager Joshua Ray if the city council held a public hearing or voted to move the elections.
Josh Ray said, ““The City Council did not discuss this item and did not take a vote on the matter. This local bill was proposed without input from the governing body of the City of Jacksonville.”
Republican Steve Tyson and Democrat Linda G. Moore are running for the NC House of Representatives District 3 seat.
Democrat Charles T. Dudley and Republican Bob Brinson for the NC Senate District 3 seat.
Voting information can be found on the Craven County Board of Elections website.
Meetings are live streamed on City 3 TV and on the city’s Facebook page. Recordings are normally uploaded to YouTube.
NewBernNow.com reached out to Mayor Jeffrey Odham, Sabrina Bengel and Senator Bob Brinson for comment, but have not received a response by press time.
By Wendy Card, Editor. Send an email with questions or comments.