Attack provokes candidate talk

The recent attack on 41-year-old Jud Gee has brought to the forefront what one board of aldermen candidate called an emergency situation in Wrightsville Beach, where degrading behavior has shaken the town’s core.
The attack on South Lumina Avenue Saturday morning, Sept. 12, left Gee in the hospital with life-threatening injuries and resulted in the arrest of Hugh Trey Sandlin, 28, a voice student from Chicago who now sits in a jailhouse cell on $150,000 secured bond.
Alderman candidate Walter DeVries called it a horrid attack that brought to light what the he deemed is a needed upgrade in the town’s safety structure.
DeVries recommended strengthening community policing, putting police on bicycles and Segway Personal Transporters, installing more video cameras, reducing department turnover, adding more officers and restoring merit pay.
He advocated a zero tolerance policy when addressing actions like public drunkenness, drug use, fights, property damage, disturbing the peace, swearing and cursing at residents and generally trashing the town streets, parking lots and beaches.
Citing fiscal constraints, DeVries proposed combating these issues by using the town’s $3.5 million in rainy day fund.
“This money is in the bank. It is to be used for emergencies—and if dealing with problem behavior isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is,” DeVries said.
But using this money may not be as simple as it sounds.
Town manager Bob Simpson said the state of North Carolina requires municipalities to keep a portion—about 7 percent—of its budget in a fund earmarked for emergencies.
Wrightsville Beach, being a coastal town prone to head-on hurricane strikes, is required by ordinance to dedicate 34.5 percent of its budget toward emergency relief, Simpson said. This fiscal year, the town has set aside about 40 percent, or about $3.5 million of its $8.7 million budget.
DeVries’ statements at times coincided with but other times broke with statements made by the other BOA candidates in the days following the attack.
James Smith and Susan Howell Collins did not agree with DeVries’ suggestion that the attack represents a broader emergency situation on Wrightsville Beach.
“I think we have to recognize that, unfortunately, these types of things are happening all over the country, not just Wrightsville Beach,” Smith said. “It’s obviously a very unfortunate thing that happened but people don’t behave the way they used to.”
Collins said, “Since this is an isolated incident and not a random act of violence, I cannot accept the statement that the town of Wrightsville Beach is in an emergency state.”
When asked whether the Gee attack represented an emergency situation, BOA candidate Bill Sisson said, “Yes and no.”
“I don’t want what I’m saying to imply that the police are not doing their job,” he said. “But people in Wrightsville Beach don’t feel safe...and that can qualify as an emergency.”
Referring to the attack, he added: “There is certainly a perceived emergency to do something so that something like this never happens again.”
Alcohol abuse was cited by both Smith and Sisson as major issues currently having a negative affect on town safety, but proposals put forth by each candidate regarding how to combat the problem differed remarkably.
Smith wants Wrightsville Beach to enter into a collaborative effort with other towns to lobby the governor to change the alcohol beverage control board regulations and the agency’s authority to better control the downtown district.
“We have to take the driver’s seat to get the law changed,” he said. “A town, any town, whether it’s Raleigh or Wrightsville Beach, can’t control the bars and it’s a real shame that we can’t.”
Sisson, on the other hand, wants to increase the amount of community policing, a direct connection to DeVries’ proposal.
“I’m not blaming the bar owners, that’s not their problem,” he said. “It’s the problem of the people who are abusing alcohol.”
Sisson said that done properly, community policing breeds more cooperation between the citizens and police than having an arms-length relationship.
He said the town should look at funding options to initiate policies that take police out of the car and put them on the street, where they can have a physical presence to bridge the gap between officers and the public.
Acknowledging the town’s poor fiscal base, Sisson said that before funding any initiatives, the town should look at whether it is making the most efficient use of its current resources.
“Throwing money at a problem never fixes it,” he said, “but the physical presence of police would act as a deterrent.”
Ed Miastkowski could not be reached for comment. Several phone calls to his home and an email message were not answered.