How is it that a person elected to office by the people of New Hanover County gets to take early retirement??????? And, how in the world is that supposed to save the County money?????? Won't we have another sheriff? He'll have the same benefits as the current one. I don't get it - he was ELECTED. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT sorry to see him go - it's just that I do not understand why an elected official gets to take an early retirement - shouldn't an elected office be exempt from that sort of perk? Elected official is a smidge different from your run-of-the-mill employee, and owes that time to the voters that put him in office. It's a two-edged sword - as I said, I do not like him, but by the same token, he was elected to do a job for the voters, by the voters. What's wrong with this picture???