Commissioner claims colleagues blocking him from recording State of County response

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The battle between New Hanover County commissioners Woody White and Jonathan Barfield has reached a new level.

Barfield, the commission’s chair, is slated to give the annual State of the County address Monday at 6 p.m., but he says he won’t address issues about county finances and commissioner spending White wants him to discuss.

He will, though, talk about jobs.

“The fact that we have had several new employers come here. CastleBranch being one bringing over 400 additional jobs. Vertex coming to our community with over 1,300 jobs, and just looking at the past as well as the future and where we are right now. There’s going to be a high level of views of what the county has accomplished over the last year,” Barfield said.

White, a Republican, has threatened to give his own response to Barfield’s State of the County if his issues are not included. Now he says Barfield, a Democrat, and fellow Republican Commissioner Beth Dawson have instructed staff not to let White use county video equipment to record his response.

White claims it’s now a First Amendment issue.

Dawson says there has been miscommunication. She says she told the county manager that it was unnecessary to use county resources for a rebuttal and that this is New Hanover County, not Washington, DC.

“Any commissioner can use county staff and resources as long as they arrange it through the county manager’s office,” Dawson said.

Barfield has not responded to a message from WWAY for comment on White’s allegation.