Pender County Board of Commissioners newest member speaks on key items in Tuesday’s regular meeting

Tate will continue to serve in this role until 20-28

PENDER COUNTY (WWAY) –The Pender County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday night and its newest member played a big role on a few key issues.

Jimmy Tate, a former Pender County Commissioner, had a few items in their Board of County Commissioners Regular Meeting. Some of them include a moratorium to freeze county employment and employment spending. Another item was adding Union Rescue as a subcontractor with Pender County.

As a former Pender County Commissioner from 2008 to 2015, Tate was reelected back to the board in December 2022 but resigned shortly after on January 2023, after he says fellow board members made allegations of discrimination. There were also allegations concerning Tate’s residency.

We spoke with Tate outside of the Public Assembly Room, located in Burgaw, about current relationships with his fellow board members. He says the majority of the current board have great relationships with each other now and hopes they improve with other board members.

“I’ve learned over the last two years that I can only be responsible for my actions, but I can be responsible for all the 70,000 people that I serve, and they refresh me on the darkest day in this role,” Tate shared.

Tate will continue to serve in this role until 2028.

We then spoke about the hiring freeze of county employees and employee spending agenda items. All but Commissioner Jerry Groves approved the freeze.

‘Out of Control,’ is how Tate described it. He stated the number of county employees has increased over time, but salaries are not. Then, Tate points out the county has been making purchases like new vehicles but is not investing in its people.

The hiring freeze is expected to last until June 30th.

One agenda item that has brought many residents to commissioner meetings is the merger with Pender EMS and Fire, a private, non-profit organization that does rescue assistance in Pender County. The board is still discussing how the merger will be performed, the cost associated with it, and will the merger delay or stop rescue operations.

In addition to adding Pender EMS and Fire, the board approved adding another subcontractor, Union Rescue, to District Four. That’s the district Commissioner Tate represents. He says Union Rescue already had a subcontract with Pender EMS and Rescue. The approval will make Union Rescue a direct contractor with Pender County.

Some people are concerned that bringing Union Rescue as a direct contractor could put Pender EMS and Fire out of business due to how tax dollars might be spent in certain parts of the county but not others.

Tate says this will put multiple rescue entities under Pender County but said it will not affect rescue operations.