Budget Help Comes to Enfield

Enfield's mayor and two town commissioners have boycotted budget meetings since June, so Enfield has been without a budget since then.

Tuesday, NAACP got involved.

Last month, the Local Government Commission in Raleigh decided to puttogether an interim budget plan for the small town so that employees couldget paid and the town could carry on routine business. Tuesday's meetingwas held to work up a budget for the remainder of the year through June30.

To some, that means the town board has failed in its efforts to puttogether a budget of its own. Others say the mayor has done the rightthing, because there are issues of fairness involved. There are someindications that the situation may not be resolved, however, even afterthe Tuesday meeting.

The NAACP contacted Enfield Mayor Kai Hardaway after hearing of histhree-month boycott of local meetings. Town leaders were still unable toagree on Tuesday. The NAACP wants an investigation into why the townhasn't made any progress.

Keith Sutton, executive director of the North Carolina NAACP, said theorganization wants to know why the leaders have not been able to resolvethe budget problem.

The mayor and two African-American commissioners have boycotted themeetings, reportedly because they fear their plans to annex outlying areasand to call for an employee pay raise will be voted down by the majorityof the board. Mayor Hardaway says he doesn't think the best interests ofEnfield's citizens are being considered.

One factor that also plays a role the this dispute is that an electionis coming up this November. Mayor Hardaway is up for re-election as areone white and one African-American commissioner.