By Sam Garrett
On Thursday, August 22, Mayor Charlie Sellers called for a special meeting of the Blowing Rock Town Council. The meeting took place on August 26, 2024 at 5:00 p.m., which adhered to the town’s bylaws requirement that a special called meeting be scheduled and announced at least 48 hours in advance. The meeting topic was a discussion of the Blowing Rock Planning Board’s membership.
“I am very concerned with the conversations going on in town,” Sellers said prior to the meeting. “We have a planning board that is not functioning in the way it should be. Gregg Bergstrom has made comments that the mayor and town council have not been transparent,” Sellers said. “Calling the meeting was a decision I had to make.”
Sellers opened the meeting by stating, “This is special meeting that I called. We should all act in a professional manner. Some people can’t do that.”
Sellers proceeded to discuss a letter to the editor that planning board member Bergstrom sent to High Country Press, which was published on August 22, 2024. Sellers read aloud a sentence from Bergstrom’s published letter which stated, “The simple fact of the matter is the Town of Blowing Rock has not been open, honest, or transparent about the sudden need to replace this tower now.”
Following the reading, Town Manager Shane Fox communicated the municipal codes that apply to members of the planning board.
“Town Council has the power to appoint and the power to remove,” said Town Attorney Tucker Deal.
“We have the responsibility to uphold our town,” said town council member Melissa Pickett.
“When you serve on a board, you have a higher level of expectations,” said town council member Cat Perry.
Town council member David Harwood said, “Alleging dishonesty and lack of integrity by the board and town staff, his comments risked undermining public trust.”
Harwood made a motion to censure Bergstrom. No one seconded the motion.
Town council member Doug Matheson made a motion to remove Bergstrom from the planning board. Pete Gherini seconded the motion.
As Sellers started to ask for votes, Bergstrom interrupted to ask, “Does the accused get a chance to speak?”
Sellers replied, “Yes.”
Bergstrom approached the podium and spoke, re-reading the sentence that Sellers previously quoted.
“The simple fact of the matter is the Town of Blowing Rock has not been open, honest, or transparent about the sudden need to replace this tower now,” said Bergstrom, with emphasis on the word ‘now.’ He followed that by saying, “It’s true. It’s my opinion.”
Bergstrom continued speaking before he and Sellers both got off topic and started debating issues surrounding the emergency communications pole on Green Hill Circle.
“Let’s get back to the agenda item,” said Deal.
In closing Bergstrom stated, “Apparently as a private citizen who did not identify themselves as a member of the planning board … if anyone disagrees with the town, they will be removed.”
Bergstrom sat down and Sellers asked for a vote on the motion, with the following results: Cat Perry – Yes; David Harwood – No; Melissa Picket – Yes; Doug Matheson – Yes; Pete Gherini – Yes. The motion to remove Bergstrom from the planning board passed by a vote of 4-1.
The meeting was adjourned.
High Country Press reached out to Bergstrom and he provided the following response:
I did not know a Special Meeting had been called for tonight, even though I was “the accused”, until Sue Sweeting called me about 3:15pm today to ask if I was attending the meeting. So when I asked to speak as the accused, my comments were not prepared in advance.
Additionally, once Sue sent me Ms. Hubner’s PUBLIC NOTICE, I found it very interesting that: “The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss Planning Board Membership.” At best, this is an obfuscation since the actual purpose was the removal of a Planning Board member, but the Mayor and Town Council were too cowardly to state this up front.
Apparently, expressing an opinion as a private citizen (not as a Planning Board member) that is contrary to the Town’s so-called leaders; elected, appointed, and hired, is a crime worthy of removal even though what I stated in my Letter to the Editor, that the Town Council took out of context and exception to, was factual.
Their decision, despite Mr. Harwood’s motion for censure that was not seconded, goes to show this was personal, particularly based on Charlie Sellers’ opening comments. Their scripted, well-rehearsed, and predetermined biased, ensured the outcome was never in doubt.
This public meeting was not required given so-called personnel decisions are handled routinely in Closed Sessions of Town Council meetings. This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was nothing more than an infantile, vindictive attempt to embarrass me publicly and speaks volumes about the lack of character and vengeful nature of Charlie Sellers and each Council member, except Mr. Harwood.
In reality, the only people that were embarrassed are Charlie Sellers, Cat Perry, Melissa Pickett, Doug Matheson, and Pete Gherini by displaying their full-throated pettiness, peevishness, and small minded spitefulness when someone dares to disagree with them and points it out using their first amendment rights.
It is no wonder the Town and its politics are so divisive and will certainly remain so. This is a black eye on the Town Council for voting to remove a citizen that volunteered his time to serve on an advisory board and expressed an opinion that was contrary to theirs. (Gregg Bergstrom)
The procedure to remove a member of the planning board is outlined in the Bylaws of the Town of Blowing Rock Planning Board, Article III, Section 4, which states, “Any member of the Board may be removed by the Town Board of Commissioners for inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or conflict of interest.”