PITTSBORO — It was close to 10 p.m., nearly four hours after Monday’s Chatham County Board of Commissioners meeting kicked off.
But the issue the hundreds of people came to hear about and speak about wasn’t fully resolved.
The commissioners voted 4-1 Monday on a motion to instruct the county attorney to explore options for removing the Confederate monument from its current place in front of the Chatham County Historic Courthouse in downtown Pittsboro. The decision came after 42 public comments with varying opinions and a presentation from a group presenting a legal argument for giving the statue back to its original owners, the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Board Chairman Mike Dasher, who led off the evening with a plea for civility, graded the discussion with an A-minus for following through on that. Throughout the evening, various remarks made by public commenters on both sides were met with boos and cheers.
“People are passionate about it,” he said. “You’re talking about people’s families, family history, I get it.”
Dasher added that he think the meeting, held at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center, accomplished the desired purpose: to hear from individuals about their opinions and move forward deliberately. Asked about his opinion about the monument, he said he didn’t want to state his opinion publicly yet.
“I’m curious to see what our county attorney thinks,” he said. “We’ll see. It’s up to the board based on the county attorney’s determination.”
Karen Howard, the lone minority commissioner, said immediately after the public comments session concluded that she could tell which way a person was going to lean on the issue based on one factor. She made the motion to refer the subject to the county attorney.
“I could tell whether a person was for keeping the statue or getting rid of the statue by whether they looked at me,” she said. “I could tell before they got to the point, and that was disheartening. But it was reinforced over and over again in the language that was used.”
After the meeting, Howard said that, if a vote was held, she would have voted to remove and return the statue to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
“I would say to remove, but it’s part of a longer-term conversation,” she said. “It’s not a fix, it’s not a panacea. At the very least, we’re going to have to agree that it doesn’t reflect us all based on the output from the community.”
Board Vice Chairman Diana Hales seconded Howard’s motion, saying that she appreciated the number of people who came out “hopefully to hear, to listen, to express their concerns.”
“There are several tracks, and the question is what does the North Carolina statute actually say as we look at the conditions, the legal conditions, in Chatham County,” Hales said. “So I think that’s a first step.”
Commissioner Walter Petty, who earlier in the night announced his resignation from the board effective at the end of the month, asked that the motion be adapted to the effect of simply seeking information, not on the opportunities to remove the statue but simply the opportunities available to the board.
He continued, saying that it was “pretty evident” that this was a “no-win situation.” He admitted that he did not have the answer, but that it was important to “come out of this stronger and not weaker.”
“Quite honestly, removing it or leaving it is not going to fix the problem,” Petty said. “The problem we have, we’re dealing with a symptom. The statue’s a symptom, not the problem. The problem is the heart of people.”
He said the best way was to “truly get the emotion out of it,” and if that happened, “the decision becomes easier.”
There was no stated timetable for the county attorney to return an opinion. Dasher said Monday night that he hopes the conversation can wrapped up “soon.” Howard said she hoped to hear something within the next month or two and then develop a plan.
See a sample of some of the comments made at the Commissioners meeting by clicking here.
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.comr or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.