Subversion of Voters' Wishes, Sou. Pines.

29 November 2007

Dear Southern Pines Voter,

Recently, Southern Pines officials have taken a series of unusual steps to prevent the newest member of the Southern Pines Town Council, Abigail Dowd, from voting on the Pine Needles Village PUD proposal.

I write to ask that you attend the two upcoming public hearings (see below) in front of the Town Council and voice your disapproval of this subversion of the electoral process.

As you may know, in the November election Abigail Dowd received the largest number of votes ever received by a candidate for Southern Pines Town Council.

Prior to the election, Abigail served on the Southern Pines Planning Board, where she demonstrated a better grasp of the significant and complex impacts of the Pine Needles Village development plan than most of the current Town Council possess.

Perhaps because of her grasp of the issues and her willingness to give them voice, Mayor Quis and others on the current Town Council have scheduled a bizarre series of additional meetings of the Town Council in order to exclude Abigail from the rushed vote on the Pine Needles Village development by holding the vote before Abigail gets sworn in.

I ask that you, as a voter in the recent election, attend these public hearings and urge the Town Council to (1) take the time to properly study this complex developmentand (2) not disenfranchise the voters who elected Abigail Dowd.

Please come to these two meetings and speak out against this capricious and high-handed attempt to silence the voters and improperly rush the consideration of this complex and massive development project.

Sincerely, Marsh Smith

Please attend the two public hearings “conveniently” scheduled during this busy holiday season and speak out:

6 pm, Wednesday, December 5th at Room 103 Van Dusen Hall, Sandhills Community College

7 pm, Tuesday, December 11th at the Douglass Center, Penn. Ave., Southern Pines

PS: You can keep track of any changes to the meeting schedule at this web address -- http://www.southernpines.net/government_calendar.aspx .

You can also contact me at my e-mail address (marsh@marshsmithlaw.com ; please type “VOTER ALERT” in the subject line), if you have any questions or if you would like a list of talking points to consider using at the public meetings.

Thank you.

Marsh

Please also consider sending an e-mail to the current members of the Southern Pines Town Council, especially if you can’t attend the hearings on December 5th and 11th.

Mayor Frank Quis quismachinery@sopines.net 692-6942

Mayor pro tempore Fred Walden fredwalden@hotmail.com 692-5052

Council Member (now Mayor-elect) Mike Haney cmhaney@earthlink.net 692-6114

Council Member Chris Smithson chris@smithsoninc.com 693-9766

Council Member David Woodruff banddwoody@earthlink.net 695-1023