We Can’t Make This Up
A lower level “Water Supply Officer & Inspector” for the City of Charlotte tried to take down the entire NC Farm Act of 2022 by demanding that Governor Cooper veto the bill.
In a letter addressed to Governor Cooper dated June 30, 2022, NC Fire Marshal’s Association president Adam Cloninger demanded that the Governor veto the Farm Act. Cloninger claims to represent well over 700 members of the association. He demanded a veto for the NC Farm Act citing the following Building Code exemption: “the owner or any person leasing the building must be a farmer; and agriculture products or by-products have to be primarily used or stored there.” This exemption clarifies an ambiguity in the regulations and codifies currently accepted practices statewide. Cloninger refers in the letter that his association worked “tirelessly to …. stop the deregulation of our sacred building codes.”
Cloninger did not win the argument with the legislature, Department of Insurance, or the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The letter opened with an unprecedented personal attack on the bill’s primary sponsor, Senator Brent Jackson. Cloninger accused Senator Jackson of self-dealing because he owns two impacted buildings. This situation is no different than a lawyer, CPA, or insurance agent sponsoring and voting on broad legislation that affects their businesses. If that wasn’t enough, he hyperlinked the buildings’ street addresses to their respective tax cards in the letter. The letter failed to mention that the regulatory clarification impacts hundreds of farmer-owned/leased facilities throughout our state.
Cloninger must have grown frustrated when he received no attention from his letter and reached out to the news media, trying to start a brushfire. Senator Jackson responded directly and purposefully to the news inquiry. It ended up being a small story.
To Governor Cooper’s credit, he made no mention of the veto request and quickly signed the NC Farm Act of 2022.
We need good farmers and agribusiness owners in the General Assembly. We need Commissioners of Agriculture, Labor, and Insurance that understand the state’s largest economic sector in office. But unfortunately, stunts like this discourage participation in our representative form of government.
In my almost 44 years working in public policy, I have never seen a more amateurish attack on a sitting member of the General Assembly. The once respected NC Fire Marshal’s Association needs to do some soul searching and try to repair its tarnished image.