Durham Republican Party Calls for Fred Foster to Withdraw from County Commissioner Appointment Consideration as well as from County Commissioner Race  

Durham, NC – June 9, 2012 – The Durham Republican Party has obtained information that was withheld from the Durham County voters in the recent County Commissioner Primary Election.  If this information had been disclosed to the county’s voters, Fred Foster would not have made it through the Primary.

Personal integrity is one of the most important qualities for any public servant to have.  Party affiliation is irrelevant.  If a would-be political leader does not have integrity, they should not be placed in a position of power over a citizenry.  The voters’ job is to determine which candidate(s) they believe to be of the highest moral character.  Clearly, voters for both major political parties have gotten that choice wrong a number of times in our nation’s history.  Recently, the citizens of Durham got it wrong.  Unfortunately, they got it wrong because public – not private – information was withheld from the voting public.

The Durham County Republican Party has no dog in this fight.  We are not trying to advance any particular candidate, as we have none to advance at this moment in time.  However, the Durham County Republican Party is duty bound to disclose this information to the voting public since Mr. Foster neglected to do so himself.

On Mr. Foster’s campaign website, he lists that he once worked for the County of Durham in the Division of Social Services.  His campaign website makes no mention as to why or when he left the employment of Durham County.  It has come to our attention that Mr. Fred Foster, Jr. was about to be fired for cause from Durham County Division of Social Services, and chose to resign, asking that the Notice of Dismissal be removed from his record.

When we first learned of this several weeks ago, we filed a Public Records Request to verify what was then only a rumor.  This past Friday morning, we finally got the facts in the form of the Recommended Decision dated June 12, 1991 from the State of North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings.  You can see the full report for yourself here.

If you take the time to read the full report, you will see that Fred Foster continuously exhibited an utter disdain for Durham County Taxpayers.  Mr. Foster sent his business and personal mail with county postage as a matter of routine.  In reality, the Durham County Taxpayers were subsidizing Mr. Foster’s term life insurance sales business.  Furthermore, Mr. Foster had to be warned not to sit around reading novels while on the clock for the Durham County Division of Social Services.  He also had to be told not to solicit insurance business while he was supposed to be doing the work of the Division of Social Services.

The most egregious example of lack of integrity is when Mr. Foster abused his authority by apparently instructing one of the County’s Security Guards reporting to him to attend one of his insurance sales seminars when the guard was scheduled to work.

The Conclusions of Law from the Office of Administrative Hearings decision speak for themselves:

“The Petitioner (Mr. Foster) violated standards of personal conduct by conducting business affairs of his secondary employment, during Respondent’s (DSS) work time…”

“The Respondent had just cause to dismiss the Petitioner from its employ.”

Mr. Foster routinely showed an utter disregard for his job as a Durham County employee, when he was a mature man in his forties.  As a result, Mr. Foster demonstrated an utter disregard for the Durham County Taxpayers.  Clearly, the Taxpayers of Durham County would not have voted for Mr. Foster had they been properly informed of his utter disrespect for the very people he says he wants to represent.

Therefore, the Durham County Republican Party, as Durham Citizens and Taxpayers, calls on Mr. Foster to withdraw his name from consideration to fulfill the remainder of Commissioner Bowser’s term.  Furthermore, we call on Mr. Foster to withdraw his name from the 2012 County Commissioners Race.

Likewise, as Durham Citizens and Taxpayers, we urge the current remaining County Commissioners to vote NO for Fred Foster to serve out Commissioner Bowser’s term.

Likewise, as Durham Citizens and Taxpayers, we urge the citizens of Durham of any and all party affiliation to contact the County Commissioners and urge them to vote NO on Fred Foster.

Finally, we believe the County needs to change the terms of the County Commissioners to staggered terms.  All five County Commissioners should not be elected in the same year.  The founding fathers of our great nation intentionally chose staggered terms for elected officials so as to limit any potential remorse of the voting electorate.  We respectfully ask the County to consider implementing staggered terms for County Commissioners.

Please Disseminate

The Durham Republican Party respectfully asks that this request be broadly communicated to the voting public.  If you would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact Chairman Hicks at Theodore.Hicks@DurhamGOP.com