There used to be an unwritten but accepted rule among presidents – an outgoing president would refrain from criticizing the leader who followed in the same position. 

 But make no mistake about this: Former Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips operates under no such rule when it comes to fellow commissioners he used to serve with.  Phillips has gone after the current Board of Commissioners in no uncertain terms, and, this week, after the board passed a new countywide mask mandate, Phillips once again had some choice words for the current board.

“Unfortunately,” Phillips wrote in an email to the Rhino Times, “most of the current GC Board of Commissioners members have simply become a local extension of the disastrous Biden Administration.  American soldiers are dying behind enemy lines trying to clean up Biden’s Afghanistan debacle where thousands of American citizens are literally being held hostage with no way to get home. So, while American lives are in peril in a foreign land guess what pathetic lunacy is going on in your own back yard? Yep, you guessed it. Masking our citizens.”

 Phillips, who chose not to run again for his commissioners seat last year – but clearly didn’t take a vow of silence – pointed out that requiring people to wear a mask indoors –  that the board threatening fines and business closures for disobeying.  He added that the board’s  “previously failed measures, masks have, once again, become the obsession for the majority of GC Commissioners and many of their flailing staff advisors.

Phillips also pointed out that the board’s first attempt in August to pass a mandate failed.”

Phillips’ ire is directed at the six county commissioners who voted in favor of a mask mandate.  Three of the nine – Republican Commissioners Alan Perdue, Justin Conrad and Democratic Commission James Upchurch, voted against the mandate at virtual meeting Thursday, Aug. 26.

The Former Chairman continued: “Seriously, is anybody paying any attention? At all. Government mandates haven’t worked to stop this heinous virus from doing what viruses have always done nor will more heavy-handed bully tactics stop it now. Not to mention (but I will) that these brainiacs botched the legal procedure the first time around, but came back a couple of weeks later to make sure the poor saps who elected them were reminded who’s the boss around here.”

He also said it’s fascinating how much people believe the “idiocy” that comes off the tongues of many of the commissioners.

Phillips also said many on the board have lost view of the fact that the elected leaders work for the people and not the other way around.

“Many of them (and our citizens) are behaving as though we’re living in Nazi Germany rather than Guilford County, USA,” he wrote. “ How rapidly these power-hungry bureaucrats and elected folks have devolved into a state of confusion and incompetence in just a few short months. Fact is, they’re pretty much in lockstep with the Biden Administration’s ineptitude. The difference is that this stuff is literally happening in your own back yard. The newbies need to find their backbone ASAP and tell Skip to take a hike. They don’t owe him jack simply because he’s been around for a lifetime. Time in the seat is zero indication of leadership potential.”

Phillips stated that five or six reasonable commissioners on the board need to join forces and “get on the same page with the majority of our citizens who want less government intrusion in their lives, not more.”

He concluded:  “Elections have consequences, folks. It’s your county. It’s your country. Not theirs. Wake up and get your heads back in your community’s game or, as the old saying goes, ‘you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.’”

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