During the public-comment period at the Haywood County Board of Commissioners meeting on Aug. 4, Ellen Pitt criticized a recent local newspaper article for what she described as misleading coverage of a county cam‑bracelet pilot project and urged the county to note that the initiative has broader support.

Pitt said the article portrayed Waynesville as the only jurisdiction supporting cam bracelets and said that was incorrect. "We've had support from you all, from Swain County commissioners, from various agencies and organizations, and certainly from a lot of defense lawyers," she told the board. She added the paper did not interview her or the cam‑bracelet provider and that the coverage used the term "declined" in a way she felt was inaccurate.

Pitt said the project team had met with "Mister Moorehead," who has provided time and assistance, and that the group had been seeking funding sources other than county tax dollars, including potential ABC revenue tied to a state bill. She also said the "sober operator act of 2025 would allow for pretrial cam bracelets," and asserted that pretrial electronic monitoring had been law since 2012. "Pretrial cam bracelets have been the law since 2012 and you all well know it because I've been up here yelling for 10 years," she said.

No county action followed the public comment. The record shows the county chair limited public comments to three minutes and that Pitt was the lone speaker signed up for the session.

This account reports Pitt's statements as she presented them; the article does not independently verify the legal arguments Pitt raised about statutes or whether the state bill she referenced includes specific ABC revenue language.