Residents question county hiring, raise concerns about property sales and solar farm smoke

At the start of the public-comment period, longtime resident Earl Daniels pressed the Northampton County Board of Commissioners on a range of governance and transparency issues, including alleged unlawful hiring and firing practices, repeated audit findings, and the sale of county property at what he said were deeply discounted prices.

Daniels said he has attended nearly every meeting since October 2024 to press the board on perceived irregularities. He told commissioners he had sought public records and was denied, and he described what he said were audit findings that had not been corrected during budget formulation. "I have given the board hard evidence of violation of employment contract violations," Daniels said. He also called attention to five resolutions the board passed putting up nine county parcels for sale; Daniels said the nine parcels had a combined tax assessment of $89,374 but were sold to Baseline Properties LLC for $14,650, about 16.1 percent of assessed value. He asked whether Baseline Properties LLC had been vetted and whether the sales were adequately publicized.

During a separate public comment, Alisa (Alyssa) Perry asked commissioners to follow up on the termination of a county human-resources employee, Jill Renee Hoggard, and said an attorney had advised that the personnel matter should not be discussed in open session. The board chair said the matter would be discussed in closed session and that the county would respond.

Sylvia Vincent, a resident, urged the board to finish an updated ordinance to regulate solar farms and described persistent smoke and noise problems she attributed to nearby operations by a company she named Sun Energy 1. Vincent said portable air monitors in her neighborhood frequently showed particulate readings above 200 and observed that readings above 154 are dangerous. "You were told by them that they were burned one week out of the month. That hasn't happened yet," Vincent said, asking the board to consider oversaturation of industrial uses — solar farms, chicken farms, hog farms — and to ensure the public is informed about new commercial projects.

Why this matters: Citizen comments flagged several issues that the board and staff acknowledged would need follow up: records requests and contractual disputes that may proceed in closed session, scrutiny of county property sales and procurement processes, and public-health concerns tied to local industrial operations. The board directed staff to respond to individual inquiries and noted that some matters would be addressed in closed session.