By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff writer
Government Web sites provide important information for North Carolina residents, according to Gov. Beverly Perdue, who explained in a letter to the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners why Spanish is included on state-government Web sites.
On Monday, two county leaders said that the governor failed to understand the nature of the county’s request and the issue of illegal immigration confronting the state and its counties.
“I don’t think the governor understands the gravity of the situation,” said Commissioner Stan Deatherage in an interview Monday.
Perdue’s letter was scheduled to be discussed by the county commissioners at their meeting Monday night. It comes almost six months after the commissioners wrote Perdue, asking her to remove Spanish from state-government Web sites or explain why she would not.
“Health and safety information is essential to everyone, and the ability to understand and comply with instructions, in turn, benefits our communities. Crisis situations require immediate and collective cooperation, and therefore universal access to emergency messages facilitates help for all,” Perdue said in a letter dated Jan. 18 and addressed to County Manager Paul Spruill.
“In addition, public health is at greater risk if major populations were to have no access to information due to a language barrier. Furthermore, tourism has a major economic impact on our state, and readily accessible information encourages travelers to visit us,” the letter reads.
The county commissioners, during a meeting in July 2009, voted to adopt a resolution asking Perdue to issue an executive order removing all foreign languages from all state of North Carolina Web sites and, if she would not do so, to state her reasons. The resolution also asked Perdue to tell the commissioners why the state chooses to post material in foreign languages on its Web sites. Voting in favor of the resolution, along with Deatherage were Commissioners Hood Richardson, Jay McRoy and Al Klemm.
A letter, signed by Spruill, was mailed to Perdue’s office along with a copy of the resolution on Aug. 3, 2009. After they had not received a response from the governor, the commissioners on Jan. 4 sent a second letter by certified mail to Perdue.
“It shows me that the governor is not focused on citizenship in North Carolina,” said Richardson in an interview Monday morning. “She’s only focused on votes.”
Richardson also said Perdue’s letter failed to answer the commissioners’ initial request to remove Spanish from the state’s Web site.
And, he said, he will invite Perdue to come to Beaufort County and debate the issue of illegal immigration.
“It’s not over with,” he said.