Prayer Appeal: Deal was cut before the vote

In the hour leading up to Monday night's meeting of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, a sense of high drama was in the air.

A decision about whether to push a fight over sectarian prayer to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit was about to be made. A federal judge had already ruled that praying in the name of a particular deity in public meetings is illegal, and now those in authority needed a formal yes or no vote on whether to appeal the ruling.

Hundreds of concerned citizens filled the county-government center-- a Greek chorus ready to shout "Amen" warmed up in the wings.

Commissioners Debra Conrad and Gloria Whisenhunt chatted with the Rev. Steve Corts, the man who brought proof that $300,000 to support an appeal had been deposited in an escrow account. Commissioner Beaufort Bailey, an outspoken opponent, poked his head in a side door.

Commissioner Dave Plyler, the chairman of the board and who held the swing vote, stayed close to his office off a nearby hallway.

The key players were present, and all were wondering the same thing: What would Dave do?

"I don't know what he's going to do," Conrad told reporters crowded against a wall. "It's going to be a defining moment for him."

By now, we know the answer: Plyler cast his deciding vote in favor of an appeal when he got the political cover he bargained for -- Corts signed an agreement about paying attorneys' fees and damages should the county lose another round.

Even before commissioners walked to their seats, word started to spread that a deal had been cut. (The news was posted on the Winston-Salem Journal's Web site almost as soon as the meeting opened.)

A public-comment period in which individual citizens could tell commissioners where they stood was now officially a sham. No matter what anybody said -- or how persuasively they said it -- the votes had been counted and the result was a foregone conclusion.

An appeal of a lawsuit that County Attorney Davida Martin wouldn't defend was going forward. The course had been charted in a round of old-fashioned backroom dealing by a handful of people -- those with the big money, and elected officials who genuflect in front of it.

You expected something different? Nearly all of the county's business is decided long before the votes are actually held.

That didn't dampen the public-comment period. A handful of the 800 or so people who packed the county-government center were each given three minutes to speak.

Most hit some variation on the same theme.

"I'm here to stand up for our faith.… Not praying to Jesus is like praying to the floor or the wall," Steve Peddycord of Kernersville said.

Hundreds of thousands of American Jews, Muslims and Buddhists might disagree. Perhaps it's just me, but I could have sworn that the Bill of Rights was written to protect the minority -- not to run roughshod over it.

Seconds after the last speaker sat down, Conrad moved to authorize the appeal. Whisenhunt seconded the motion, and the "debate" was on.

That the fix was in became obvious when signed and collated copies of an agreement between Corts and Plyler were circulated before the vote was officially taken. Afterward, those who favored an appeal basked in their victory even as they refused to give specifics about the number of people who bankrolled the $300,000 and the amounts of those pledges.

"You're that guy who asked the same question at the (Feb. 11) press conference," Corts said when I asked about financial support.

Yes, I am. Call me a Doubting Thomas, but I like transparency -- especially in matters that concern government, the courts and the potential use of public money.

In the event that the county loses, there is no guarantee that $300,000 will be enough to cover attorneys' fees and potential damages that might be awarded to the American Civil Liberties Union and the plaintiffs who won the opening round.

For now, we have to believe that it is, and that no public money will be spent on a case that could take years to decide.

Settle in, folks. Like it or not, a backroom deal strapped us in for the long haul.

ssexton@wsjournal.com


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