Todd Wetherington News-Times
Originally published by the Carteret County News-Times
MOREHEAD CITY — A Morehead City resident who was creating a petition to ask Mayor Jerry Jones to step down says he will no longer pursue those efforts.
Last month, Jeff Brown said he was gathering names for a petition asking Jones to respectfully concede the November 4, 2025, mayoral election, which he lost by one vote to City Councilman Lee Stiles. After Jones filed a protest, the N.C. State Board of Elections ordered that a new election be held on March 3.
Brown had also been working with other Morehead City citizens to host an independent, nonpartisan town hall meeting between Jones and Stiles, in part to address the city’s plans for “Project Grander.”
Brown stated that the meeting was in response to a social media post by Stiles concerning the city’s plans to possibly acquire the Red Fish Grill through eminent domain as part of that project.
Though the town hall was originally set for February, Brown contacted local podcaster Judah McNiel about hosting a debate between the two candidates. Though the debate didn’t happen, Stiles appeared on McNiel’s podcast on January 29, an interview which can be seen at www.facebook.com/judah.mcniel/videos/738849099293658.
According to Brown, Jones was scheduled to appear on the podcast on February 6.
At their January meeting, the Morehead City Council voted to “to stop any and all discussions and actions related to the Grander project, which would also include eminent domain and the selling of the public parks indefinitely” after considerable pushback from community members.
The fallout from the controversy came swiftly. During a special called meeting on January 29, Morehead City Manager Chris Turner accepted the city council’s request that he resign. Turner’s last day in the position was January 30.
During an interview Thursday, Brown said he was stepping back from his political efforts for now.
“Who knows what’s going to happen, but I think I’ve done about as much as I can right now,” Brown said. “We’ve pretty much left it alone at this point unless for some reason it was to come back up at another council meeting.”
According to Brown, he originally became involved in local politics after he became concerned about pay raises approved for city employees after property taxes were raised.
“I was like, ‘What’s going on? I thought America was trying to get away from raising property taxes,” he said.
Though Brown had also originally planned to put together a petition asking for Turner’s immediate resignation, he said he now believes the city manager was “scapegoated” over the proposed “Project Grander” plans.
“I don’t necessarily agree with what Chris Turner said but I think they threw him under the bus,” Brown said. “Because they (city council) all knew about it. If you go back and look at the meeting minutes every single one of them knew about it and they voted unanimously to proceed … It’s all just political theater.”
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