Commissioner Jimmy Tate resigns. Was he ever a Pender County Resident in the first place?

Time to Read: 20 Mins.

Correction issued 2.16.23: The Tate Farm does in fact exist. It is said to be in trust with Jimmy Tate as a benefactor according to their reporting. Located on NC Hwy 11 in Willard. No complete address was given by the Post & Voice Citing pender County Register of Deeds book 4708, Page 2517.

His current resignation was due to alleged racism. This resignation differs from his 2015 resignation. This pattern of behavior is interesting and if anything it deepens the mystery.

Pender County Commissioner Jimmy Tate announced Thursday that he is resigning from the board effective immediately. Tate, a black republican who is presumed to be gay(WECT), has been told that a fellow commissioner made comments about his race.

“If my differences bother people that bad, I am going to return the seat to the people, and maybe now they can get someone that they can better relate with than me. This is a painful decision,” Tate said. “They’re making it unmanageable for me, in my opinion, to effectively do my job as a commissioner, because their hate towards me is so great. I’d rather move out of the way and get someone who they can better identify with if they’re not ready to see me and my differences. I’ve never thought that I would experience what I’m experiencing today in our political climate in Pender County.”

Jimmy Tates First Resignation 2015

Jimmy Tate, Pender County Commissioner, accepted a new position as Vice President of College Advancement and Human Resources at James Sprunt Community College in December.

This new job required him to move to Duplin County which prompted supporters and critics alike to express concern about the clause in his contract stipulating residence in Duplin County.

On Tuesday, he resigned from his District 4 seat on the Pender County board effective immediately so that he could honor this restriction when it takes effect July 1st.

He also stated that he will not be selling the family farm located in Pender county despite moving away and that resigning now is beneficial for budget planning purposes since it allows time for a replacement commissioner to be put into place before then.

But…..Let’s dig a little into this and maybe we will start to see a different picture.

Jimmy Tate ran as a Republican and voted as a Republican for the first time ever in his life in Pender County, North Carolina; where he was running for County Commissioner for 2022, in 2022. His voting record prior is all democratic. Now, we at the TFP understand changes of hearts, the Covid Crisis, the great awakening in our politics, and how people can move over to our side of the spectrum; but we have more questions than answers with this evidence right now.

Let’s move on to the next huge question mark with the Jimmy Tate campaign. His listed address for his official campaign. Jimmy Tate listed his residence, (you know, the piece of evidence you need to prove you could even be county commissioner!?) as

JIMMY TERIELL TATE
31 N TOPSAIL DR
SURF CITY, NC 28445

According to his Voter registration paperwork as a voter (see PDF above) and he registered a PO box for all his campaign correspondence with the county.

But let’s dig a little deeper….

This is what pulls up on google maps for 31 N Topsail Dr.

At first glance, and without a little more digging you would think that 31 N Topsail doesn’t exist. The google image sucks at best and on a first-level dig you would stop. But, we didn’t.

Then we found the parcel on the Pender county GIS. Here is a picture of the actual property.

With Jimmy Tates’ high reputation, and placement in positions and jobs within NC, do you really think he would be living in this trailer by the beach? Does this look like the primary residence of a UNCW board of trustees?

Also, we haven’t been able to confirm all of these companies that Tate has opened in NC but someone who opens and runs many different businesses usually holds a higher standard for primary residences at his level of acumen and political connections.

So, we were curious about the parcel and property at 31 N Topsail Rd.

We pulled up property records for 31 N Topsail which is a part of a larger parcel of trailers (trailer park) that are owned by a trust. The James H Jr Trustees of Sara M Hines Trust. These properties are managed by Stareast Incorporated.

This is interesting because Jimmy Tate listed this trailer as his residency for qualification to become the Pender county commissioner but we can’t find any evidence that he actually lived there. Furthermore, the legal docs prove conclusively that Jimmy doesn’t own 31 N Topsail dr. either and his political action committee is listed as a PO Box.

Why are there 0 possible residents at that location? Because we believe Jimmy Tate never lived there. EVER. We believe Jimmy Tate lives between multiple residences in Wallace NC (Which is outside of Pender County FYI.

We pulled an extremely deep dive on Jimmy and found that his businesses are based out of Wallace NC and his residence addresses pull up at a family member’s house in Wallace. Which is in extremely close proximity to his business listings in Wallace NC.

So we followed the rabbit trail down the hole….and low and behold guess what we found! Jimmy Tate does in fact own 158 Candlestick Dr in WALLACE NC. Well within Duplin County!

And guess what?! It’s a really nice home within a really nice community. Notice the giant river landing fitness center and pool complex? That’s because the HOA is $300 a month. A MONTH.

This is what we believe is Jimmy Tate’s real, primary, permanent residence since 2015 and not a trailer park home in holly ridge nc at 31 N topsail dr.

Also, for someone who has very nice tastes in vehicles, the trailer park story just isn’t adding up.

UPDATE 1 02:45EST 1.27: WECT quotes Tate as saying: “I’m a resident, I stay in Surf City. I moved to Surf City right after my house in River Landing flooded. No, I’m not leaving my house. I think the day and time is here that a person can own more than one house if they want to. I have a small little place at the beach, very, very small,” Tate said. This was said during a county commissioners meeting on Jan 17.

This admission by Tate himself is why he can’t be considered a commissioner. According to NC GS 163-57 line 3, “A person shall not be considered to have gained a residence in any county, municipality, precinct, ward, or other election district of this State, into which that person comes for temporary purposes only, without the intention of making that county, municipality, precinct, ward, or other election district a permanent place of abode.”

So Jimmy Tates PERMANENT PLACE OF ABODE IS THIS?

Goerge Brown spoke on Jimmy Tates behalf to WECT on thursday, “He is a resident of Pender County; he lives in Surf City. And I’m not sure where they’re getting the claim from, but it’s a simple matter of checking with the elections officials to verify that information. I don’t know why they’re persistent on this because I know how this is going to turn out. He is a resident of Pender County, as I said in Surf City and has been living there and not sure why they continue to question that.”

So while conservatives are cheering for his resignation, we need to be asking are:

Did his campaign manager, Jonathan Bridges, of Bridges Consulting, know about Jimmy Tates permanent residence being in Wallace?

Or did his other consultant and web designer, David Capen of Capen Consulting (the same consultant for many republicans in the area including Charlie Miller) know that his client wasn’t eligible for the race he was running in?

How many people did Jimmy Tate bamboozle and why?

and…will there be a formal investigation by the NC Department of Elections going to occur?

If we at the TFP are wrong, please prove it. Show us the receipts and we will issue a correction. But, If no one can, we will assume we are right and keep leaning into this story.

Pender County Citizens need to know the truth. Conservatives need to know the truth.

Oh, and we never found the Tate family farm in Pender County BTW….