By JOHN NORTH

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Don Yelton, a local Republican who was voted off the Buncombe County GOP’s executive committee on June 25, told the Daily Planet in a recent email that his appeal of the removal has been passed to the state Central Committee, which, in turn, “put it up for arbitration.”

He added that the arbitration commission is comprised of Robin Hayes, the North Carolina GOP chairman; Wayne King, the NCGOP vice chairman; David Lewis and Ada Fisher and the NCGOP attorney.

“I will not be allowed to appear in person, but only offer written material,” Yelton said. “Frankly, this is not arbitration. The legal definition of arbitration is when two parties meet with an unbiased arbitration committee.”

Further Yelton asserted, “How can this committee be unbiased when Wayne King called me and asked me to support him in his run for vice chair — and I told him I was supporting Tim Johnson? Also, Robin Hayes isolated Tim Johnson like Tom Fetzer and finally the attorney is hired by these guys.”

(Johnson is a former chairman of the BCGOP and former vice chairman of the NCGOP — and was the first African-American to hold those posts.)

“They have not told me diddly squat, except it will be in writing and that is that.

“Now, to further complicate the issue, Henry Mitchell, the (BCGOP) chair; and Nathan West, (BCGOP) communications director; and Loretta Reynolds, secretary of the party here in Buncumbe, have refused to give me the minutes of the meeting, list of people that voted to set me aside and what position they held and have stopped all notices to me, etc.

“Fair? No way in hell will it be fair,” Yelton said.

Meanwhile, West, who responded on behalf of the BCGOP to the Daily Planet’s request for a response to Yelton’s contentions, said in an Oct. 1 email to the newspaper, “Yelton’s appeal has been sent to the NCGOP hearing committee. It is comprised of N.C. Republican Party officials.

“I wouldn’t think, given it is the N.C. Republican Party, that it would be comprised of anything else. So, I’m not sure why he (Yelton) feels it is not unbiased unless he was expecting Chairman Hayes to call up some old Democrat friends of Don and put them on the panel.”

Further, West asserted, “I’m not sure that would count as unbiased either, given that history. I can say that there are no BCGOP members on the panel and this seems fair in our eyes.” (West was referring to Yelton’s departure from the local Democratic Party under similar circumstances before Yelton joined the BCGOP.)

Next, West said, “Regarding Wayne King calling Don, I can’t speak to that or the conspiracy of ‘isolation’ of Mr. Johnson. As far as I know, an election was held for the position and Wayne King was the victor and I’m not sure how this is relevant to Yelton’s appeal.”

On yet another Yelton contention, West said, “He (Yelton) mentions that I have refused a request for minutes. I have received no such request and I would not be the one to approve a request like that. I did confirm a request made by Don through another member of the executive committee, but there has been no formal request of my knowledge.

 “It is my understanding that a copy of all signatures collected was provided to Mr. Yelton with the original letter outlining the charges against him.

“The signatures collected are from voting members of the executive committee. I assume he is asserting that there is a possibility some may not have been legitimate or made up. This is untrue and if he believes they were not, he will have the opportunity to bring this up at his hearing.”

West added, “And lastly he asserts that he has been removed from all communication.  Mr. Yelton was removed from our executive committee email list as he is no longer a member of the executive committee.”

Switching gears, West said, “On a positive note, we have some really good things happening and the BCGOP is looking forward to this election. Chairman Mitchell is continuing to create energy and enthusiasm within the BCGOP and we will continue to give 110 percent effort working to get Republicans elected and we have a few surprises coming, so stay tuned and keep looking up.”

Yelton was removed after a lengthy — and stormy — closed meeting of the BCGOP executive committee at the Skyland Fire Department.

During the meeting, some executive committee members — in protest to Yelton’s removal — tendered their resignations, including former BCGOP Chairman Robert Malt.

Yelton was served with an official written notice, dated May 22 and signed by Mitchell, stating that Mitchell would seek to remove Yelton from his party leadership positions for the following two reasons:

• “Your failure and inability to perform the dutis of your office due to your confrontational approach, your inability to curb your temper, your repeated disruption of meetings and your personal attacks and insults of other members — both during meetings and outside of meetings as well as other factors that render you unable to perform your duties.

• “Disloyalty to the Republican Party, including engaging in negative campaigning against Republican candidates.”

On July 5, Yelton, who said he missed the June 25 meeting because of a prior obligation to teach a class at Montreat College, told the Daily Planet, “It was not really a hearing — it was a lynching.”