BY: Hood Richardson I have written and spoken a lot more about North Carolina’s “Open Meetings Laws”, ethics, honesty, and back room deals than I have wanted to. But, it seems, the more I write the worse things get. The last 30 minutes of the April Beaufort County Commissioners meeting glaringly focused on and brought into full public light what I have complained about for the last five years. The back room deal. Based on questions posed by this writer, it is obvious that the Chairman of our Board, Frankie Waters, and some of the staff are clueless about ethical standards. The dictionary defines ethics as “Moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conditions of an activity”. Our moral standards in our western society come mostly from biblical teachings and our laws.