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Draft 12.9.19 4 Constance Lowe: My name is Constance Gergen Lowe; I am an attorney in Hillsborough. I have an office down on King 1 Street. I often work with clients who often can’t afford adequate representation, or in Mr. Hall’s case, have a concern 2 that needs to be addressed. In this case, I think his constitutional rights need to be addressed. Specifically, he’s flying a 3 flag on private property. It’s not a flag you can readily see unless you are looking for it. I have downloaded a video I 4 took of it while driving on Highway 70. You can see the flag coming down Highway 70 westbound, but going down 5 Highway 70 eastbound, you can’t really see it. It got me to thinking especially with the flow of traffic in that area: How 6 many people are going to be looking up over there to see a flag? I heard a comment in the news, on WRAL, from a 7 young lady stating what the flag represented to her. It made her afraid. Of all the people I know who you would not 8 think that they would put a flag up like that and have, in my estimation it doesn’t embody any of the things that most 9 people associate with a confederate flag. In this case, (inaudible). Mr. Hall is a very soft spoken (inaudible). The flag 10 wasn’t placed for a dramatic effect on the public. It was so he could see it from his house and appreciate it for whatever 11 purpose he wanted to. To me, this is not a case about confederacy, slavery, or anything like that. To me, this is a case 12 about a man who has spent over $2,000 to put up wide enough flagpole and to erect a flag on it. Then not even three 13 months after the flag was erected, there were discussions and County Commissioner meetings about how hateful the 14 flag is, how hateful it is, and how it will cause safety problems. In my research, I haven’t seen any negative impact on 15 Orange County’s economy. Likewise, I asked my legal assistant to call safety patrol people to find out how many 16 accidents there had been down on that stretch of 70 since my client’s flag went up and she reported they said zero. I 17 don’t see a safety issue or a dramatic impact with the flag. (Inaudible). My client has already been sworn in. I don’t 18 know if I ask him questions or if you would like to question him first? 19 20 Randy Herman: You can question him. 21 22 Constance Lowe: Before I ask Mr. Hall a question, I do want to point out from a legal standpoint – and I have already 23 explained to Mr. Hall that there is a good chance we may be going to court on this. Whether or not the justification and 24 rationalization for the ordinance meets a component of government interest. My argument would be that the justification 25 for this ordinance was because of my client’s flag. There was even a newspaper interview with Orange County 26 Planning Director Craig Benedict done in May of 2018 where Mr. Benedict was asked specifically if the proposed 27 changes that the County were looking to adopt (flag size limits and flagpole height limits) in direct response to this large 28 confederate flag that went up on my clients property. Mr. Benedict said, yes, it was. Mr. Benedict went on to indicate 29 there was a concern that we should have flag regulations and the County wanted to have regulations no matter the type 30 of flag, focusing on limiting flags to 24 x 24 feet in area. 31 32 Randy Herman: If I may, Ms. Lowe, we try not to be too strict about rules of evidence in the Board of Adjustment, but I33 would ask you to try to refrain from reading hearsay statements into the record and stick with the evidence of the 34 witnesses that you have. 35 36 Constance Lowe: Thank you. I will. 37 38 Michael Harvey: One point of clarification, it’s a 24 sq.ft. flag limitation not 24x24 ft. flag limitation. Six by four is the39 typical dimension for a 24 sq.ft. flag. 40 41 Constance Lowe: I’m sorry, six by four. 42 43 Michael Harvey: Just making sure. 44 45 Constance Lowe: That makes it even more odd to put up a small flag on a really large flagpole. I do have three 46 exhibits. This exhibit is the zoning compliance permit for residential submitted back on January 31, 2018. The second 47 exhibit I’m presenting is the $30 zoning compliance permit. The third exhibit I have is the cost of putting up the flagpole 48 itself. At this time I would like to call my first witness, Mr. Randy Hall Jr. Please state your full name for the record and49 your address? 50