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Vol. 149 No. 198 ©2018

GOP convention debate

Charlotte’s bid to host eventsparks local controversy. 7A

Yosemite fire size doubles, could‘become a major threat.’ 3B

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ASHEVILLE – Ahead of a potential sale to HCAHealthcare, Mission Health’s board of directors saidMonday it has launched its nonprofit, private nonop-erating foundation that would spawn from the pro-ceeds of the deal.

Mission said the foundation, Dogwood Health

Trust, would be a “region-wide resource” enabled tomake “significant investments” and develop partner-ships in the region. The creation of the foundation hasbeen billed by hospital leaders as a major benefit of thesale of not-for-profit Mission to HCA, a Nashville-based for-profit company. The potential deal first wasannounced by Mission in March.

Through new partnerships, the organization hopes

to “analyze, understand and address core social deter-minants of health and well-being” in Western NorthCarolina, according to a hospital news release.

Its founding chair is Boone native Janice Brumit,who also is a member of Mission’s board. Mission saidBrumit will oversee a period where its board will be-

Mission Health forms foundation for HCA deal proceedsDillon Davis Asheville Citizen Times | USA TODAY NETWORK

See MISSION, Page 7A

Family and friends of Jai Lateef Solveig Williamsgather in front of the Buncombe County Courthousein July 2016. CITIZEN TIMES FILE PHOTO; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

BY MADISON WEPFER/USA TODAY NETWORK

APD monitored groups

ASHEVILLE - Two years ago, after the fatal policeshooting of a local black man ignited a summer of ra-cial tension, police launched an intelligence operationto monitor the efforts of two civil rights groups, a Citi-zen Times investigation has found.

Asheville Police Department Chief Tammy Hooperauthorized the monitoring of Black Lives Matter andShowing Up for Racial Justice in response to what she

said were threats to officers after the shooting of Jai“Jerry” Williams by a white police sergeant.

The groups’ organizers said they are unaware of anythreats made by their members to harm police. Theirgroups work to raise awareness about racism and getmore equitable treatment for minorities, they said.

City Council members appear to have been briefedon the operation sometime after March 2018,

Citizen Times investigation finds police launched an operation to gather intelligence on civil rights groups

More insideSee a timeline of police monitoring since the fatalshooting and more information concerningintelligence gathering by the police. 4A, 5A

Joel Burgess Asheville Citizen Times | USA TODAY NETWORK

See SURVEILLANCE, Page 4A

Nation & World, 1B

Praising PutinTrump’s embrace of Russian leader and treatment of allies stir worries at home, abroad

www.citizentimes.com ❚ TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2018 ❚ 7A

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GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NA-TIONAL PARK - In the fourth deaththis year in the national park on theNorth Carolina-Tennessee border, aman was killed and several were in-jured Saturday in a multivehicle colli-sion on Newfound Gap Road, accord-ing to park rangers.

The collision occurred at about 3:30p.m. Saturday near mile marker 25 onthe North Carolina side of the park, 10miles south of Newfound Gap. It in-volved four vehicles: a Honda Pilot, KiaSorento, Chevy Trailblazer and a trucktowing a gooseneck flatbed trailertransporting another pickup.

The driver of the Kia Sorento, DavidCrump, 65, of Talking Rock, Georgia,was found dead at the scene as a resultof injuries sustained in the collision.

The truck, driven by Carr’s Automo-tive Sales and Service, was travelingsouthbound on Newfound Gap Roadwhen the driver lost control of the ve-hicle, according to a National Park Ser-vice news release. This caused thetrailer to fishtail. The trailer thenstruck the Chevy Trailblazer, HondaPilot and Kia Sorento, all travelingnorthbound, in the span of half a mile.

The female passenger of the Kia So-rento and the female driver of the Che-vy Trailblazer were transported byMountain Area Medical Airlift to Mis-sion Hospital in Asheville. The femaledriver and two passengers of the Hon-da Pilot, as well as a female passenger

of the pickup truck, were all transportedby ambulance to Harris Regional Hospi-tal in Sylva.

“The section of road on which theMVA occurred was on a grade and curvy,but not excessively so,” said Smokiesspokeswoman Caitlin Worth. “The acci-dent is still under investigation.”

Park rangers, representatives fromthe National Park Service InvestigativeServices Branch, Cherokee Tribal EMSand Fire, Mountain Area Medical Airlift,and North Carolina Highway Patrol allassisted.

Newfound Gap Road reopened atabout 11:30 p.m. Saturday. The road willneed to briefly close again near thescene of the collision for additional in-vestigation and cleanup at a date andtime to be determined.

This is the fourth fatality this year inthe Smokies.

On June 29, Sandra Hull, 55, of Sara-sota, Florida, died after falling off her bi-cycle on the Cades Cove Loop Road. Hullreceived injuries to the back of her headand was flown to the University of Ten-nessee Medical Center in Knoxville byLifestar. She was riding a rental bicycleand was not wearing a helmet at thetime of the accident.

On April 25, a 55-year-old womanfrom Indiana died in a single-car acci-dent on Clingmans Dome Road.

On June 8 at about 8:40 p.m., AustinBreazeale, 19, of Maryville, Tennessee,died in a motorcycle accident on LittleRiver Road when his bike left the road-way and struck a tree about 2 miles westof Sugarlands Visitor Center.

Man dies in multivehiclecrash in Great SmokiesKaren Chávez Asheville Citizen TimesUSA TODAY NETWORK

come fully formed. Once it is, the boardwill undergo “a deliberate, multiyearprocess” to learn about the history ofpast health care conversion founda-tions, obtain necessary approvals foroperation and develop staff and infra-structure, Mission said.

“DHT will then prioritize these needs,identify collaborative strategies to ad-dress them using our communities’ ex-isting strengths and seek partnershipswith others to implement its long-rangestrategic plan,” the hospital systemsaid.

Brumit said in a phone interviewMonday taking the position is “a huge,huge responsibility.” She said she wasdrawn to the role, noting most others onthe Mission board already have full-time jobs whereas she’s more “probablywhat you’d call a community volunteer.”

Brumit has held several prominentlocal board roles in the past including atthe Community Foundation of WesternNorth Carolina, the Buncombe CountyEconomic Development Coalition aswell as being a former UNC Ashevilletrustee.

However, Brumit said she expects“minimal” holdovers from the Missionboard, which would be dissolved in adeal with HCA, to join a similar capacityon the DHT board. The reason, she said,is because the foundation will searchout more “regional members” in its ef-fort to serve 18 counties in the state.

But as she notes, DHT will not befunded until the time where a sale iscomplete.

“We can’t do anything until that isfinished and completed,” she said. “It’ssomewhat premature but we wantedfolks in the community to understandthe money we’ll receive from the pur-chase will be going into that trust.”

Once operational, Dogwood HealthTrust is expected to be one of the threelargest foundations in the state. Rightnow, the largest are Charlotte-basedFoundation For The Carolinas and theRocky Mount-based Golden LEAFFoundation

No purchase price for Mission hasbeen announced. Mission CEO Dr. RonPaulus said in May the foundation couldgenerate $50 million to $100 million inincome based on a 5 percent return onits assets – implying a purchase pricefor Mission of between $1 billion and $2billion.

Grants are not expected to be award-ed until at least 2020, the hospital sys-tem said.

In March, Brumit told the CitizenTimes the formation of the foundationis “the community’s big advantage inthis whole thing.”

“(The) money stays in the communi-ty, used for Western North Carolina onall the things we were discussing,” shesaid. “It stays here and does good here,on top of having a hospital system thatcan operate pretty much as it alwayshas.”

The organization said an applicationprocess for DHT board members will be-gin Aug. 1. Applications and criteria areexpected to be available at Dogwood-HealthTrust.org.

MissionContinued from Page 1A

“(The) money stays in thecommunity, used forWestern North Carolina onall the things we werediscussing. It stays here anddoes good here, on top ofhaving a hospital systemthat can operate prettymuch as it always has.”Janice Brumit

WINSTON-SALEM – Police said achild in North Carolina suffered minorinjuries when someone apparentlyfired a gun into the air and the young-ster was hit by a falling bullet.

Winston-Salem police said in anews release that the shooting hap-pened late Saturday afternoon.

Police did not identify the child or re-lease the age or gender. The news re-lease said the child was hit in the headby a “falling projectile” that fell througha canopy covering a backyard swim-ming pool.

Police don’t know where the shot wasfired.

Winston-Salem police note it’s illegalto fire a gun in the city limits.

Child struck by falling bullet ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLOTTE – Business leaderslined up Monday to urge a North Caroli-na city council to vote to hold the 2020Republican National Convention, whileopponents of the idea cited everythingfrom Trump administration policies tothe possibility of violence if the conven-tion is invited.

The Charlotte City Council heardfrom more than 100 speakers in slightlymore than two hours in council cham-bers. The council was scheduled to hearfrom 132 speakers, but some didn’t ap-pear when called.

Some opponents of the bid carriedgreen-and-white signs into councilchambers that read “No RNC In CLT.#defendcharlotte”.

Published reports suggest Charlotteis favored to land the convention.

Many pro-convention speakers rep-resented the hotel industry, amongthem Dan Hooks, who said the councilshould look past political rhetoric andsee what’s good for the city.

Hooks said to reject the RNC wouldbe to reverse the good done by holdingthe Democratic National Convention in2012.

Other businesspeople said holdingthe convention would mean jobs andpaychecks for residents who wouldwork extra hours during the week of theconvention. Some mentioned that thecity would be showcased to the nationby hosting the convention.

Brenda Jackson-Little said the RNCwould be “a tremendous economicboon for the region.”

Former city councilman KennySmith urged support for the bid.

“A “no” vote only hurts the city youhave sworn to represent,” Smith said.“Cast aside politics.”

Some supporters held white sheetsof paper with the words “2020 RNCSupporter” printed on them.

One man stood outside the Char-lotte-Mecklenburg Government Cen-ter holding a big white flag with thered, white and blue GOP logo on it.

Opponents of the bid were morepassionate in their remarks to thecouncil.

Local resident Ray McKinnon con-trasted Trump to former President Ba-rack Obama in voicing opposition.

“President Obama did not speakabout people the way this presidentdoes,” McKinnon said. “Please voteno.”

A woman who followed McKinnonto the podium urged the council to re-ject the convention because Trumpcriticized NBA star and Charlotte na-tive Steph Curry.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles has cham-pioned the bid, saying in a recentnewspaper column that it’s a chancefor the city to show its inclusiveness ata time when the nation is at “a tippingpoint of incivility.”

Lyles is the city’s first black femalemayor.

North Carolina city’sGOP convention bidsparks local debate

Citizens pack the chamber during a public forum before the Charlotte CityCouncil votes on whether to hold the 2020 Republican National Convention at ameeting in Charlotte. CHUCK BURTON/AP

Tom Foreman Jr. ASSOCIATED PRESS