PENDER COUNTY — Amending its previous decision, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners’ County Risk Group announced Wednesday it would fund Pender County’s ongoing lawsuit with the Pender-Topsail Post and Voice.
The association is a member-owned risk-sharing pool, funded by member contributions, and equips North Carolina counties with financial coverage for liability and legal defense cases. The group originally denied funding.
Pender County spokesperson Brandi Cobb told Port City Daily due to the county risk group’s decision and review process, including “matters related to ongoing litigation,” the county could not “speak to the details of that process or why the decision was amended.” Cobb added the county is not speculating on costs because the lawsuit is ongoing.
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The lawsuit was filed on July 1, 2025, by Andy Pettigrew and his wife Katie Pettigrew, owners of The Post & Voice since 2013. The suit alleges the Pender County Board of Commissioners’ April 22 vote to end its legal notice advertisement contract with the Post was a retaliatory action in response to the publication’s political cartoons. Therefore, the plaintiffs claim it violates the publication’s first amendment right to freedom of speech. They also claim a violation of North Carolina State Constitution Article I, Sections 1 and 19 which guarantee the “equality and rights of persons,” as well as equal protection under the law.
NCACC spokesperson Phillip Lane said counties can request liability and legal defense coverage, which are evaluated by the member-owned risk-sharing pool. Pender County is one of the 74 counties represented by the NCACC Property and Liability Pool.
Andy Pettigrew believes the county risk group’s amendment to its initial decision changed because in January of 2026 three individual commissioners listed in the suit, William “Randy” Burton, Jerry Groves, and Brent Springer, were removed from the case. It only stands against the county now.
“More than likely the NCACC said, ‘Well, since it’s all county now we’ll cover it,’ so that’s what my attorney’s opinion is and I think that’s probably right,” Pettigrew said during a phone call with Port City Daily. “Don’t think for a moment that this change is because they’ve got some bombshell or some new information. The change was that we dropped the individual part of this, and now it’s all dealing with the county, and so the NCACC now is obligated to do that.”
The cartoon, which kickstarted the lawsuit, was published in the opinion section of The Post & Voice on March 20, 2025, as a part of its “Watchman on the Wall” column. It involved imagery of commissioners Burton, Groves, and Springer as puppets being controlled by a puppet master, depicted as former school board member Phil Cordeiro.
The board members portrayed in the cartoon are notably the three who voted to end the legal advertising contract with The Post & Voice. Commissioners Jimmy Tate and Brad George were the two dissenting votes. The 3-2 vote ended the more-than 15-year precedent of The Post & Voice advertising relationship with the county as it made the switch to StarNews.
Commissioners who voted in favor cited the StarNews’ larger reach as a reason for the change. Vice Chair Springer previously noted the StarNews has approximately 10,000 print subscribers. As of April 2025 The Post & Voice had 5,000 paid subscribers.
The lawsuit alleges StarNews is not a qualified newspaper to publish legal notices under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-597 as StarNews does not have a periodical permit under Pender County.
While Pettigrew has noted the decision impacted The Post & Voice’s bottomline by $80,000, the financial loss is not the reason for the lawsuit but rather an infringement on first amendment and freedom of the press.
“The First Amendment protects the press; the government shall not do anything to harm the free press and that’s what the First Amendment’s about. And when the commissioner sits up on the board and waves our paper in the air and says this has to stop, not much question about that,” Pettigrew said in reference to the April 22, 2025, commissioners’ meeting.
During the meeting Chairman Groves had held up a copy of the publication and said: “It’s time to cut through the chase … this is what we as three county commissioners have to put up with. The citizens’ money are paying for this — this is money they are paying for and it’s time to stop.”
The lawsuit, which Pettigrew does not expect to be heard soon as a result of a “pretty backed up” federal court, cites this instance as evidence of a first amendment violation, as the lawsuit states that “no alternative explanation was offered for the Board’s decision.”
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