Commissioners hear EDC report | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners heard a report from the Director of the Economic Development Commission Monday night (3-19-12). It was pretty much the same as those made in the past. It was a glowing rendition of how great things are going in economic development in the county, and how much greater we can expect them to be very soon.

    Actually, it was more of a decennial report rather than the annual report required by the EDC's by-laws. As in the past, Mr. Thompson reported on the industries that have left Beaufort County and those who have come to replace them. He argued that the industrial park strategy into which the county taxpayers have sunk nearly eight million dollars was effective and then proceeded to explain that most of the jobs that have been created over the last decade were outside the two parks.

    The EDC has come under criticism in recent months for failing to provide documentation to support the claims it has made about the results of its performance. More specifically, the Commission frequently takes credit for "jobs created" by a local business but has to date refused/failed to provide any documentation to show that the jobs are a direct result of the EDC's programs and would not have been created anyway, regardless of the EDC. As has been pointed out by Warren Smith in numerous writings and presentations to the Commissioners, the numbers the EDC presents often do not "add up," thus appear to be incorrect. For example, the EDC often takes credit for "grants" when actually the money is simply county appropriations of tax funds. And apparently in some instances grants are counted even though they were never actually received and used for job creation.

    But the most serious charge has been that the number of "jobs created" has been computed using an invalid "baseline," or the number of jobs that existed before an EDC activity was implemented. Without a valid baseline none of the "jobs created" data is correct. That's like trying to assess whether you made good time on a trip without know what time you left on the trip.

    We simply got more of the same Monday night.

    Our partner publication, Beaufort County Now ran an article over the weekend that revealed that the EDC's staff tried to turn out a big crowd for the meeting. Click here to review that article, which includes the call for EDC and Committee of 100 members to turn out in force for the meeting. About 40 people showed up.

    The Observer is not going to report the information the EDC reported or the video until we can confirm the accuracy of the information. We have requested the backup data upon which the report is based and we will report their numbers when we can determine how those numbers were derived and that they are accurate.

    The Observer contacted Warren Smith to see if he had been furnished any information in advance of the meeting as he had requested. He indicated he had not. He did release to us a statement that reviews some of the issues, questions and points he has raised in recent presentations to the Commissioners.

    Commentary

    The "Call To Arms," as Beaufort County Now characterizes it, causes us much concern. It appears that the EDC, or at least its staff, is now trying to demagogue the issue. They say: "As you are aware certain individuals are opposed to Economic Development and will undoubtedly be there. Please make every effort to attend the meeting and show your support for Economic Development."

    We find that despicable. We have covered this issue extensively and we have never heard anyone express opposition to economic development. Rather, what we have said, and what we have heard Warren Smith say repeatedly, is that we need an honest assessment of the effectiveness of the economic development program the EDC has been implementing. Beaufort County and the City of Washington have spent a great deal of money on economic development...reportedly as much as eight million dollars... in recent years. Yet a recent review of Beaufort County, compared to a number of neighboring counties on several indicators of economic health, showed that we have actually done worse than several of those counties which have not spent nearly as much money as has Beaufort County. We view that is a major issue the EDC has a duty to address.

    No one we know of is opposed to economic development. In fact, for us and we think for Mr. Smith, just the opposite is true. We are very concerned about economic development and a part of that concern is whether the strategy we have been using has worked, is working effectively, and more importantly, whether the strategy of the last twelve years is what we should be doing going forward.

    Our sense is that what we heard tonight, is like all the earlier presentations, a bunch of unsubstantiated and undocumented assertions. Mr. Thompson is a superb salesman. He is a smooth talker. But his numbers and other documentation do not measure up to even rudimentary scrutiny. And some of his data are simply bogus. Thus, we would contend, until he can show otherwise, that his conclusions are bogus. If what he is saying is true, he should be able to back it up with solid data.

    We know that Mr. Thompson called a meeting of the EDC, and we understand the Committee of 100 board, for this past Friday. The meeting was not scheduled according to law. It was called at 11:00 a.m. the day before. Just minutes before he called the special meeting we requested to be advised of when the meeting of the EDC would be held. We have previously requested to be on the notification list, as is required by state law. We have never received such notice, and did not get notice of the meeting on Friday. Thus, clearly Friday's meeting was an illegal meeting. We know that Mr. Thompson distributed a "Talking Points" memo for tonight's meeting. He did not furnish us a copy as we requested. We have also requested copies of the minutes and backup material for recent meetings. None of that has ever been furnished, again, contrary to state law.

    We are not opposed to "economic development" but we are very opposed to Mr. Thompson operating in contradiction of state law. And, again, we are opposed to his putting out inaccurate data and information and then refusing to explain how he came up with what he puts out. And finally, we are opposed to the Economic Development Commission, the County Commission and Washington City Council not demanding accountability for the millions of taxpayer dollars that have been poured into "economic development" without any valid verification of the results. If what we get tonight is "more of the same" the County Commissioners and City Council are simply going to have to step up to the plate and clean this mess up.