Gentlemen (Dear Commissioners, March 21, 2012) | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: Citizen Smith is at it again with his latest Dear Commissioners letter to the governing body of Beaufort County. While some may think that Citizen Smith is "against economic development in Beaufort County," I rather think that Mr. Smith is exercising his First Amendment guaranteed right to speak his mind.

   And just why are some of the county commissioners listening to Citizen Smith?

   Answer: He has long made sense. Remarkably, there may not be enough commissioners to make a difference, irrespective of the inherent logic within these oft printed words.

    The documents handed out by the Economic Development Commission on March 19, 2012 have grants double counted, grants postponed, grants not generated in the accounting period, jobs which are inconsistently accounted for within the EDC own documents. Again, there is no baseline and no documentation from the NC Employment Security Commission as required by the state. In light of the effort made to alert the EDC to similar types of errors, omissions and misstatements present in the December 31, 2010 report is difficult not to perceive the EDC as incompetent in its task and contemptuous of the requirement to provide the taxpayers and their elected officials with accurate and honest reports of its activities. The errors mentioned below unfairly pad the achievements of the EDC.

    Why have 2012 grant announcements been included in a document closing on December 31, 2011?

    On the grant tally sheet dated December 31, 2011, there are two entries included in the total grants awarded which were not awarded until after December 31, 2011. Spinrite, January 11, 2012, $180,000 for 60 jobs (page 5), a reduction of 30 jobs from the current employment at time of its announcement. P&G Manufacturing February 1, 2012, $90,000 for 32 jobs (page 5) and each grant was then again restated, Spinrite, January 11, 2012, $180,000 for 60 jobs (page 8 - handout provide by BC EDC at meeting, a copy of which is at the county office - publisher) P&G Manufacturing February 1, 2012, $90,000 for 32 jobs (page 8 - handout provide by BC EDC at meeting, a copy of which is at the county office - publisher)

    These entries result in a double tallying credit to the grants in question and blatantly pad the amount of grants generated even though the grants were not properly included in 2011.

    Why were grants postponed since 2008 included in the list?
    Chocowinity Industrial Park, various, $1,175,000 (page 4 - handout provide by BC EDC at meeting, a copy of which is at the county office - publisher)
    Chocowinity Industrial Park, various, $206,450 (page 8 - handout provide by BC EDC at meeting, a copy of which is at the county office - publisher)

    There are further job discrepancies between the December 31, 2011 document and the EDC Talking Points (TP)

    Camfill Farr...... (12/31/11) ...95 .........TP...... 90
    PAS ...................(12/31/11) ......91..........TP.....119
    Impressions ....(12/31/11).....140........TP....114
    Carver ..............(12/31/11.........76...........TP......60

    The PAS One NC announcement of 12/14/2010 stated 137 existing employees and the need to add 239 within 5 years, yet PAS currently has fewer jobs than 137. Was the Fountain grant announced 11/22/2010 for $150,000 canceled? If so why is it included in the list of grants?

    Has Carver failed to achieve its jobs goal of 50 new jobs above the February 2007 employment baseline of 67?
    ......Will there be any ramifications from the underperformance indicated for Carver?
    ......Does the comment on page 4 concerning "little future county liability" still apply to the Carver project on page 4?

    Why is Weir Valve included in this report?

    Finally, in referring to Impressions in the March 19, 2012 slide show, Mr. Thompson has stated:

    "This company was in the former 200,000 sq.ft. Hamilton Beach building owned by the City of Washington. There were once 1500 people employed there. It was leased in 2000 by Impressions Marketing. In 2008 the Committee of 100 agreed to buy the building and improve it, and lease it to the company in return for more jobs. A number of grants were obtained and announced by the Governor, but just before the matter was consummated, the recession began, employment dropped, and the grants were no longer available. The city subsequently made improvements to the roof and other systems and the company is back to 140 jobs."

    Since the Impressions facility has been owned by the City of Washington for the entire term of the Impressions Marketing lease, and the EDC/C100 was unable to consummate the assistance grants mentioned why is Impressions being carried as a 140 job dependency by the EDC in its slide show? Why has Impressions been on the EDC dependency listing since 2002 when it first appeared with 117 employees??

   Why have the PAS jobs stated for 2010 not been revised from the overstated 240 to the 137 jobs found in the 12/14/2010 One NC announcement?

   Why have the Impressions jobs stated for 2007 not been revised from 240 to the 162 jobs found quoted City of Washington minutes for August 2007?

    Thank you.

Regards,

Warren Smith
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