In Difficult Times Good People gravitate towards Absolute Truth
The Gang of Five do it again: The worst example of governing we have seen in a long time
Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.
Since this same Gang of Five blew it on the School Facilities Plan
Most people don't have the time to attend County Commission meetings and even if they have access to cable (which is only a minority of Beaufort County residents) very few of us watch the meetings on the cable channel. Thus, most people do not actually know what goes on in these important meetings. We can assure you that reading the local mullet wrapper will not give you a true and honest picture of what happened. Proof? Compare this story to what the WDN reports on the same thing.
We view it as one of our primary purposes to help keep you informed, not only about the action taken but to share our insight into why it happened. Sometimes we are wrong and sometimes we are correct. We trust our readers to decide which category any story falls into.
At the May 7, 2012, meeting we saw one of the most significant displays of bad government we have ever seen. The item on the agenda was simply: "Resolution to End Corporate Welfare In North Carolina and Beaufort County." Click here (or go the bottom of the page) to review the resolution. The video below shows that portion of the meeting in which it was dealt with, which took less than four minutes.
Background:
If you are a regular reader here you know that the one issue that has garnered the most public attention in recent months is the economic development program of Beaufort County and the City of Washington (which is one in the same, along with Belhaven, Chocowinity and Aurora). Unless you have been living under a rock, or rely solely on the Washington Daily News for your local news, you know that numerous issues have been raised about the effectiveness of the economic development strategy the County and City have pumped over six million dollars into in recent years, almost exclusively based on anecdotal proclamations of the EDC and Committee of 100 in paid advertising in the WDN, which in turn has carried the EDC/Committee of 100's water on this issue.
If you have not kept up, here are the essential facts:
1. The EDC and Committee of 100 have failed to provide any valid, documented, data to support their claims of "job creation." Those data that have been tendered have been roundly debunked, mostly by research done by Warren Smith and the all-volunteer staff of the Beaufort Observer. Thus, the fact is that Beaufort County cannot document any significant return on our six million "investment."
2. The premier projects upon which most of Beaufort County's money has been spent—two industrial parks, one completely empty and the other almost empty and going downhill—have been miserable failures under any objective measurements.
3. There has been evidence revealed recently of deals made by the Committee of 100 which have raised serious questions of potential conflicts of interests. And more evidence of this grows almost daily. The evidence shows individuals involved in businesses that have benefitted from county and state money funneled by the EDC/Committee of 100 into those projects that members of the EDC/Committee of 100 had a vested interest.
4. The EDC and Committee of 100 (actually one and the same in terms of the key players) has consistently violated the Open Meetings and Public Records laws in trying to hide their activities and records.
5. The Director of the EDC and CEO of the Committee of 100 (again, one and the same) has resigned from one job (EDC) but not the other.
6. The Board of Commissioners, later in the same meeting, agreed that they would take a look at revising the EDC by-laws and relationship with the Committee of 100 and how the director is hired and to whom he/she would be accountable.
7. The funding of the EDC will be a significant issue in the upcoming budget negotiations.
Now, to more fully understand Stan's resolution and how it was dealt with you need to know two more things.
In 2009 the state commissioned a study of North Carolina's Economic Development Incentives Programs. You can review that study by clicking here. There is a wealth of good information and data in this report. Unfortunately, we're afraid that many will not give it the consideration it deserves. So here' the quick, short and dirty version.
Generally, economic development incentives do not work the way advocates of that strategy claim. In some cases they do work but it is usually where other factors contribute to success rather than success such as it is being caused by the incentives. In short, incentives are ineffective. To our knowledge this study has not been challenged, much less refuted on an objective basis. The EDC/Committee of 100 has certainly not refuted the primary conclusions/recommendations of the study because apparently they have not reviewed the research.
For Beaufort County, it simply means that most of the rationale Tommy Thompson, Al Klemm, Jay McRoy, Tom Richter and the other Committee of 100 Cheerleaders have been pushing simply is not correct according to the best available research. But more importantly, what the research shows is that effective leadership of a successful economic development program knows how to distinguish between effective strategies and ineffective strategies. That is what Beaufort County has not done.
That's the second thing you need to know when you watch this video. As the Board of Commissioners considered what to do about hiring a replacement for the retiring director there was NO discussion about how ineffective the program has been and how it could be made more effective going forward. The same could be said for the last EDC board meeting. They jumped from Thompson's resignation to a decision about replacing him without doing any evaluation of where we are, where we have come from and where we need to be going. But clearly the UNC study tells anyone who would care to know, that effective economic development strategies must be carefully planned. Beaufort County is not doing that.
So the thing you need to keep in mind as you read the resolution and as you watch the video is that it is clear that the Gang of Five is not willing to even consider how effective Beaufort's past strategy has been. There is absolutely no discussion after the motion is made to adopt the resolution, The Gang of Five knew they had the votes to shove the resolution under the rug and that is exactly what they did.
Thus, if it has ever occurred to you to ask: "is there a better way" to promote economic growth and development in Beaufort County, just know that our leaders have already decided the answer is: "No." And they decided that without reviewing the best available data and information and without any open discussion and debate.
So what we saw Monday night was the classic "Ostrich with his head in the sand" syndrome. What we have here is a board ignoring overwhelming evidence that a Six Million Program has been a dismal failure and looking only at hiring a new director, and apparently just continuing to do what has not work.
Commentary
If you read the UNC study two things are abundantly clear. It lays out why the two industrial parks are empty and why we've lost more jobs than we've brought in. The second thing is that while it is equally foolish to continue a failed strategy, it is also unwise just throw the baby (incentives) out with the bathwater.
Beaufort County has a rare and unique opportunity here. We can get it right going forward or we can continue the failed policies of the past. But getting it right will take some work and clear thinking. Much better thinking than the way the Gang of Five dealt with Stan's resolution.
Anyone who knows even a little about Beaufort County government knows that Stan's motion was a setup. It sets up the major issue for the campaign of 2012 and conceivably, 2014. But it is about so much more than political campaigns. What this group of elected officials is doing is literally playing with the future of Beaufort County.
Stan raised some very important issues related to economic development. They should be thoroughly debated. And that can't be done in four minutes.
Beaufort County desperately needs economic revitalization. We desperately need to avoid the failure that we have suffered for ten years now.
The solution is so simple. We need a County Commission that will do an honest and valid assessment of what has worked and what has not worked over the last decade. They then need to determine what the strategic goals of the economic development program are going to be. They then need solid information about the most effective ways to achieve those goals. Then they should involved the community, particularly the broad business community in developing a Long Range Economic Development Plan. Then, and only then, they need to search for the best person to implement that plan.
With this in mind, watch what they do.
Whereas, Corporate Welfare, for example: providing financial incentives to one business entity to the detriment and exclusion of another, is anti-free-market in construction and intent, and,
Whereas, Corporate Welfare as an inducement to relocate industry is the worst possible reason for a business entity / corporation to relocate from one location to another, and basically is no different from other forms of corporate exclusion of competition, not unlike the outlawed "pay for play" scheme that was endemic within the radio broadcast / music industry of the early 1960's, and,
Whereas, the greater weight of all known history of offering financial incentives / Corporate Welfare for corporate relocation is balanced greatly in favor of the eventual nonsuccess of these endeavors, and,
Whereas, here in Beaufort County, we need only look to the significant and abject failures of business entities / corporate relocators: Bonny Products, Miller Harness and Amilite Glass and other lesser significant Corporate Welfare fiascos, and,
Whereas, the financial incentives of Corporate Welfare is specifically designed to provide financial reward to lesser productive free-market pseudo participants to the detriment of productive real free-market participants, who have surrendered their financial resources, at the direct threat of police power, to directly benefit the government favored industrial relocator, and,
Whereas, Corporate Welfare is tantamount to Corporate Socialism giving unsophisticated politicians, and their sycophants, the direct ability to pick corporate / business favorites, thereby destroying the capitalistic necessity of free-markets, and,
Whereas, county governments will find it hard to limit their part in the competition for the mostly temporary benefits of the so-called "job creation," brought on by the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the misguided politicians that support such market destroying behavior of picking economic winners with public money, and,
Whereas, the State of North Carolina and the County of Beaufort would be far better served if they were to husband their scarce resources: to correct its flagging education system, which has become an education industry to the benefit of the few, and is way off course from its intended purpose, and furthermore to bolster public infrastructure, and if it is possible, after correcting these failing public systems, to reduce the exorbitant taxes upon this public, rather than reward economic winners by taking from one to give to another, therefore,
Let it be resolved, that the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners do hereby request that the State of North Carolina end its part in the Corporate Welfare relocation of wealth, and furthermore, that the State of North Carolina redouble its efforts to do what governments are charged to do, rather than to pick the economic winners and losers in their contrived "pay for play" redistribution of wealth scheme that is their well placed hindrance to the proper functioning mechanisms of free-markets.
Written by Beaufort County Commissioner Stan Deatherage and submitted to the Beaufort County Board of County Commissioners, North Carolina, for passage on May 7, 2012.
Go Back
Since this same Gang of Five blew it on the School Facilities Plan
Most people don't have the time to attend County Commission meetings and even if they have access to cable (which is only a minority of Beaufort County residents) very few of us watch the meetings on the cable channel. Thus, most people do not actually know what goes on in these important meetings. We can assure you that reading the local mullet wrapper will not give you a true and honest picture of what happened. Proof? Compare this story to what the WDN reports on the same thing.
We view it as one of our primary purposes to help keep you informed, not only about the action taken but to share our insight into why it happened. Sometimes we are wrong and sometimes we are correct. We trust our readers to decide which category any story falls into.
At the May 7, 2012, meeting we saw one of the most significant displays of bad government we have ever seen. The item on the agenda was simply: "Resolution to End Corporate Welfare In North Carolina and Beaufort County." Click here (or go the bottom of the page) to review the resolution. The video below shows that portion of the meeting in which it was dealt with, which took less than four minutes.
Background:
If you are a regular reader here you know that the one issue that has garnered the most public attention in recent months is the economic development program of Beaufort County and the City of Washington (which is one in the same, along with Belhaven, Chocowinity and Aurora). Unless you have been living under a rock, or rely solely on the Washington Daily News for your local news, you know that numerous issues have been raised about the effectiveness of the economic development strategy the County and City have pumped over six million dollars into in recent years, almost exclusively based on anecdotal proclamations of the EDC and Committee of 100 in paid advertising in the WDN, which in turn has carried the EDC/Committee of 100's water on this issue.
If you have not kept up, here are the essential facts:
1. The EDC and Committee of 100 have failed to provide any valid, documented, data to support their claims of "job creation." Those data that have been tendered have been roundly debunked, mostly by research done by Warren Smith and the all-volunteer staff of the Beaufort Observer. Thus, the fact is that Beaufort County cannot document any significant return on our six million "investment."
2. The premier projects upon which most of Beaufort County's money has been spent—two industrial parks, one completely empty and the other almost empty and going downhill—have been miserable failures under any objective measurements.
3. There has been evidence revealed recently of deals made by the Committee of 100 which have raised serious questions of potential conflicts of interests. And more evidence of this grows almost daily. The evidence shows individuals involved in businesses that have benefitted from county and state money funneled by the EDC/Committee of 100 into those projects that members of the EDC/Committee of 100 had a vested interest.
4. The EDC and Committee of 100 (actually one and the same in terms of the key players) has consistently violated the Open Meetings and Public Records laws in trying to hide their activities and records.
5. The Director of the EDC and CEO of the Committee of 100 (again, one and the same) has resigned from one job (EDC) but not the other.
6. The Board of Commissioners, later in the same meeting, agreed that they would take a look at revising the EDC by-laws and relationship with the Committee of 100 and how the director is hired and to whom he/she would be accountable.
7. The funding of the EDC will be a significant issue in the upcoming budget negotiations.
Now, to more fully understand Stan's resolution and how it was dealt with you need to know two more things.
In 2009 the state commissioned a study of North Carolina's Economic Development Incentives Programs. You can review that study by clicking here. There is a wealth of good information and data in this report. Unfortunately, we're afraid that many will not give it the consideration it deserves. So here' the quick, short and dirty version.
Generally, economic development incentives do not work the way advocates of that strategy claim. In some cases they do work but it is usually where other factors contribute to success rather than success such as it is being caused by the incentives. In short, incentives are ineffective. To our knowledge this study has not been challenged, much less refuted on an objective basis. The EDC/Committee of 100 has certainly not refuted the primary conclusions/recommendations of the study because apparently they have not reviewed the research.
For Beaufort County, it simply means that most of the rationale Tommy Thompson, Al Klemm, Jay McRoy, Tom Richter and the other Committee of 100 Cheerleaders have been pushing simply is not correct according to the best available research. But more importantly, what the research shows is that effective leadership of a successful economic development program knows how to distinguish between effective strategies and ineffective strategies. That is what Beaufort County has not done.
That's the second thing you need to know when you watch this video. As the Board of Commissioners considered what to do about hiring a replacement for the retiring director there was NO discussion about how ineffective the program has been and how it could be made more effective going forward. The same could be said for the last EDC board meeting. They jumped from Thompson's resignation to a decision about replacing him without doing any evaluation of where we are, where we have come from and where we need to be going. But clearly the UNC study tells anyone who would care to know, that effective economic development strategies must be carefully planned. Beaufort County is not doing that.
So the thing you need to keep in mind as you read the resolution and as you watch the video is that it is clear that the Gang of Five is not willing to even consider how effective Beaufort's past strategy has been. There is absolutely no discussion after the motion is made to adopt the resolution, The Gang of Five knew they had the votes to shove the resolution under the rug and that is exactly what they did.
Thus, if it has ever occurred to you to ask: "is there a better way" to promote economic growth and development in Beaufort County, just know that our leaders have already decided the answer is: "No." And they decided that without reviewing the best available data and information and without any open discussion and debate.
So what we saw Monday night was the classic "Ostrich with his head in the sand" syndrome. What we have here is a board ignoring overwhelming evidence that a Six Million Program has been a dismal failure and looking only at hiring a new director, and apparently just continuing to do what has not work.
Commentary
If you read the UNC study two things are abundantly clear. It lays out why the two industrial parks are empty and why we've lost more jobs than we've brought in. The second thing is that while it is equally foolish to continue a failed strategy, it is also unwise just throw the baby (incentives) out with the bathwater.
Beaufort County has a rare and unique opportunity here. We can get it right going forward or we can continue the failed policies of the past. But getting it right will take some work and clear thinking. Much better thinking than the way the Gang of Five dealt with Stan's resolution.
Anyone who knows even a little about Beaufort County government knows that Stan's motion was a setup. It sets up the major issue for the campaign of 2012 and conceivably, 2014. But it is about so much more than political campaigns. What this group of elected officials is doing is literally playing with the future of Beaufort County.
Stan raised some very important issues related to economic development. They should be thoroughly debated. And that can't be done in four minutes.
Beaufort County desperately needs economic revitalization. We desperately need to avoid the failure that we have suffered for ten years now.
The solution is so simple. We need a County Commission that will do an honest and valid assessment of what has worked and what has not worked over the last decade. They then need to determine what the strategic goals of the economic development program are going to be. They then need solid information about the most effective ways to achieve those goals. Then they should involved the community, particularly the broad business community in developing a Long Range Economic Development Plan. Then, and only then, they need to search for the best person to implement that plan.
With this in mind, watch what they do.
Resolution to End Corporate Welfare in North Carolina and Beaufort County
Whereas, Corporate Welfare, for example: providing financial incentives to one business entity to the detriment and exclusion of another, is anti-free-market in construction and intent, and,
Whereas, Corporate Welfare as an inducement to relocate industry is the worst possible reason for a business entity / corporation to relocate from one location to another, and basically is no different from other forms of corporate exclusion of competition, not unlike the outlawed "pay for play" scheme that was endemic within the radio broadcast / music industry of the early 1960's, and,
Whereas, the greater weight of all known history of offering financial incentives / Corporate Welfare for corporate relocation is balanced greatly in favor of the eventual nonsuccess of these endeavors, and,
Whereas, here in Beaufort County, we need only look to the significant and abject failures of business entities / corporate relocators: Bonny Products, Miller Harness and Amilite Glass and other lesser significant Corporate Welfare fiascos, and,
Whereas, the financial incentives of Corporate Welfare is specifically designed to provide financial reward to lesser productive free-market pseudo participants to the detriment of productive real free-market participants, who have surrendered their financial resources, at the direct threat of police power, to directly benefit the government favored industrial relocator, and,
Whereas, Corporate Welfare is tantamount to Corporate Socialism giving unsophisticated politicians, and their sycophants, the direct ability to pick corporate / business favorites, thereby destroying the capitalistic necessity of free-markets, and,
Whereas, county governments will find it hard to limit their part in the competition for the mostly temporary benefits of the so-called "job creation," brought on by the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the misguided politicians that support such market destroying behavior of picking economic winners with public money, and,
Whereas, the State of North Carolina and the County of Beaufort would be far better served if they were to husband their scarce resources: to correct its flagging education system, which has become an education industry to the benefit of the few, and is way off course from its intended purpose, and furthermore to bolster public infrastructure, and if it is possible, after correcting these failing public systems, to reduce the exorbitant taxes upon this public, rather than reward economic winners by taking from one to give to another, therefore,
Let it be resolved, that the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners do hereby request that the State of North Carolina end its part in the Corporate Welfare relocation of wealth, and furthermore, that the State of North Carolina redouble its efforts to do what governments are charged to do, rather than to pick the economic winners and losers in their contrived "pay for play" redistribution of wealth scheme that is their well placed hindrance to the proper functioning mechanisms of free-markets.
Written by Beaufort County Commissioner Stan Deatherage and submitted to the Beaufort County Board of County Commissioners, North Carolina, for passage on May 7, 2012.
| Commission Told of Need for Consumer Protections From Fracking | County Commissioners, Government, Governing Beaufort County | Commissioners discuss reorganizing the EDC |
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