Management by default | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Beaufort County Commissioners would seem to have done it again. They sit idly by while one of their own seems to be trying to take charge of things (presumably to remake them in his own image - surely thereby enhancing his own stature). That has certainly proven to be a time tested way to avoid any blame when things go wrong. It usually works until the long suffering taxpayers wise up and start demanding honesty, integrity, and commitment from their elected officials.

    This time, they did it when one of their group (who may be the only one - beside Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage - who actually read the budget submission) came into the "budget meeting" with a laundry list of changes which he presented. I never realized what a strong leader Mr. McRoy was. How else could the self proclaimed conservative become the leader of the liberals on the Commission and get them all (all four of 'em) to go along with his recommendations, all of which I believe were accepted with little to no discussion.

    And then they did it again when another of their group announces that he is going to straighten out the Beaufort County version of Economic Development Commission by forming a Committee to rewrite the by-laws. Instead of agreeing and making the assignment official, the rest of the Commissioners simply do not take exception to the self appointed manager of the by-law rewrite and off he goes. Another policy decision by default. But then, I got the impression that the Commissioner who offered to re-write the by-laws is not the prime mover, rather he is simply their scribe. At least that's what I thought I heard when he was asked about the re-write at the recent Commissioners' meeting. Regardless, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of Committee of 100 Directors who are willing to join several of the EDC Council members together with some "outside help" (in the form of staunch Dem operatives) on the "rewrite committee". (How better to ensure the continuation of interlocking directorships and all the advantages they bring??) More about the results of this effort later...

    The EDC web site includes application information for Mr. Thompson's replacement, presumably issued by the EDC Council. It specifies certain educational requirements that one would normally expect to find for a job such as this one, with salary commensurate with experience. We may really be spinning our wheels with the application. We understand that Craven County is doing away with their EDC which means that their former economic developer may be available. But wait, we already tried one of their retreads and it didn't seem to work out so well. One thing that seems to be missing from the "job requirements" is a proven ability to write fiction and present it in a slick Power Point presentation which the Commissioners will accept with little or no questions. (Of course, that may be implicit in the requirement for an advanced degree in public administration or whatever.) In any case, that approach seems to have worked not only for the outgoing EDC Chief Executive but also for the Rte. 17 "lobbyist" who, likewise, has been getting away with the same tactic for several years. (i.e. slick Power Point presentation with lots of good sounding words but little to no substance).

    One thing that does not seem to have been addressed is the matter of "outside employment" of the EDC director. The departing Director was drawing a salary from and claimed to be working 40 hours per week for the Committee of 100. This in addition to the presumably 40 hours per week ostensibly being worked for the EDC. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that adds up to 80 hours per week. Wow!! I believe there are more than a few folks who would question the propriety of such an arrangement, and even more who would question 80 hours per week for very long. With so many Beaufort folks out of work, maybe instead of "romancing" outsiders, maybe our Economic Developer should have been holding seminars for we "locals" on how to find jobs and get hired. Hmmm...

    I don't suppose it ever occurred to any of our commissioners to take a hard look at what the Economic Development Commission (EDC) has really accomplished over the last several years and how those accomplishments have benefitted the long suffering taxpayers (if, indeed there has been any benefits realized) versus the cost of doing all that "good". Obtaining any useful information of that sort would be a bit difficult if the only place you looked was the "reports" submitted by EDC management. I invite you to check out the Warren Smith letter to the Commissioners for some thoughtful and erudite insights on what has been going on and what we have been achieving. Click here.

    Additionally, there are some rather significant potential "claw back" situations laying out there in the weeds. Our failure to "mind the store" could well result in some severe "paybacks" to a lot of those folks who have been handing out money to us and expecting something in return - like more jobs -real jobs... These need to be resolved one way or the other before we even think about committing to further taxpayer funded "economic development" (which includes replacing the departing Director). In fact perhaps the best thing we could do to improve our economy would be to leave the job vacant (permanently) and quit wasting taxpayer money on "pie in the sky" pipe dreams.

    D'ya think??