Who's tending to the County Store? | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    What store?? The Beaufort County store. You know, the store run by our County Commissioners. It sure doesn't seem to be the Commissioners. Well, at least five of 'em.

    What does that mean?? It means that in meeting after meeting the Commissioners talk about things affecting the County. Sometimes they hand over funds pursuant to a budget request. Other times they hand money over to one or another of their favorite 501(c)(3) organizations either with or without a request. Yes, occasionally they fund activities without even being formally (publically) asked. (Think the Chambers of Commerce being bankrolled with taxpayer money by Al Klemm). Sometimes the Commissioners ask to be kept appraised of the status of the project or activity (but not too often). When asked, recipients of the Commissioners' five to two munificence invariably promise monthly or quarterly reports showing project or program accomplishments. That, my friends, is normally the last we ever hear about the program unless some taxpayer follows up to see what has become of all the promises. (Think Warren Smith and the EDC. We owe him a large debt of gratitude.)

    I remember when the Rev. David Moore promised a monthly report on the activity at his dental clinic. The promise did not have to be dragged out of him. It was freely given following some questions by Commissioner Hood Richardson. As I recall it was not to be an exotic report requiring reams of paper and hours and hours of preparation time. It was along the lines of: "How many folks are you treating at your dental clinic and how many of them are "paying customers" or something to that effect?? In any case, when I recently inquired as to the level of activity being delivered by the Rev's dental office, what I learned was that no reports had ever been sent to the commissioners. Of course the promise was a long time ago and folks could have forgotten whether any reports were submitted or not. There have been none recently that anyone could recall.

    Apparently, the Beaufort County Commissioners' requirements for periodic reports, that people or organizations promise even in open meetings, is most often conveniently forgotten, and no-one seems to care much. That is the same benign neglect that got us to where we got with the EDC and the hospital. Buckets of money spent and nothing to show for it.

    By the way, what do you suppose ever happened to both the Rev's medical clinic (that was going to relieve the then Beaufort Hospital of a lot of the non-paying emergency room walk in traffic) as well as the dental clinic?? Oh well, I suppose it doesn't matter much anymore now that Blue Cross/Blue Shield is joining up with physician owned FastMed Urgent Care organization in the hope of reducing the numbers (and surely expense) of visits to the emergency for non-emergency care and treatment. If it works, and it sure sounds like it will, it could well help decrease the cost of health care. Hooray for BCBSNC. It remains to be seen, if the change proves successful, whether the resulting savings will accrue to BCBS bottom line or will result in decreased premiums to the long suffering policy holders..

    And, what ever became of the rewrite of the EDC by-laws?? Do you suppose we are we waiting for the TT furor to die down before mentioning the EDC again?? That "flap" seems to have calmed down. Quietly, it would seem. What remains to be seen is how much "clawback" the County is going to be forced to repay as the result of prior EDC/Cof100 sloppy tracking and reporting (read: misreporting) of "accomplishments"?? I have heard some pretty scary numbers. (I don't remember the numbers, but I do remember that they were really "scary".)

    The "new" EDC person is apparently going to report directly to the County Manager. If that is the case, we might wonder why "By-laws" of any kind are needed. One would think that a simple (albeit somewhat detailed) functional statement and a succinct job description should take care of everything nicely. In the meantime the by-laws are reportedly "on hold" until the "New" EDC manager comes on board and has a chance to review them. Sounds like a good idea.

    In the aftermath of the last EDC disaster, you would have thought that the Commissioners would have an open discussion addressing how things should be run in the future. What did we get?? Mostly silence. And one commissioner offers to rewrite the EDC by-laws. Give him credit for having the gumption to pick up that ball - but be careful of what he does with it.

    Actually, the Gang of Five's relative silence with regard to the EDC sounds like it falls into the same category as failing to follow up on other promises made by those who ask for - and get - County support (mostly financial) for their organizations. It turns out that apparently the EDC is just like any other bureaucratic organization. Once it starts, it lives forever, performance (or, in this case, lack of performance) notwithstanding.

    It is reported that the new EDC person is an individual who has worked with our County Manager in the past. The Committee of 100 "Pals" are supposedly "out"; or so we are told. Let us hope that we are not slipping back into a "palsmanship" style of management only with a different group of "Pals". At this point, I do not believe we are and hope I am correct. But, the more I read and hear about Lee County EDC and our own Committee of 100's continuing influence on local current events, the more it sounds like the TT regime all over again..

    Back to the question as to why we still need by-laws. It begins to look like we are simply "playing office" as we try to create the impression we are truly looking out for the long suffering taxpayers. Reportedly a board, properly constituted, could provide a lot of constructive advice to the new EDC person. Of course with such a "Kitchen Cabinet" to help with suggestions and advice for the new EDC person, that should make for an interesting relationship between the EDC and the County Executive. Reportedly the new by-laws will prohibit the same folks serving on the board of both the EDC and the Cof100 which would certainly create the appearance of an independent EDC. However as long as the same clique is involved in both places, the incestuous relationship between the EDC and the Committee of 100 would seem to be likely to persist.

    Part of the problem is that most of the "give and take" seems to be going on in the back room, behind closed doors. One interesting thing that apparently happened on the way to the Forum was that Doug Mercer worked conscientiously on the draft and then when he went back to the City Council (which he was presumably representing) they pulled the rug out from under him by sort of "opting out" of contributing to funding of the centralized county wide economic development activity. They suggested that all city residents already pay County taxes so why should they pay again through the city?? Good question. The same question might be asked by the other "towns" being asked to "contribute" to the county EDC program. They do, however, get additional tax revenue as the result of EDC economic development within the town's jurisdiction - to the extent that projects land in the city where city taxes can be collected. That certainly sounds like a valid counter to the town's argument. (Al Klemm gave me that one. Thanks, Al.)

    I suppose another question that might be asked is how much are we going to spend on office space for our new EDC person. Are we going to continue to pick up the outlandish tab for the Committee of 100 building that houses the "Throne Room" (at the Washington Industrial Park) formerly occupied by our last EDC Director?? Or will the new person be required to "work" in the same squalor as the rest of our county employees?? Actually, it is long past the time when the County's incestuous relationship with the Committee of 100 should be severed. If existing county office space is inadequate to accommodate the "new" EDC operation, surely there is some reasonably priced commercial office space in Washington that could be acquired on a competitive basis.

    Our previous EDC director took over a million dollars of Beaufort County money home to Craven County over the years. It remains to be seen if that fact has registered with our policy makers (i.e. our County Commissioners). I suppose we will find out when we see if the "new person" will be required to reside in Beaufort County or not? I understand that to be the case. Then that begs the question of why it was not so all along. Could it be lack of oversight? And if so, what precisely is going to be done to change the system of oversight rather than simply deal with the symptoms? We shall eagerly await the "new" by-laws.

    D'ya think??