Warren Smith responds to Jay McRoy's comments at the Candidates' Forum | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    At the Candidates' Forum October 16, 2012 the candidates for County Commissioner were all ask what approach they believe the county should take to economic development. Jay McRoy's response is in the video below.



    You will note that Mr. McRoy makes a comment disparaging the "numbers" he says "many times are fictitious." He does not say which numbers he believes are fictitious but we assume he was referring to some of the research done by Warren Smith and published here over the last few months. So we asked Mr. Smith to respond to Mr. McRoy's comments. His response is below:

   I am one of the principal and certainly the proudest critics of the Economic Development Commission. My criticism has been based on:

    1) Mr. Thompson's 10 year long refusal to relocate to Beaufort County. This resulted in nearly $1.5 million in salary and benefits being paid to a resident of another county. Money that should have remained in our local economy.

    2) the EDC's self-contradictions and its refusal to publish documented and verifiable annual reports with appropriate jobs surveys from the NC Employment Security Commission

    3) the convoluted and conflict of interest prone inter-locking arrangements between the EDC and the Committee of 100

    4) wasteful spending on industrial park and "shell building" projects which was undertaken without any evidence of researched study or preset budgeting

    5) assumption of guarantees by taxpayers for private financing of favored businesses.

    My reading of the grant history and EDC announcements, along with conversations with county staff have caused me to state that:

    1)the Frederick Rd. industrial park has resulted in a $2.3 million empty field and no jobs after 5 years

    2) the Page/Legget Rd industrial park has resulted in approximately $4 million of county cash, grants and interest on loans while creating 30 jobs in 5 years

    3) the Quick Start II building sat empty and deteriorating since late 2007 and was sold in mid 2012 for a $1.5 million loss against the taxpayers.

    The Economic Development Commission has squandered taxpayer resources to the tune of $6.5 million in industrial park fiascos, $3.5 million in salaries and expenses and $500,000 in grant guarantees and "clawbacks".

    I have written numerous letters to the county commissioners and have appeared before them numerous times to discuss these points. No relevant counter argument to these criticisms has ever been voiced. The county staff have been present at all of my board appearances and were thus able to correct any errors, yet no correction was ever mentioned. In addition, a number of letters to the editor of the Washington Daily News were submitted along with sources for their content. The letters were reviewed for accuracy and published by the paper.

    Persistent refusal by county leaders to identify and deal with the problems at EDC is how its problems were created.

    The county board's lack of review and failure to objectively evaluate the EDC's activities has done the taxpayers a great disservice.

    Regards,

    Warren Smith

    Again, we don't know exactly what numbers Mr. McRoy was referring to in his disparaging comments. We would invite him to be specific and extend to him our facilities to publish whatever documentation he wishes to offer to back up what he said at the Forum.
Beaufort County Commissioner Candidate Jay McRoy: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage