THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504080230
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
For two years, a fuse has been sputtering toward an explosion between Bunny Sanders' nearly autonomous tourist division and her nominal bosses on the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission.
On Thursday night, members of the commission's executive committee decided the time for action had come. When the monthly meeting of the 15-member commission is held in Elizabeth City April 19, strict guidelines to control the actions of Sanders' tourist division will be presented for approval.
The executive committee decided on the curbs after Randy Keaton, manager of Pasquotank County, wrote a blistering letter March 30 criticizing Sanders and her tourist promotions.
The letter was sent to Andy Allen, the Washington County chairman of the Economic Development Commission. Copies were forwarded by Keaton to all county and city managers in Northeastern North Carolina.
``I am writing to express my concern . . . regarding projects that have been approved for funding in Pasquotank County and Elizabeth City by the Northeastern Regional Economic Development Commission.
``My concern is about the lack of information that Pasquotank County has received about these projects,'' Keaton wrote.
``I have serious concerns about the way that these projects are being presented to the Northeastern Regional Economic Development Commission. The projects do not appear to have the support of the local governments nor the support of the general public simply due to the fact that the local governments and the general public have not be involved in the decision-making process,'' Keaton said.
For months Sanders has been making glowing progress reports to the commission about Harbor Town plans that would involve high-speed passenger ferries linking many of the Albemarle's waterfront communities in a multimillion dollar tourist attraction.
She said recently that she expected to have a demonstration version of the high-speed ferries ``operating as early as this summer.''
Another Sanders' project involved a proposed zoo and aviary in Scotland Neck in Halifax County. In one report, Sanders told the commission that a similar aviary would provide a new tourist attraction on the Elizabeth City waterfront.
Based on Sanders' reports, the commission at the March meeting agreed to appropriate $29,000 in ``leverage'' for some of the proposals if other communities or agencies supported the plans. At a previous session, the commission has agreed to ``leverage'' other Sanders' enterprises for an overall amount of $100,000.
``Pasquotank County has not received any information from your staff about the Harbor Town project, or about the proposed aviary for the Elizabeth City waterfront,'' Keaton wrote Allen.
Keaton said he didn't believe any project should be proposed or funded without consultation with local officials who would be involved.
``Obviously, we have been misled,'' Allen said this week after receiving Keaton's letter.
Allen added that he had ``talked with Keaton'' and also communicated with Ralph Clark, city manager of Elizabeth City, to apologize on behalf of the commission.
Zee B. Lamb, the Elizabeth City chairman of the Pasquotank County Board of Commissioners, would not comment on a report that Keaton had been criticized by some commissioners in executive session for putting his complaint to Allen on county stationery.
Sanders insisted Friday that the tourist division had scrupulously kept all involved communities informed about Harbor Town and other development plans. She has an extensive file of communications with local officials to support her claim.
But that did not deter the six-member executive committee from meeting Thursday night to consider the criticism of the tourist division. The controlling group went into executive session and no official statement of its actions was forthcoming.
In addition to Allen, the executive committee members include Jimmy R. Jenkins Jr., chancellor of Elizabeth City State University; Sidward M. Boyce Jr., an Elizabeth City banker; Charles Ward, a Hertford business executive; Ray Hollowell, a developer in Manteo; and Jimmy Dixon, a member of the Pasquotank County Board of Commissioners.
Sanders, who sits with the full commission when the body is in session, has her own operating budget. She is the daughter of E.V. Wilkins, the mayor of Roper, who is an influential Democratic Party leader as well as chairman of the Elizabeth City State University Board of Trustees.
When the General Assembly created the commission two years ago - one of five similar groups in the state - the legislators gave Allen's Albemarle pump-primers more than $2 million for regional development.
But the legislators also created a separate tourist division within the commission and Gov. James G. Hunt Jr., named Sanders to run it.
The 15 members of the main group were appointed, five each, by the speaker of the state House, the president pro-tem of the Senate and by the governor.
From the beginning, friction has been apparent between the tourist division in Elizabeth City and the main headquarters of the full commission in Hertford. Several efforts were made to bring Sanders under the supervision of James Lancaster, the $55,000-a-year paid director of the full commission.
As a result, Sanders now spends a considerable amount of time at each meeting of the full commission reporting on her activities.
While Sanders' tourist division regularly bubbles with new proposals, the commission has struggled to find ways to spend its $2 million development fund.
Charles Shaw, a retired Edenton oil executive, is a regular member critic of the commission.
``We've been meeting for two years and we haven't done a thing yet,'' Shaw said at the last meeting. by CNB