THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020568
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Strained relations between Pasquotank County's Smart Start program and a community development organization neared the breaking point this week before officials pulled back from the brink.
The Pasquotank County Partnership for Children and its first contractor, River City Community Development Corp., met Wednesday to iron out disagreements that have plagued the groups for much of the year.
After nearly 90 minutes of mostly shouted exchanges, more than 20 officials from the organizations reached no conclusion and introduced little information. But leaders on both sides said they thought the session was useful.
``Hopefully we have resolved something today,'' said Lenora Jarvis-Mackey, president and CEO of River City CDC. ``It has at least opened the lines of communication.''
``We understand what their concerns were. We wanted to get our concerns on the table,'' said Partnership Chairman and Pasquotank County Manager Randy Keaton. ``If people don't ever express themselves, it's just going to bottle up.''
The dispute centers on the handling of River City's contract with the state to conduct outreach surveys for potential clients of the partnership, which oversees Pasquotank County's $1.2 million annual share of Smart Start dollars.
The Smart Start program, currently facing a political firestorm in Raleigh, is Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s initiative to ensure health and child care for kids through age 5. About 24 programs are underway in 32 counties.
The partnership, which said River City did a good job administering the ``Family Ties'' project, asked the state Division of Child Development in April to terminate its $46,540 contract with River City early.
Partnership board members said they were concerned about reports that outreach workers were doing unrelated work for River City and about how and when unused funds would be returned. The groups had met twice on the issues, but the partnership did not notify River City when it later sought to cancel the contract.
The breakdown in communication left River City officials irate, and Board Chairman Bruce Boyd on Wednesday accused the partnership of ``a deliberate attempt to damage our integrity.''
``We're not questioning your right to raise issues,'' Jarvis-Mackey said. ``The issue here is the way in which it was done.''
River City board members sought a public apology from the partnership Wednesday. Keaton maintained that the issues raised were valid, but he acknowledged that ``we could have sent you a copy of the letter that we sent to Raleigh'' asking to end the contract.
``A lot of this is perception on each other's part,'' Keaton said. ``We had a perception that issues weren't being resolved . . . River City had the perception that there should have been more contact.''
Officials from both groups again blamed the contract structure for some of their troubles. Local Smart Start groups choose what programs to fund and who they will hire, but the contract is between the state and the participating agency. This has made communication between the local agencies difficult.
``If the contract had been directly between the partnership and River City,'' Keaton said, ``I have no doubt that we would have continued meeting back and forth.''
River City officials on Thursday submitted their final financial report on the project to partnership officials. The contract, never canceled by the state, expired Wednesday.
Jarvis-Mackey said River City will return $2,000 in unused project funds to the partnership. by CNB