THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280434
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WELDON LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
A five-hour meeting of the Northeast Regional Economic Development Commission ended with panel members secretly debating the fate of their two paid directors.
Much of the closed-door part of the session had to do with the future of Executive Director James Lancaster and Tourist Director Bunny Sanders, commissioners indicated.
Both directors get $58,000 a year. Sanders was appointed by Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. and Lancaster was selected by the commission members.
But ever since the General Assembly gave the commission $2.4 million two years ago, and told the pump-primers to go forth and multiply business in the Albemarle, the nearly autonomous Elizabeth City tourist division has been competing with Lancaster's main economic office in Hertford for funding favors from the commissioners.
When five new panel members this month replaced five original commission members whose terms had expired, a demographic change came over the board. The new lineup includes 12 white members and three African Americans, including Chancellor Jimmy R. Jenkins of Elizabeth City State University, who is vice chairman of the commission.
Sanders, head of the tourist office, is the daughter of E.V. Wilkins, chairman of the board of trustees of ECSU.
There had been five blacks on the economic panel before the replacements took over this month.
``The executive session will resume August 4 at 10 a.m. at a location that will be announced,'' said Chairman Andrew Allen, a Plymouth businessman, as the weary commission members filed out of a Halifax Community College meeting room at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
``There'll probably be some news after the August 4 meeting,'' Allen added.
There was persistent speculation Wednesday that a single new director would take over the jobs of both Sanders and Lancaster with a subsequent consolidation of the two divisions.
For months, several commission members have been privately critical of Sanders and her management of the tourist division. Other panel members have been antagonistic toward Lancaster.
The management problems apparently came to a head during this week's three-hour - and unfinished - executive session.
``In order to get rid of Sanders, they'll have to get rid of Lancaster, too, and that's probably what will happen,'' said a friend of Lancaster after the meeting. Neither Lancaster, Sanders nor commission members would comment publicly.Despite their competing struggles for funding favors, Lancaster and Sanders, together with their staffs, stood nervously together outside the closed doors of the meeting while commission members discussed their fates.
The commission, meanwhile, transacted other business before going into the closed meeting ``to discuss personnel matters,'' according to Allen.
The board decided to:
Keep on paying former state Rep. Vernon G. James, of Elizabeth City, $1,500 a month to lobby for the commission at the General Assembly. Before taking that action, G. Watts Carr, a special representative of the Department of Commerce, warned the members that ``Raleigh is getting concerned about using taxpayers' money to get more taxpayers' money.''
Put a 90-day freeze on future funding until new commission members are settled in and the problems with paid managers have been resolved.
Wait for Economic Commissioner Ray E. Hollowell Jr. to further explain his proposal to spend $200,000 in commission funds to promote the Babe Ruth World Series in Manteo next summer.
Heard Lancaster report that the commission probably would face a 20 percent reduction in legislative funding for the next two years. But, Lancaster said, he expected to get $2,390,582 to run the operation between July 1 of this year and June 30, l997. Running the commission will cost $1 million, leaving $1,390,582 for programs, Lancaster said.
Voted to give Washington, N.C., $9,000 to help promote the first annual East Carolina Wildlife Art Festival next Feb. 3 and Feb. 4. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
NEW MEMBERS
Five new commissioners have been named to the 15-member Northeastern
North Carolina Economic Development Commission. They replace
commission members whose two-year terms ended this month.
The new members are:
BEN BERRY, an Elizabeth City banker.
BUCK SUITER, an Ahoskie banker.
BOYCE HUDSON, a representative of the state Department of
Environment, Health and Natural Resources.
BUFFY WARNER, who operates a restaurant on Ocracoke Island.
EDWARD BUCKNER, a Washington, N.C., auto store owner.
Warner and Bucker were named this month by House Speaker Howard
Brubaker. The other new members were named by Gov. James B. Hunt
Jr. and Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, president pro tem of the state
Senate.
by CNB