THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 5, 1995 TAG: 9508050309
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
In a jolting reorganization, members of the Northeast Economic Development Commission fired two $58,000-a-year directors Friday and merged their separate pump-priming divisions.
Dismissed by a unanimous vote of the pump-primers were: James Lancaster Jr., a 58-year old Rocky Mount businessman who was hired a year ago to direct the commission's economic development branch in Hertford; and Estelle ``Bunny'' Sanders, 51, appointed two years ago by Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., to run the commission's tourist division in Elizabeth City. When the commission was created by the General Assembly, the tourist division immediately started functioning as a virtually autonomous branch under Sanders.
For months some commission members have privately complained that the tourist and economic offices failed to pull together. At one point, the General Assembly passed a bill that stipulated that the head of the tourist division should report to the commission through the economic director.
Chairman Andrew Allen, a Plymouth businessman, announced the sweeping reorganization of the commission Friday morning at the end of a closed meeting in the Vernon James Agricultural Research Center near Plymouth.
The executive session started at the July meeting of the commission in Halifax Community College in Weldon two weeks ago. At that time commission members began the heated, closed-door discussion that ultimately resulted in Friday's dismissal of the two paid directors.
In a prepared statement that Allen brought to this week's session, he listed as one reason for the consolidation and the dismissals ``the lack of cooperation and willingness to work together that is evident'' between the tourist division and Lancaster's economic office.
But when Allen released copies of the commission statement, the paragraph about ``lack of cooperation'' between Sanders and Lancaster had been crossed out.
After the executive session, the commission unanimously adopted five resolutions that drastically reshaped their organization:
``That the positions of director of tourism and director of economic development be eliminated and that the two directors be immediately put on paid administrative leave to be terminated 30 days from the date'' the directors receive a proposal for resignation and severance from the Commission. ``That a (new) position of Executive Director be established.''
``That the Tourism Office in Elizabeth City be closed and all commission functions be consolidated in one office at a location to be determined.''
``That two advisory boards (Tourism and Economic Development) work through the Commission and the Executive Director.''
``That all strategies for tourism and economic development be placed on hold temporarily.''
Commission vice chairman Jimmy R. Jenkins, chancellor of Elizabeth City State University, was absent from the meeting and did not vote. Bunny Sanders' father, Mayor E.V. Wilkins of Roper, was for many years chairman of the ECSU board of trustees.
Allen listed as other reasons for the reshuffling a reduction in commission funding from the Assembly for the current fiscal year; the cost of operating two separate offices for the commission, and a move to make the commission resemble the structures of the state's six other regional pump-priming groups.
Allen also cited ``the high cost - $500,000 a year - of operating the commission with two offices``.
Friday's meeting is likely to be Allen's last as chairman.
His term expires this year, and a nominating committee will recommend new officers for election at the next regular meeting of the commission Aug. 17, also in the Vernon James Agricultural Center.
Pasquotank County Commissioner Jimmy Dixon Jr., an Elizabeth City bottling company executive, is expected to be nominated as the new chairman.
Sanders and Lancaster would not comment after the announcement.
Both deposed directors had waited outside the closed doors of the commission meeting room while their fate was decided.
Sanders spent most of the time reading ``The Art Of War For Executives,'' a book by Michigan University Professor Donald Krause. The little book is a semi-satirical takeoff on the ancient Chinese ``Art of War'' written 2,500 years ago by the Oriental philosopher Sun Tzu. by CNB