THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 21, 1995 TAG: 9509210415
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
The first full-dress meeting of the Northeast Economic Development Commission under new Chairman Jimmy Dixon was greeted Wednesday with the prospect of a lawsuit from a disgruntled former tourist director.
Bunny Sanders, who was fired in August from her $58,000-a-year job as the commission's tourism planner, said she had filed a civil suit Tuesday at the Perquimans County Courthouse in Hertford. The commission has its headquarters over a bank next door to the courthouse.
Sanders sat silently as a spectator during the three-hour meeting of the pump-primers in the Kermit White Center at Elizabeth City State University. No mention was made of a lawsuit during the session.
``The commissioners have 30 days to answer my charges that the commission violated this state's open meetings law during two closed meetings that resulted in my dismissal and the dissolution of the tourist division,'' Sanders said.
``I'm not asking for any money; I just want to right a wrong,'' said Sanders, who gave few details of her suit and would not name her attorney.
Sanders would say only that her suit was based on two closed meeting of the commission, one on July 26 and the other on Aug. 4.
``The tourist division was created by the General Assembly, and the commission had no right to abolish it during a secret meeting,'' Sanders said Wednesday.
The $58,000-a-year job of James Lancaster Jr., the executive director of the panel, was also abolishedas a result of reorganization plans discussed privately by the commissioners at the two meetings.
The commission is now looking for a new manager.
``So far I haven't heard anything about the suit,'' said Dixon, an influential Democratic Pasquotank County Commissioner and Albemarle businessman, who promised renewed energy for the slow-moving commission after his election as chairman last month.
Earlier at Dixon's inaugural meeting, the resignation of Beth Compton, who was Sanders' aide in the tourist division, was accepted ``with regret'' by the commission.
Compton, who ended up as a market research and communication specialist for the commission, said she had accepted a position with the Washington County school system.
Both Sanders and Compton came to the commission when it was created by the General Assembly in 1992 to bring new business and prosperity to 16 counties of the Albemarle. The legislators gave the pump-primers $2.2 million to spend during fiscal years that ended last June 30.
Dixon's first meeting was attended by all 15 members of the economic commission - a first in recent memory. The members are appointed, five each, by the governor, the speaker of the House and the president pro tem of the Senate.
In other actions, the commission:
Approved a $126,000 appropriation to hire the Raleigh planning firm of Leak-Goforth/Pace to prepare an economic improvement program for the commission. The firm promised to have a plan in hand within six months.
Disbursed $25,000 to the Albemarle Commission for a survey of water resources in the Albemarle.
Heard Dixon report that the Department of Commerce had assured the economic panel that it would get $1,036,921 in new funding for the coming fiscal year. The commission still has about $1 million in unspent funds in the bank.
Approved plans to have county and city representative sit as advisors at commission meetings.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT by CNB