THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510290051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Months of secret or unadvertised meetings by Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission members preceded the abrupt firing of Tourist Director Estelle ``Bunny'' Sanders and Executive Director James Lancaster Jr., an amended lawsuit by Sanders has charged.
In a demand for an unstated amount of damages, Sanders, in the new Perquimans County suit filed this month, accuses commission members of violating the North Carolina open-meetings law by deliberately orchestrating every detail of her dismissal without her knowledge.
Her suit contends that at one meeting Watts Carr, personal representative of Commerce Secretary S. Davis Phillips, was quoted as saying: ``The only clean way to get rid of Sanders was to abolish her $58,000 a year job.''
Lancaster, in a sworn affidavit that accompanied the Sanders suit, said he was told ``in January or February of 1995'' that he also was going to be fired so the commission ``wouldn't look bad.'' Like Sanders, Lancaster was paid $58,000 annually.
Lancaster said he had the unnerving experience in April of getting a $70 bill from Max Busby, the commission's Edenton lawyer, for legal services relating to the ``discharge'' of commission employees.
``I was unaware of what the legal work entailed,'' Lancaster said, although for months some commission members had been privately discussing strategy for eliminating the two paid directors.
The new lawsuit against the commission contained pages of confidential legal advice from Busby about how the commissioners could reorganize in a way that would maneuver both Lancaster and Sanders out the door.
Carr, whose role seemed to have been that of an administration guru from Raleigh, was quoted further by Lancaster as saying that by reorganizing the commission to specifically eliminate Sanders' job as tourist director and Lancaster's position as economic director the ``risk of a lawsuit'' would be avoided.
The actual firing of Sanders and Lancaster took place Aug. 23 after another closed meeting of the commission. Commission members said the meetings were closed because they planned to discuss ``personnel.'' State law permits private personnel talks.
Lancaster has accepted a severance settlement, according to Commission Chairman Jimmy Dixon of Elizabeth City, but Sanders refused the proffered package and filed suit instead.
Sanders was named tourist director, and her salary set by Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., when the commission was created by the General Assembly in 1992 and given more than $2 million to help the Albemarle's economy. But last year, the economic developers asked state Rep. William T. Culpepper, D-Edenton, to revoke the governor's authority over the tourist director and put all commission personnel under General Assembly statute.
This was done by legislative action May 24, l994, and the path cleared for the commission to assume closer control of Sanders.
When Sanders and Lancaster were dismissed last August, the commission also froze ongoing programs started by the two, including appropriations for the tourist division. Sanders' waterside office in Elizabeth City was closed and all tourist activities moved to the main office of the commission in Hertford.
One of Sanders' scuttled projects was a plan to develop high-speed ferryboats to shuttle tourists between Albemarle harbor towns. The plan was developing momentum when Sanders' tourist division was abolished.
Throughout the many disputes over the tourist division, commission members almost invariably followed racial lines in votes relating to Sanders' proposals.
Sanders is the daughter of Mayor E.V. Wilkins of Roper, an acknowledged leader of black Democrats in the state. Wilkins only recently stepped down as chairman of the board of trustees of Elizabeth City State University.
When the commission was established in 1992, the 15 principal members were appointed - five each by the governor; Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare; and Daniel T. Blue Jr., then speaker of the House. The initial lineup included several African-Americans, including former Elizabeth City State University Chancellor Jimmy Jenkins. Jenkins was elected vice chairman of the group at its first meeting.
Fewer blacks were named to the panel as terms ran out, and at present, they represent a small minority of four voting members. Although still a serving member, Jenkins has not attended any meeting since he resigned as ECSU chancellor Aug. 3.
The new suit revealed that Sanders has retained Katherine R. White, a Raleigh attorney, to represent her.
Obviously concerned, the commission, in another closed session last week, hired the prestigious Raleigh legal team of Maupin, Taylor, Ellis & Adams to defend the 17 members of the economic group against Sanders' charges. by CNB