THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602210409
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
A freshly charged battery of new ideas for 1996 will be hooked up to the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission today by the new executive director of the stalled agency.
Richard Glen ``Rick'' Watson, who took over Feb. 1 as the $75,000-a-year manager of the panel, will propose a six-month business-boosting program. The 15-member commission will hear the proposals in the Albemarle Commission building at Hertford.
``The program is based on ideas given to me by the commissioners themselves,'' Watson said Tuesday. ``We had one-on-one meetings and I've tried to bring all of the ideas together and establish priorities.''
This will be the third year that the commission has been trying to spend nearly $2 million in taxpayers' money to create good works in the Albemarle.
So far, sponsored projects have been far between and the internal difficulties of the commission, including a lawsuit from a fired former tourism director, have been an embarrassment to the 15 members of the panel. All are prominent Northeastern North Carolina community leaders selected by the governor and legislative leaders.
The commission is one of six created in the state by the 1992 General Assembly. Each of the commissions was initially given more than $1 million and the funds accumulated with additional legislative grants.
Meanwhile, more difficulty has been promised for the northeast commission by Estelle ``Bunny'' Sanders, who was fired last year from her $59,000-a-year job as director of tourism for the agency. Also fired was James Lancaster Jr., the former executive director who received a similar paycheck.
Sanders charged the commissioners with violating the state's open meetings law when they met in closed session last summer to discuss the firing of the paid executives. She later amended the Perquimans County suit to include an accusation of wrongful discharge.
In her lawsuits, Sanders has specifically targeted former Commission Chairman Andrew Allen, a Plymouth business man, and Ray E. Hollowell, a commissioner from Manteo.
Sanders in her suit said Allen told the other commission members that Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., who appointed Sanders as tourist director, had supported in writing a legislative amendment that transferred authority over Sanders from the governor to the commissioners. This, Sanders charged, caused the commissioners to unlawfully fire her.
Attached to the Sanders suit were affidavits from the governor's office and the Secretary of Commerce that disclaimed any knowledge of such an action.
Sanders, daughter of former Roper Mayor E.V. Wilkins, a prominent black Democratic leader, said the commissioners often voted ``along racial lines'' when considering her efforts with the tourist division. by CNB