THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180373
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROPER LENGTH: 49 lines
Members of the Northeast Economic Development Commission re-elected officers Wednesday and boosted the pay of their director.
The commission voted to renew the contract of Richard Glen ``Rick'' Watson for another three years and also gave Watson a $5,000-a-year raise, to $80,000 a year.
The economic commission last January hired Watson away from Pender County, where he was also a business promoter.
Earlier, the commissioners unanimously renamed all of their incumbent officers to serve for another year. The commissioners, most of whom are business leaders in their home communities, get $100 a day and out-of-pocket expenses while they are on commission business.
Re-elected were:
Chairman Jimmy Dixon, an Elizabeth City bottling executive and Pasquotank County commissioner.
Vice Chairman Grover Edwards, a Northampton County construction official.
Secretary Charles Ward, a Hertford auto-parts store owner.
Treasurer D.S. ``Buck'' Suiter, an Ahoskie banker.
All but two of the 15 commissioners attended the meeting in the Vernon James Agricultural Research Center in Washington County, on the south shore of Albemarle Sound.
Absent were Ray Hollowell, a Dare County developer, and Mary Lilley, of Williamston, director of the Martin County-Williamston Chamber of Commerce.
There were no dissenting votes when Jack Runion, former North Carolina Power executive and chairman of the nominating committee, presented the incumbent slate of commission officers for reelection.
In other business, Max S. Busby, an Edenton attorney who represents the commission, told the panel that a hearing on a lawsuit brought against the panel by Estelle ``Bunny'' Sanders had been postponed.
Sanders and James Lancaster, the previous paid director of the commission, were fired last year in a squabble over rank and turf among the salaried executives. Sanders and Lancaster were each paid about $60,000 a year. Sanders is suing on grounds that she was improperly discharged.
Busby told the panel that Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett of Manteo, scheduled to hear Sanders' complaint, was expected to withdraw from the case to avoid any suggestion of conflict of interest.
Tillett is a close friend of state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, president pro tem of the state Senate. At one time, Tillett was Basnight's administrative assistant in the General Assembly.
``We now expect that Superior Court Judge J. Richard Parker of Manteo will be on the bench for this case,'' said Busby. by CNB