THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170334
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: 61 lines
Members of North Carolina's Northeast Partnership thought so much of the ``visioneers'' they hired to write a handbook on Albemarle economic development that they put the two authors on the payroll Wednesday to practice what they preached.
Robert E. Leak and Robert Goforth, two Raleigh economic planners, initially asked for a total of $80,000 a year, a figure that jolted the partnership members into acute attention.
The pump-primers soon realized they were being asked to hire Leak and Goforth as Partnership managers in charge of spending taxpayers' money, possibly on Leak-Goforth's recommended projects.
In 1995-1996, the Leak-Goforth organization received $75,000 from the Partnership, then called the Northeast Economic Development Commission, for preparing a handbook on bringing business to Northeastern North Carolina.
On Aug. 29, after Rick Watson, the $75,000-a-year executive director of the Partnership, reported he needed help running the busy organization, Leak and Goforth offered to volunteer their services.
``We realize there is only so much you can do and that you need some assistance in implementing many of our recommendations,'' Leak wrote Watson.
``Bob Leak and Bob Goforth will be available to the commission to give advice, assist in planning events and activities and acting as assistant directors when directed to do so,'' Leak explained.
Around the meeting table in Hertford's Albemarle Commission building, members of the Partnership were glancing at each other.
``I have reservations about this,'' said Boyce Hudson, a Washington, N.C., executive on the 15-member Partnership.
``Isn't there a better way of management?'' Hudson asked.
Several other Partnership members questioned the proposal on the table, including Charles Shaw, a retired Edenton oil executive who keeps an eagle eye on Partnership proposals. Charles Ward, a Hertford businessman, and Andrew Allen, a former Partnership chairman from Plymouth, also urged careful consideration by the members.
In their letter to Watson, Leak and Goforth said: ``Rick, we believe our involvement in the (Partnership) activities plus being available to you nearly full time will enhance the program of the commission (Partnership) and will make substantial economic impacts on Northeast North Carolina. Our fee for this service would be $80,000 paid $20,000 per quarter plus reasonable expenses paid monthly.''
When Leak told the Partners about the proposed $80,000 annual salary, he gestured at Goforth and said, ``We'll share it.''
Chairman Jimmy Dixon, an Elizabeth City beverage company owner and Pasquotank County commissioner, muzzled the table talk and sought a motion that would resolve the growing problem.
He got it when several members suggested that the Partners hire Leak and Goforth for a trial three months at $20,000.
The motion carried unanimously.
The Partnership was one of six created by the General Assembly two years ago and given $1.2 million to spend on economic good works in different geographic areas of North Carolina.
Initially, the Partnership was wary of spending the money, but last year the members got the hang of it and now wonder how generous the new January legislature will be. by CNB