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Airport run like ‘Good Ole Boys’ Club’
To the Editor:
In a recent edition of The Sylva Herald there was a comment about “more questions than answers” in reference to the removal of Tom McClure from chairmanship of the Airport Authority and audit of the Economic Development Commission.
Good reporting by The Sylva Herald has shown me the truth of this statement. It motivated me in the past (and still does) to ask questions on behalf of the taxpayers of Jackson County.
I want to thank the people who have encouraged me to continue because their jobs, etc., prevent them from speaking out. Everything in Jackson County is intertwined, and economic survival for the people is essential.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, I questioned the EDC office last fall about the amount of funding received from the county. I received few concrete answers; instead I got generalities that did not put anything into black-and-white answers.
What about providing expenditures, audits, etc., to taxpayers, because business procedures are not secrets for organizations that use public funds.
I spoke with Mr. McClure, Airport Authority chairman, twice in December. I asked a number of questions.
“Where is the $733,336 received through county funding and matching grants?” I asked.
“It is being held for projects we are starting,” he said.
“Do you receive $130,000 to $150,000 annually from the N.C. Department of Transportation’s aviation division?” I asked, and received a negative reply.
“How many pilots fly for business or pleasure only?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but we can tell we average 20 flights per week by the gasoline sold,” he said.
He told me the airport has no employee and does not have logs or copies of flight plans that show where the pilots go.
This airport is run like a “Good Ole Boys’ Club.” Everyone has a key, gasses their plane, writes it down somewhere and pays when convenient. Who knows where they went or for what purpose, and all at the taxpayers’ expense.
Some people identified several that fly for their own pleasure and their own interest. And I’m sure there are more.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, I will quote the annual audit findings on Mr. McClure’s and the Airport Authority board’s business practices.
The 2002 annual report states:
“Stewardship, Compliance and Accountability:
A. During the year, the Authority entered into a security interest agreement with a local financial institution. This violates G.S. 160A-20, which defines the requirements the Authority must meet to enter into such an agreement. The Authority does not meet these requirements.
B. The Authority failed to adopt a budget as required by G.S. 159-8, which states each local government and public authority shall adopt and operate under an annual balanced budget ordinance.”
From 2003:
“Stewardship, Compliance and Accountability:
A. The Authority failed to adopt a budget as required by G.S. 159-8, which states each local government and public authority shall adopt and operate under an annual balanced budget ordinance.
B. The authority is in violation of G.S. 160A-20, which requires that financing agreements for improvements to buildings be collateralized by security interests in those buildings and reviewed and approved by the Local Government Commission prior to the Authority’s entering said agreement.”
The same Authority board that has just been reappointed has been privy to this information as well as Mr. McClure. They borrowed (May 31, 2002) $100,000 locally to renovate the decaying terminal building. It was still standing decayed on Oct. 21, 2004.
Airport Authority board members had high praise for Mr. McClure’s ability to get millions of taxpayers’ dollars. After all, they don’t want the “Good Ole Boys’ Club” taken away, and the only way to save what cannot support itself is to keep the taxpayers’ dollars rolling in. And with the lack of management, expertise and responsibility, the taxpayers had better plan on digging deep in the years to come to finance this “Good Ole Boys’ Club.”
People go hungry and can’t buy needed medicine and medical or dental care while we are forced to contribute our tax dollars to a few people’s personal agendas.
Never have so many given so much to so few.
Marie Leatherwood
Sylva
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