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County, towns form task force to study EDC by-laws
By Justin Goble
Citing “confusion and miscommunication” over hiring an Economic Development Commission director, county and town officials decided to develop a task force to look into the EDC’s by-laws.
The action came during a Jan. 15 meeting between county commissioners and leaders from each of the county’s four incorporated towns.
Commissioner Tom Massie suggested the idea in the wake of commissioners’ Jan. 7 meeting, when EDC members recommended Sylva town Manager Jay Denton for the director’s job.
Massie said officials from throughout the county should take a look at the by-laws to clear up any confusion and possibly suggest changes or amendments to the EDC guidelines.
“We need to have representatives go over the questions they have about the by-laws,” he said. “I don’t want any more miscommunications. People thought things were a certain way and didn’t talk to each other and make sure that was the case.”
Massie said his main concern about the by-laws are two sections that state that the county would fund the EDC director’s position and make a per-capita contribution to the commission.
Under the guidelines, each voting municipality will contribute $1 for each person within its limits.
“When we approved these by-laws, I didn’t know there was going to be such a rush to hire a director,” Massie said. “There’s also language in there that says each member has to contribute on a per-capita basis. How does the county fit into that?”
To clear up those questions, Massie suggested the county and each municipality select an elected official to be part of the task force, which will examine the by-laws and then recommend any changes the group considers necessary. Those suggestions would then be brought back to the towns, county and EDC.
However, Sylva mayor and EDC member Brenda Oliver said she thought the by-laws are clear and doesn’t understand why there was such confusion.
“The by-laws state that the county was going to fund it and that the county was going to put in their per-capita contribution,” Oliver said. “That was my understanding.
Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority Director Joe Cline, who was named to the EDC in December, agreed with that opinion and said the EDC was acting in accordance with the by-laws when they offered Denton the job.
“Some people may have questions about what exactly the by-laws mean,” he said. “Until you clear those up, I don’t see why there’s a problem operating under what was set up.”
EDC Chairman Rick Fulton said his board was working under the assumption that they had the power to hire a director after discussing that position with county Manager Ken Westmoreland. Though the by-laws state commissioners must approve of the director, both Massie and Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan told The Herald that Westmoreland does all of the hiring for the county.
“We assumed a lot of things,” Fulton said. “I thought we had an understanding on how this was supposed to work. The board talked about this quite a bit. This is a working agreement, and if you want to make changes or amendments those have to be approved by all of the municipalities, the county and the EDC. But the issue at hand here is hiring a director. We were led to believe that part of the by-laws was hiring a director and that the county approved of the funding.”
However, Fulton said the EDC would work with the task force and invited its members, who had not been appointed by press time, to attend the next EDC meeting. That meeting is set for Monday, Jan. 28, at 5:30 p.m. in the old commissioners’ board room.
McMahan instead suggested the task force meet that same day but prior to the EDC session.
“I don’t see any reason why the EDC would need to be there,” McMahan said. “We don’t interfere with your meeting.”
Officials from the four towns agreed, and the task force meeting was set for 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, in room A-227 at the Justice Center.
Fulton and EDC Vice Chairman Chris Matheson said earlier this month that, based on conversations with Westmoreland, the EDC offered Denton the job and expected him to start Feb. 1, pending commissioners’ approval. The Herald has learned that EDC officials offered Denton an annual salary of $60,000.
However, when that recommendation was brought to county leaders for approval on Jan. 7, as called for in the EDC by-laws, McMahan pointed out that the position had to conform with the county’s personnel policy in terms of pay and benefits.
McMahan explained that county employees’ salary and benefits are based on their years of experience in that position. Though never naming Denton, since EDC officials had not publicly announced their choice, McMahan said “the applicant’s” experience did not qualify him for the salary offered by the EDC. That stance was supported by the rest of the commissioners.
Fulton and Matheson both told commissioners that the only information they were given in terms of salary was a range of $38,000 to $70,000 which was provided by Westmoreland, who also helped develop the job description that was used to advertise the position. While mentioning the duties to be performed by an EDC director and that pay range, the ad does not indicate that the position would have to comply with the county’s personnel policy in terms of pay grade.
This issue is the first sign of conflict since county officials rejoined the EDC in April of last year. That move came after a request from Oliver during the October 2006 joint town/county meeting to form a task force to explore creating a new set of EDC by-laws.
That task force comprised representatives from each municipality, Commissioners’ Chairman McMahan and county Manager Westmoreland. The resulting set of by-laws were unanimously adopted by each town and the county.
County officials withdrew from the EDC in January 2005 as part of a controversial five-part motion that removed then-EDC Chairman Tom McClure from all county-appointed posts but did not end McClure’s role in the EDC, because he was Western Carolina University’s representative on that board.
Then-Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchanan said the county suspended its participation due to the way EDC conducted its business, and said at the time that economic development needed to be handled differently.
“I envision a professional hired to do economic development who would brief the board each month,” he said then. “This stuff needs to be open and above board.”
County officials sent deputies to McClure’s office to seize EDC records and proceeded with an audit of those records. That audit, conducted by accountant Mitch Crisp, turned up no evidence of wrongdoing.
Southwestern Community College followed the county’s lead and withdrew from the EDC the following month. While praising the service and commitment of EDC members, SCC President Cecil Groves characterized the EDC upheaval as “an opportunity for members of the Economic Development Commission (to) meet in public session with the county commissioners and other stakeholders to review, discuss and establish a more workable and understandable model for economic development.”
The exit of the county and SCC left the EDC made up of representatives from Sylva, Dillsboro, Webster, Forest Hills and WCU.
That remained the case until the EDC was reformed in April 2006. Voting members are appointed by the county commissioners and the towns of Sylva, Webster, Dillsboro and Forest Hills; SCC and WCU representatives now play only an advisory role in the EDC.
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