Henderson will have to wait to see the results of its lobbying trip to Washington last week, but the city got encouragement in four congressional offices, including a big ego boost in one.
New Republican Sen. Richard Burr met personally with a delegation led by Mayor Clem Seifert and gave the group more than half an hour Wednesday afternoon. While they were talking across a coffee table, Burr kept a very important person cooling his heels in the waiting room: fellow Republican Jim Martin, former governor of North Carolina.
During the meeting, Burr turned to a staffer and told him, “I want you to go to Henderson and see what’s going on,” Seifert said. “Hopefully he’ll get some of his staff here to report to him firsthand some of the issues down here.”
That was a sign to the Hendersonians that they were being taken seriously during a day of meetings arranged by The Ferguson Group, the city’s paid lobbying firm in Washington.
Seifert, City Council member Mike Rainey, developer Eddie Ferguson, Clean Up Henderson Committee Chairwoman Lynn Harper, and Embassy Square representatives Sam Watkins and Kathy Powell met with Burr, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, staffers for Rep. Bob Etheridge and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and Jim McCleskey, Gov. Mike Easley’s lobbyist in Washington. Council member Bernard Alston was supposed to make the trip but was ill.
“It was a good trip,” Seifert said Friday.
“I’ve done this trip three times now, and they get better each time,” he said. “They give us the time we need.”
The city delegation focused on appropriations requests during the trip. Henderson is seeking $1 million for the Kerr Lake Regional Water System, $1 million for Embassy Square, $450,000 for the cleanup of abandoned houses and $80,000 for an anti-crime initiative in the federal fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
The key, Seifert said, is selling Henderson’s projects over those in other cities the members of Congress represent.
“I’m tired of waiting on folks,” the mayor said, adding that he conveyed that message in Washington. “We don’t have the luxury of coming up with a plan that’s going to get us out in 10 years. We need it now. If you’re not going to help us right now, we’re not so sure we need your help. We’re in a crisis right now.”
The centerpiece of the city’s presentation was a report from the North Carolina Rural Development Center that rates Vance County as the most distressed of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
“We have two senators that represent this state, and the No. 1 most distressed county in the state ought to get their attention,” Seifert said. “We’re going to fight for their attention.”
He said both senators’ offices are planning to send staffers to Henderson for the same kind of fact-finding tour that Butterfield and Etheridge have taken.
Burr was particularly interested in economic development and pledged to make a phone call any time to anyone to help Vance County bring in employers, Seifert said.
Harper said the senator also vowed to fight any cuts in Community Development Block Grants, a program that Henderson relies on for help with redevelopment. President Bush has proposed eliminating the CDBG program under the Department of Housing and Urban Development and replacing it with a grant program through the Department of Commerce.
Butterfield had visited Henderson less than a week before, and Seifert said the freshman congressman again was impressive. “I think he’s going to be a good help to us.”
Butterfield may prove to be a particularly big help to the Clean Up Henderson Committee. One of his staff members, Alex Silbey, told the mayor that the $450,000 request for the problem of abandoned structures wasn’t enough, Harper reported.
She said Silbey was talking about $3 million to $4 million. “A lot of that money could be used for a housing initiative. We could do more than take care of abandoned structures,” Harper said. “I don’t know if we’ll get it. I was just sort of taken aback by the amount and the offer.”
Seifert said Butterfield might seek a waiver from size limitations Henderson doesn’t fit for a particular program, and that move would allow the city to claim the bigger appropriation for a multiyear project.
“Washington is nothing but a game, and if you can play the game, you’re in good shape,” Seifert said. “If you can’t figure out the rules, you’re going to get beat.”