The Henderson-Vance Economic Partnership came out of the shadows Monday, promising as much openness as possible in its quest to bring jobs to Vance County. The result was one win and one postponement for the planned private, nonprofit group that will bring together much of the power in the county.
Sam Watkins, who is the chairman of the Vance Economic Development Commission and is the driving force behind the formation of the organization, made his trademark rapid-fire presentation to both the Vance Board of Commissioners and the Henderson City Council. With the backing of Bob Fleming, who will serve as the first chairman of the group, and developer Eddie Ferguson, whose Triangle North site has the first occupied building in the proposed regional hub, Watkins appealed to the governing boards to endorse the partnership and its bylaws and to officially appoint representatives.
He got his wish from the Henderson City Council, which voted 7-1 to endorse the partnership’s concept, endorse its proposed bylaws and officially appoint three city representatives. Elissa Yount said she voted no because of concerns about the bylaws, which do not say anything about meetings of the group being open to the public and allow meetings with no notice. Yount also said the bylaws appear to allow as few as four people — a majority of the seven-person executive committee — to make all decisions if the board votes to grant the power to the executive committee.
Watkins will have to wait for an endorsement from the Board of Commissioners, which unanimously voted to table the partnership’s request and send it to the board’s General Government Committee for discussions, including questions raised by a Sunday story in The Daily Dispatch that Watkins claimed was “not fair and not accurate.”
But it was County Attorney Stubbs Hight who eliminated any chance for the commissioners to endorse the partnership’s bylaws Monday night.
Hight, who typically is silent at commissioner meetings unless he is asked a question, was the first to speak after Watkins made his presentation.
“To hand a document of the length that this is to the commissioners to make a decision without having the time to contemplate it is absolutely ridiculous,” Hight said. He noted that he didn’t know a member of his own law firm, Jonathan Care, had anything to do with the partnership until Monday afternoon. Watkins had touted Care’s role in writing the bylaws.
“I’ll be honest with you , Sam. I’ve got questions too,” board Chairman Tim Pegram said.
Partnership organizers have worked through months of meetings to hammer out the details of the group and craft bylaws acceptable to all of the interests involved.
The Economic Partnership is meant “to unite the economic development efforts of the various organizations and entities within Vance County under one private, non-profit corporation dedicated to and focused exclusively on economic development, including tourism promotion and development, for the benefit of the entire county, all of its municipalities and its citizens as a whole,” according to proposed bylaws.
The group will be governed and largely consist of a board of directors composed of 18 local officials, nine people elected at large by the rest of the board, and one nonvoting member, an executive director hired by the board.
The 18 officials on the board break down as follows:
* Three county commissioners, including the board chairman unless he declines the appointment. Pegram has been out of the partnership’s loop, though; the three county representatives are Terry Garrison, Danny Wright and Tommy Hester, pending any final county action. Hester missed Monday’s meeting.
* Henderson’s mayor, unless he passes on the opportunity, and two City Council members. On a preliminary basis in March, the City Council appointed Mayor Clem Seifert and council members John Wester and Bernard Alston to work with the partnership. Monday night, the council officially voted for Wester and Alston to serve one-year terms as the council’s representatives, and Seifert officially accepted the automatic berth offered to the mayor.
* Two directors of the Vance Tourism Development Authority.
* Two directors from the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce.
* Two directors from the Henderson-Vance Downtown Development Commission.
* Two directors from the Vance Economic Development Commission.
* One director from the little-remembered Henderson Investment Development Corp.
* The president of Vance-Granvile Community College.
* The superintendent of Vance County Schools.
* The president of Maria Parham Medical Center.
That nonprofit group will organize as a 501(c)(3) corporation, which organizers say will allow the group to raise private and foundation money to support its activities. The start-up money for the group is coming from local businesses, including Watkins’ Rose Oil, and Maria Parham Medical Center, where Watkins serves on the board.
“We need cohesion rather than division,” Watkins said. He said the partnership is not about him or personal glory. “If it’s good for the county, it’s good.”
Wester told his City Council colleagues that the partnership is an opportunity to break a tradition of fragmentation in Vance County. Instead of 10 different efforts to do the same thing, the county will present a united front.
No public money is involved now, but Watkins made clear in March that the partnership hopes to get city and county funding someday. On Monday night, he said the partnership hopes to earn the trust and funding of the local governments.
“The dialogue has been on how open we can be, not how secretive,” Watkins said, but he noted that there are occasions when a economic development prospect requires secrecy or will leave. “The group desires to have the most open dialogue. … I can assure you that’s how we’ll proceed.”
Garrison, one of the three commissioners who has served with the partnership in its preliminary stages, noted that this “radical idea for Vance County” did not originate with Watkins or the Economic Development Commission. Team Vance consultant Mac Holliday proposed the initial concept, which was to merge the organizations involved in economic development rather than form a combined advisory board representing all of the groups.
“This is a good opportunity for us to try something different,” Garrison said. “Nothing is in concrete. If it doesn’t work, we can go back and do something else.”
Watkins said he’s eager to appear before the commissioners’ General Government Committee to explain the partnership’s plans and answer any questions.
One of the biggest questions regards the potential for secrecy. Fairly or not, much of the concern about the partnership’s possibility for committing and ultimately spending public funds in secret results from the public’s experience with the Embassy Square Foundation, which has not held open meetings despite having no worries about driving off economic development prospects.
“We want it as open as we can have it,” Watkins said in an interview between his two public appearances Monday. “We don’t have anything to hide. … The idea of us being secretive is a joke.”
Still, Yount focused on the matter of open meetings during the much longer session Watkins and Fleming had before the City Council than they had with the commissioners.
The city agenda called for Fleming to speak on behalf of the partnership, but it was Watkins who stepped up to the microphone and did the initial talking. As he did before the commissioners, her noted that Fleming has agreed to be chairman and that Lynn Harper has agreed to be vice chairwoman.
“We’re very excited by the leadership we’ve put together,” Watkins said.
The partnership had active allies in Wester, Alston and Seifert, all three of whom spoke in favor of action endorsing the group before opening the floor to council questions.
“This group is made up of a lot of people. They have been gracious enough to afford the city a seat at the table,” something Henderson has lacked in economic development efforts, Seifert said.
“I think the idea is a good one,” Alston said. “I think it should go forward.”
“One of the concerns we’ve repeatedly heard is power was concentrated into a very few hands,” Wester said. “This is the total opposite of that.”
Under questioning from Yount, Fleming said the partnership’s board has not approved the bylaws. That will happen after all 27 voting members are named.
Yount emphasized her concern that the bylaws do not explicitly say what Watkins and Fleming promised: that meetings will be open except in cases when a business prospect needs confidentiality. Fleming said the bylaws are only general guidance, not meant to address all situations, but Yount noted that the bylaws do specifically address situations such as no-notice meetings.
“We as a city group are supposed to be buying into this openness that’s going to bring 27 people together, and when you really look at this, you go right back to very few people holding the control,” Yount said.
Alston asked whether the intent of the partnership is to be a “public body.”
Fleming referred the question to Watkins, who said it’s a private, nonprofit body.
Mike Rainey and Ranger Wilkerson both wanted clarification on the partnership’s potential use of tax money. Watkins said there’s no public money now, but there might be someday.
Mary Emma Evans had a simple question: “All I see is positive stuff. What’s negative?”
“I don’t see how we could have a better opportunity,” Watkins said.
Yount asked about bylaw provisions allowing the office to be out of Vance County and board members to live outside Vance County. Fleming said the bylaws could specify that the office be in Vance, and Seifert explained that the organizers wanted to leave an opening for people such as Jim Crawford and Curtis White, who are heavily invested in Vance County but live elsewhere, to be board members.
“We need the strongest group we can get to sell this county,” Watkins said.