Downtown Drama

When decades-long public officials resign, retire or are fired – especially from positions that have operated for years under the good ol’ boy network – it’s like a scab being ripped off a wound.

We’ve watched it happen repeatedly in Mooresville, beginning about a decade ago when Joe Knox chose not to seek re-election after 33 years as mayor. Knox’s right-hand man, Town Manager Rick McLean, resigned five years later under fire from the public and, ironically, the town board, which was then made up only of commissioners who were born and bred in Mooresville.

That same board hired McLean’s replacement, Jamie Justice, in 2005. Justice – even to our current board, which includes commissioners with varying experiences and hometowns – was known as the “task manager.” In other words, he would do whatever the town board instructed him to do … which was precisely the reason the old board hired him. But the majority of our new town commissioners wanted a manager who stood on his own two feet and didn’t have to be told what to do, so they asked Justice to resign, which he did last month. That’s progress.

Similarly, shortly after long-time Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dan Wallace resigned in 2006, the South Iredell Community Development Corporation (SICDC) split from the Chamber and formed the Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corporation (MSIEDC). And shortly after that, the MSIEDC board of directors asked its 13-year executive director, Melanie O’Connell Underwood, to resign.

So I guess it was only a matter of time before the scab was ripped off the wound in downtown Mooresville, where, unfortunately, it appears the good ol’ boy network is alive and well.

Wayne Frick, who has been executive director of the Mooresville Downtown Commission (MDC) since one year after the organization was formed in 1987, recently announced his retirement, effective in June.

And judging from e-mails that I’ve obtained, it appears that the familiar power struggle between the old guard and the “progressives” has begun.

Kim Atkins was recently elected chairman of the MDC’s board of directors against longtime Iredell County Commissioner and Mooresville resident Sarah Haire Tice.

But Atkins is now being lambasted in e-mails from longtime Mooresville attorney Brian Harwell who has an office on Main Street. And the gloves came off when another downtown investor jumped into the e-mail match.

Some background: The MDC created a bylaws committee last year because the organization’s bylaws had not been updated since 1990. The MDC apparently looked at the issue of membership in 2004, but it was never resolved. The bylaws committee at the MDC board’s monthly meeting in February submitted proposed new bylaws. Due to questions that arose at that board meeting about the slate of candidates for next year’s MDC board, the membership issue was placed on the board’s March agenda.

And here’s where the drama started: Atkins on March 3 distributed the meeting agenda, which included the membership issue as an amendment to the bylaws. The MDC board at its March 5 meeting adopted that amendment.

But Harwell sent an e-mail the following day to a host of people, including Atkins, taking issue with the board’s actions, pointing out that state statutes require a five-day written notice of any meeting wherein an amendment is to be voted upon. Additionally, Harwell pointed out, the statutes require that a copy or summary of the amendment be attached to the meeting notice.

It seems Harwell is right, though some questions have arisen about whether the statute is applicable to an organization structured like the MDC. Regardless, in addition to only providing a two-day notice of the meeting, Atkins apparently did not include a copy or summary of the amendment with the meeting notice. Noted Harwell in his e-mail: “The so called adoption of the bylaw amendment on March 5, 2008 by the Mooresville Downtown Commission is therefore invalid by virtue of non compliance with the North Carolina Statutes.”

In an e-mail that followed, Harwell copied to a large group of people an e-mail he had sent Interim Town Manager Erskine Smith, in which Harwell turned to more personal attacks: “In my opinion the whole purpose of Ms. Atkins’ amendment was to make one of the nomination committees’ nominees a member and to further legitimize the current nominations from the nominating committee,” Harwell wrote. “It is highly improper to change the rules in the middle of the election for Board Members of the Downtown Commission. To do so gives the appearance of shady dealings.

“Furthermore as to my personal feelings," Harwell continued, "the whole operation of the Downtown Commission needs to be examined. Kim Atkins should have resigned as President of the Downtown Commission when her husband was elected to the Town Board. It is a direct ethical conflict for her to preside over the Downtown Commission while her husband sits on the Town Board determining Town Budgets which may include the Downtown Commission.”

Kim Atkins’ husband, Miles Atkins, was elected At-large Commissioner last November against veteran commissioner and Mooresville resident Danny Beaver. The Mooresville Downtown Commission in recent years has received around $45,000 annually from the Town of Mooresville. At this Monday night’s town budget meeting, the MDC will ask for about $60,000, in part to help offset the salary of a new executive director.

Harwell’s definition of “direct ethical conflict” deserves a second look. If we are to use his definition, is it a direct ethical conflict that Frank Rader serves on the town board and his wife serves on the advisory board of the town’s public library, which receives public funding? Is it a direct ethical conflict that Chris Carney serves on the town board and his brother was recently hired as the industry and marketing manager of the MSIEDC, which also receives public funding? Is it a direct ethical conflict that Ron Johnson is the treasurer of the MDC and the MSIEDC and is also executive director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau? Further, is it a direct ethical conflict for downtown business owner Bill Thunberg to serve as mayor, secretary of the MSIEDC and on the board of directors for the MDC?

In other words, if the Atkins’ positions are creating a “direct ethical conflict,” then we’re living in a cesspool of ethical conflict right now.

Another argument playing out in the downtown e-mails is about the recent nominations for next year’s MDC board of directors. In the MDC's election, a committee nominates potential board members, then a vote is taken. But Harwell apparently wasn’t pleased with the list of six total nominees, so he himself nominated six different people.

Howard Kosofsky of Old Downtown LLC, a major investor in downtown Mooresville, took issue with that, stating in an e-mail to Harwell and others: “I believe no one person should be allowed to nominate 6 people for the board of the downtown commission. Each person should be allowed one nomination and I propose this change in the new bylaws if it is not presently in effect.”

Also, added Kosofsky, “If one thinks that Kim Atkins should resign then Bill Thunberg would also have a conflict if he (owns a) downtown business and votes on the budget that helps promote his business. I do not understand why people who donate (their) time and make a commitment like Kim and this board should be abused with comments like these. I believe these e-mails are vindictive and uncalled for. My partners and I have committed a lot of time and money to downtown and expect this to be a team building process.

“Mooresville is growing and changing,” Kosofsky added. “Those that think downtown is business as usual are kidding themselves. If we are to attract good business to downtown, we need to improve, and we all need to work together to achieve success.”

I couldn't agree more. With or without the naysayers and/or the powermongers, our downtown will progress and flourish.

Ah, the winds of change. It was seemingly a simple request to further the professionalism of the downtown commission – to amend the bylaws and define membership to make way for the upcoming MDC board elections. And then, this. Sure, maybe the meeting was called improperly, but that could have been handled with a phone call instead of a “calling out.”

We have watched this scenario play out time and time again over the past decade. And each time, we’ve seen positive change come of it because the person who the old guard said “boo” to didn’t tuck tail and run.

It’s a new day in Mooresville. We have people who are poised to lead us through the transition of a small town with small ideals to a thriving, eclectic community with natural small-town charm. I’m not suggesting that all the decisions to this point have been bad. I am saying that the town has outgrown them. As evidenced by recent elections and other personnel decisions across the board, it cannot be argued that the people of Mooresville have spoken. And we’re saying: We want change.

I hope that Atkins, and others who appear to be trying to make our downtown a more professional, energetic place to live and work, won’t be intimidated by the bullying tactics of a couple of people who clearly have a hard time accepting change. And I hope on Monday, when the town board considers funding the MDC, that it will realize that the MDC needs a fresh start. It hasn’t been the best run organization in past years, which is obvious when quality shops are leaving downtown as quickly as they’re setting up. But the MDC, with its new leadership – and if all its members can work together for the greater good – truly has the opportunity to make our downtown what we’ve always wanted it to be: a peaceful, vibrant retreat from the rest of the traffic, noise and busyness of Mooresville.

Okay, jumping off my soap box now. Off to do a little more snooping. Stay tuned.