Former legislator says it's time to dissolve the SICDC

The state lawmaker who set up legislation to establish the South Iredell Community Development Corporation (SICDC) years ago said this week that the organization has served its purpose and needs to be dissolved.

“The SICDC was set up as a partnership between the Town of Mooresville, Iredell County and the Chamber of Commerce, and it took some tall talking to get it through the General Assembly because the concern was that people would take it over for greed and personal gain,” said Robert Brawley, a Mooresville resident who served 18 years (1980-1998) in the N.C. House of Representatives.

At the time the SICDC was formed, Brawley said, “Nobody was interested enough in Mooresville to make investments. We had a big tract of land that belonged to the Oliphants. They were willing to sell it for an industrial park, but nobody with money was interested in developing Mooresville.”

That tract of land eventually became the Mooresville Business Park on Mazeppa Road.

To develop that business park, the SICDC borrowed nearly $3 million from Iredell County between 1989 and 1994. The county had the money to lend because of its January 1986 sale of the former Lowrance Hospital, which turned into Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and is now the Government Center South on Center Avenue in Mooresville.

In 1994, Iredell County transferred to the Town of Mooresville the responsibility for collecting the SICDC’s debt. By 1999, the SICDC had paid back the principal amount of the loan, but it had not made a single payment on nearly $850,000 in accrued interest between 1999 and 2002.

After the debt was exposed by the local media in 2002, Mooresville’s town board voted unanimously to approve a proposal by the SICDC to repay the loan interest. The SICDC agreed to pay the town 10 percent of its outstanding balance every year and half of all proceeds from selling land in the Mooresville Business Park until the debt was paid in full.

The SICDC still owes the town $388,263 and has not made a payment since 2006. Additionally, the SICDC has not paid the town any percentage of two pieces of property that the organization sold in the business park earlier this year for a combined $1 million.

Mayor Bill Thunberg, who has sat on the SICDC board the past two years while the organization has defaulted on its repayment plan to the town, said in an e-mail Tuesday that the SICDC discussed in its annual meeting in February a plan to repay the town in full by June 30 of this year. (See “Mayor: SICDC to pay town in full by June 30," April 17.)

Brawley said this week that the SICDC was originally set up so “the Chamber and SICDC could borrow money with the backing of the taxing authority of the city and the county.

“They borrowed money from the city rather than from the outside, and they bought the land as a non-profit corporation,” he said. “As such, they’re not supposed to be in the business of buying and selling property for a profit.”

“This was a prime example of the city, county and Chamber working together for the good of the community, but there are some people that have tried to convert the SICDC into a personal-profit real estate organization,” Brawley said. “It was originally a partnership to allow the city and county to become what it is today. It’s a shame that the people in there today are turning it over to personal gain.”

“I don’t think it needs to remain in existence.”

However, Brawley said, if the SICDC dissolves and distributes its assets to the Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corporation (MSIEDC), “to me, that’s going to be a real travesty. You’d be going from a government entity with the SICDC to a public-private entity with the MSIEDC.

“Some people might try to get it transferred over to make it their own little personal domain. It would make them very rich at the expense of the public, and they’d do it in the name of being public servants.

"In addition to that,” he added, “it would be illegal.”

Instead, Brawley said, the SICDC should be dissolved, and any remaining land and savings should be handed over to the Town of Mooresville and Iredell County. “They should settle up their debt and transfer their assets to the city and the county and let them use it for public purposes,” Brawley said.

He said not enough tracts of land remain in Mooresville for the SICDC to purchase and use for industrial parks, and competition to buy any land that is available should be left to private developers. “We don’t need government sponsorship of bringing development to Mooresville right now, especially government sponsorship of people trying to get on the MSIEDC and SICDC boards for personal gains,” Brawley said. “This is no longer a sleepy little town that has to have an infusion.

“We appreciate these entrepreneurs, but as a taxpayer, I want them out of my pocket,” he said. “The SICDC was in our pocket, too, but if it hadn’t been for the SICDC as it was originally formed, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

“The SICDC has served its purpose,” Brawley said, “and now it’s time to dissolve it.”