Which way is the wind blowing for MDC funding?

How town commissioners will eventually vote on funding the Mooresville Downtown Commission (MDC) is anyone’s guess. But the day before they’re expected to hear a presentation by the MDC’s board of directors, it appears at least two of the six town commissioners will vote to fund the MDC.

A reader, responding to my April 2 blog entry (Why nix downtown funding now?), asked me to track down Mayor Bill Thunberg’s official position on the MDC issue. So I tried.

In fact, I decided to track down the positions of all seven elected officials, including Thunberg and Commissioners Mac Herring, Frank Rader, Chris Carney, Miles Atkins, Thurman Houston and Mitch Abraham.

I sent an e-mail at 11 a.m. today to their town e-mail accounts. (By the way, Mooresville taxpayers provide BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices to elected officials, enabling them to send and receive e-mails wherever and whenever they may roam.) I asked all seven elected officials to provide and elaborate on their stances regarding the MDC, and I requested responses by 6 p.m. Of the seven, I heard back from three: Ward 3 Commissioner Mac Herring, Ward 4 Commissioner Chris Carney and At-Large Commissioner Miles Atkins.

Ward 1 Commissioner Mitch Abraham and Ward 2 Commissioner Thurman Houston – whose districts include the downtown area – did not respond. Neither did Thunberg or At-Large Commissioner Frank Rader.

Herring, who says he’ll vote to fund the MDC, had already posted his position as a comment on my April 2 blog entry. He wrote: “I will levy one of the 6 votes to support our Down Town. The Down Town is in a time of change, and needs our support as much if not more so than at any other time.”

Herring also stated that he will work to ensure that downtown remains a “vital part of our economic infrastructure, just as my family has done for generations.”

Atkins, whose wife owns a downtown business and is chairman of the MDC, said he supports the efforts and direction that the current MDC board of directors is taking the downtown commission. He also said he believes that those board members “should be afforded the opportunity to bring a new executive director on board to demonstrate how effective and accountable it (the MDC) can be with a respected, talented and qualified director to help move it forward.”

Additionally, Atkins said he would support extending/expanding the downtown district, which would increase the amount of money the MDC receives. The district tax is 16 cents per $100 valuation.

As an aside, in e-mails that circulated through downtown businesses recently, a Main Street lawyer accused the Atkins’, because of their positions, of having a “direct ethical conflict.” Miles Atkins publicly disclosed in a recent budget meeting that his wife, Kim, is indeed the MDC chairman.

If I recall correctly, Town Attorney Steve Gambill said at a town board meeting some time ago that unless an elected official stands to directly financially benefit from a matter being voted on, that elected official is required by law to vote.

But back to the elected officials' stances on the MDC:

Though Carney said it’s difficult to answer a question about his stance on the downtown commission before tomorrow morning’s presentation by the MDC board, “I know the MDC has gone through great trouble and effort to be able to present a vision for the Downtown," he said.

“My position has always been one of accountability,” Carney added. “We need to understand what the return is on the taxpayers' investment. That was the question I raised 3 years ago and still today. Any organization that requests money should be able to answer one simple question: how is Mooresville better off for the investment by the citizens’ money?”

Carney also asked: “If we were not going to hold funding back in the past, then what has triggered a change in philosophy?”

That's the question a lot of people are asking.

To the person asking me to get Thunberg's official position: sorry I couldn't accomplish that today. Perhaps those of you reading would have better luck. If you're interested -- for this issue or any in the future -- here are your elected officials' e-mail addresses:

bthunberg@ci.mooresville.nc.us (Bill Thunberg)
frankrader@ci.mooresville.nc.us (Frank Rader)
mabraham@ci.mooresville.nc.us (Mitch Abraham)
thouston@ci.mooresville.nc.us (Thurman Houston)
ccarney@ci.mooresville.nc.us (Chris Carney)
mherring@ci.mooresville.nc.us (Mac Herring)
matkins@ci.mooresville.nc.us (Miles Atkins)

Why nix downtown funding now?

The Mooresville Downtown Commission may soon find out its fate.

Several members of the MDC’s board of directors, coinciding with their annual request for public funding, plan to make a presentation about the value and future of the MDC during a Friday-morning agenda briefing for Mooresville commissioners. The commissioners’ regular monthly meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 7, at 6 p.m.

In recent years, the Town of Mooresville has given the MDC between $40,000 and $45,000 annually. But this year – due mainly to the upcoming retirement of longtime MDC Executive Director Wayne Frick – the MDC is asking for $60,000, mostly to offset a new director’s salary.

Frick has been executive director of the MDC since one year after the organization was formed in 1987. He plans to retire in June.

One or two downtown business owners are using the retirement as a convenient excuse to attempt to nix the MDC, just at the time when all the right people are in place to move our downtown forward and make the MDC the organization it always should have been.

Interestingly, according to its very own website, the MDC “plays a vital role in the success of downtown Mooresville.” Working with civic leaders and merchants, the MDC “has kept the economic vitality and main street values going and growing strong in Mooresville for generations,” the website reads.

The MDC, funded by local government and business and property owners, “develops strategic plans to make downtown economically attractive to citizens, customers, visitors, and other businesses,” states the website, adding that “Mooresville is a great locale for business because it has great people with traditional American values.”

The town also apparently has people who can’t seem to accept change or let go of the reigns of control.

The one or two downtown business owners – including Mayor Bill Thunberg, who owns a Main Street jewelry store – are pushing to abolish the downtown commission, reportedly arguing that the district tax (16 cents per $100 of valuation) to help float the MDC isn’t paying dividends.

So after two decades, they are now apparently arguing that each business should promote and advertise itself, and the MDC has not done much for them in the past.

A couple of others are contending that the MDC executive director should be a Chamber employee or, even more absurd, a town employee … who would report to – you guessed it – the mayor.

On the other hand, another group of downtown business owners and major investors believe that the MDC’s full potential can finally become a reality. They want to help shape Mooresville’s downtown into a vibrant retreat and destination.

This particular group of business owners and investors want to search for a competent, dynamic director with experience and an expansive, futuristic vision for downtown – someone who knows how to vigorously pursue grants and how to recruit and retain professional, quality shops, boutiques, galleries and restaurants – someone with an open mind and an eclectic flair who recognizes the value and uniqueness of a downtown like Mooresville’s – someone whose goal it is to attract a variety of people and businesses to a downtown that desperately needs a shot (or five) of adrenaline injected into it.

Call me an optimist, but I can’t figure out why anybody wouldn’t want to jump all over such an opportunity – and why any elected official who has voted to fund the MDC in the past would not vote to fund it now.

Either the MDC website has been lying to us, or it has been telling the truth and somebody wants to sabotage it. I don’t know which is worse.

A question to our elected officials: After years of providing many hundreds of thousands of dollars to a shoddy-run MDC – and apparently providing those tax dollars for more than a dozen years before the organization had even adopted bylaws – why would anyone consider nixing the MDC’s funding now?

A question to the downtown business owner(s) who say the MDC has never worked for them: Where were you a year ago, or a year before that, or a year before that, or five years before that? You’ve been paying an extra tax for the MDC for years, and we are to believe that all the while the system has been failing you? Where was the talk about dissolving the MDC while Wayne Frick was the executive director?

In years past, town commissioners have rubber-stamped a $45,000 check to the MDC which in turn threw a few token community events, then kicked back and called it a year.

But as soon as the MDC gains a new-school, progressive chairman and a board of directors that seeks accountability … at the same time that outdated, dilapidated buildings and stores are giving way to fresh, trendy shops and restaurants … at the moment when major investors sink roots and millions in downtown and start splashing fresh coats of vibrant paint on storefronts … at the time when we receive the resignation of the only executive director the MDC has ever had – who was given the job 20 years ago because, like everyone else running this town, he had friends in the right places and Belk’s Department Store on his resume – that is when we decide to question our annual contribution to the downtown commission?

Something doesn’t add up.

The Power Of One

“I am only one, but still I am one.

I cannot do everything, but still I can do something;

and because I cannot do everything,

I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

~Helen Keller

My dad, Joe Gatton, was only 50 years old when he died in a trucking accident three days after Christmas in 2006.

A lot of folks knew and loved my dad. Everywhere we went – even out of state – he always seemed to run into someone he knew. When he died, people stood in line for more than two hours at the visitation. And when we buried him on a cold, rainy New Year’s Eve, people showed up in droves at his funeral to pay respects to one single man who clearly touched the lives of thousands.

My dad was an avid Boy Scout leader. He was Scoutmaster of Troop 174 in Troutman for years before moving on to train Scout leaders. At a district Boy Scout banquet shortly after he died, a man said something about my dad that resonated with me. In a nutshell, he said that as a Boy Scout leader, my dad had impacted the lives of a vast number of boys in the Scouts program. But once he started training leaders, he had a direct impact on fewer people because, obviously, the number of leaders pales in comparison to the number of Scouts.

Then, the lesson: The man asked any Boy Scout leader who had taken a leadership training course under my dad to stand. And several people stood. Then he asked every Boy Scout who had been instructed by one or more of those leaders to stand. And almost every person in the room rose to their feet.

And that’s when it began to hit me – my dad touched the lives of countless people by touching the lives of a relative few. He lit one candle that went out and lit two that went out and lit five that went out and lit ten. And the number grew and grew and grew. But it all started with one single man. It’s not that he was any better, any more powerful, or any more righteous than anyone else. He just did what was his to do. That’s all.

I’ve come to realize in the past year that of all the traits my dad passed down to me, and of every lesson I learned from him while he was alive, perhaps the best thing he gave me – the greatest lesson he taught me – came after he was already gone.

The lesson is summed up beautifully in the words of Helen Keller, blind and deaf, who said: “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

The name of this blog bears my name – my father’s name – but that’s not because I am any better, any more powerful, or any more righteous than any other single person on this planet or in our community. I am simply one person, doing what’s mine to do. Yet, the greatest lesson I ever learned from the greatest man I ever knew is the power of that number.

Morrison Plantation developers not listed as contributors to mayor's 2007 campaign

I mentioned in my last entry that I had not checked Bill Thunberg’s 2007 mayoral campaign contributions to see if he accepted money from Morrison Plantation developers.

I hate leaving things “open,” so I took a quick trip to the Iredell County Elections Office in Statesville today.

None of the Morrison Plantation developers who contributed to Thunberg's first campaign in 2005 were listed as contributors to his 2007 campaign. Additionally, per the suggestion in the comments that followed yesterday's entry (“Morrison Plantation: still a mess after all these years”), I did not see that anyone from Bristol, Va. or Bristol Virginia Utilities (operators of the M-I Connection cable company) contributed to Thunberg's 2007 campaign.

Morrison Plantation: still a mess after all these years

Do some town officials use selective leniency in dealings with developers? And if so, why?

Nearly two years after a Mooresville woman’s death triggered a public spat between developers and the Town of Mooresville over who is responsible for streets in the 483-acre Morrison Plantation development west of Mooresville, developers are yet to complete the repairs and improvements necessary for the town to take over maintenance of the development’s streets and utilities.

Pedestrian Janet Bush, 56, was killed on Sept. 5, 2006 when she was struck by a motorist while crossing Morrison Plantation Parkway and Plantation Ridge Drive, a dangerous intersection that, at the time, lacked stoplights or four-way stop signs.

The developers eventually erected a stoplight, but only amid public outcry and after playing a game of tug-of-war with the Town of Mooresville for a couple months.

Town government officials contended that developer Ed Kale of Carolina Income Management had not completed needed improvements and repairs to the streets in Morrison Plantation, including the addition of a stoplight at the dangerous intersection. The town said until that work was complete, and until the town accepted the streets for public maintenance, the streets were private and the sole responsibility of the developer.

The developers, on the other hand, argued that the roads were originally approved by the Town of Mooresville. And since the streets would eventually be publicly maintained, they stated in a Sept. 8, 2006 press release, “We’re limited in what we can do.”

In the end, the developers erected a stoplight, and folks were satisfied.

What was seemingly forgotten, however, were all the other improvements that the town’s engineering department – under the leadership of then-Engineering Director Richard McMillan – had been pushing Kale to complete in the development for several years before Bush’s death.

And as of one month ago, many repairs and improvements are still incomplete.

On Feb. 22, the town’s engineering department – now supervised by Tonia Wimberly – sent the Morrison Plantation developers a punch list of 41 repairs and improvements that need to be made on 10 different Morrison Plantation streets before the developers can submit a final request for town inspection. And until the development passes that inspection, the town will not take over public maintenance of the streets.

But why has the town continued to allow the developers to build and obtain certificates of occupancy (COs) despite their reluctance – or refusal – to bring their development up to town standards over the past several years?

Maybe we’ll never know the answer. But what we do know is that relationships that some current and former town government officials have had with Kale and other Morrison Plantation developers over the past few years provide more questions than answers.

Here’s a timeline, much of which I originally reported in a September 2006 issue of the Tribune:

Summer 2005
Issues arose from Morrison Plantation and its Meeting Street Homes residential development concerning the town’s release of COs and water meters. McMillan communicated repeatedly with Kale in public records about numerous problems within the development. McMillan told Kale that per state statutes, improvements would need to be complete before the town could release water meters.

September 2005
McMillan and the town’s then-director of utilities, Wilce Martin, continued to inform Town Manager Jamie Justice and Town Attorney Steve Gambill of problems within the Morrison Plantation development, virtually begging for the administrators’ help and support to push the developers to conform to town standards.

McMillan also repeatedly told Justice and Gambill that in his capacity as a licensed professional engineer, he could not agree to the town releasing water meters until Kale followed and completed state-mandated requirements in his development.

However, Justice “was insistent that (McMillan) release the meters in order to ‘help the developer out,’” according to the lawsuit that McMillan and Martin filed against the town after Justice fired them in February 2006. (The hearing on the town's request for dismissal of that case is scheduled for April 7, by the way.)

Ignoring McMillan’s protests, Justice signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kale and instructed town staff to release the meters, telling McMillan that “If the developer and his engineer have not complied with the requirements, it (is) their butt on the line, not the town’s,” the lawsuit reads.

McMillan and Martin told Justice again that releasing the meters would violate state law since the project was incomplete and had not been certified by the developer’s engineer-of-record, as required by state regulations.

Meanwhile, McMillan and Martin called a meeting with officials of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR), who told the two men that if the town released the meters before the improvements were complete, the town would be fined by the state.

McMillan and Martin relayed the state’s warning to Justice, who apparently chastised the two men for meeting with NCDENR. McMillan and Martin responded that it was their “duty to protect the Town and the health, safety and welfare of the public.”

October 3, 2005
Four developers – including two from Morrison Plantation – lambaste McMillan and the town’s engineering staff at a town board meeting. Kale, the most confrontational developer at the meeting, called the engineering department “incompetent, disorganized, unprofessional, unreasonable and out of control.”

He told commissioners that he had been called to speak at the meeting. Each developer who spoke that evening later stated they were called to attend the meeting, according to McMillan and Martin’s lawsuit. It states that McMillan and Martin later discovered that Assistant Town Manager Erskine Smith - who is now serving as the town's interim town manager - asked the developers to attend the meeting and “publicly disparage” McMillan and the engineering department.

Smith, according to the lawsuit, later told Martin that he was simply following Justice’s orders to summon the developers to the town board meeting.

It also states that Justice never requested a response from McMillan concerning the developers’ comments at that town board meeting.

But then-Mayor Al Jones asked McMillan to respond to the allegations, which McMillan did in a six-page public document dated Oct. 10, 2005. In it, McMillan stated: “Staff has been trying to get Mr. Kale to correct many problems in Morrison Plantation so his problems will not become taxpayer problems, being correct(ed) with taxpayer dollars. None of the roads in Morrison Plantation have been accepted by the Town due to the fact that they are all falling apart. Very little if any effort has been made to correct."

Also, McMillan stated in the response: “Over the years, Mr. Kale has made many comments to Staff concerning his relationship with the Town and Staff. Many times he has praised Staff for helping, next time calling Staff ‘liars’, next time offering tickets to golf championships, next time blasting staff about costing him money. Mr. Kale has been treated with respect, as any customer or developer. Staff always looks for compromises – win-win scenarios. But sometimes, when things are not being done properly, the answer the Town must provide is ‘no’.”

… Did he say golf tickets??? ...

Back to the Oct. 3 town board meeting: when the developers had completed their public remarks that night, then-commissioner Frank Owens – who was defeated the following month in his bid for at-large commissioner – told Kale, “Our administration and board will see that you’re treated better.”

Interestingly, another developer, Neil Kapadia of Faison, sent McMillan an e-mail on Oct. 7, 2005, stating: “I was embarrassed by the way you guys were treated in the public meeting by certain developers in the area. I believe you two have been good to work with, and while not always agreeing with our opinions, were willing to listen to reason. I want you to know that you have my support and if you need me to show up at a meeting and speak my mind, I’m willing to do so.”

November 2005
Bill Thunberg was elected Mooresville’s mayor in his first bid for the seat.

Records at the Iredell County Elections Office show that two weeks after the Oct. 3 town board meeting, which Thunberg attended, the mayor-hopeful accepted sizeable campaign contributions from several Morrison Plantation developers, including $500 from Pamela Rice, a receptionist for Ed Kale’s Carolina Income Management; $1,000 from James Flowers III, president of Carolina Income Properties; $500 from Sandra Anderson, a Morrison Plantation bookkeeper; and $1,000 from original Morrison Plantation developer Rex Welton. (As an aside, Thunberg was re-elected in November 2007. I have not checked with the Elections Office to see if his 2007 campaign was bankrolled by developers.)

McMillan sent a letter to Kale on Nov. 1, instructing him to make needed street improvements in the Morrison Plantation development and to install a traffic signal at the intersection of Morrison Plantation Parkway and Plantation Ridge Drive. He said work on the improvements needed to begin “immediately” and be paid for by Kale’s Carolina Income Management. (Just to provide a little perspective: Bush's death at this point in the timeline is still 10 months away.)

January 2006
Several town officials – including Justice, Gambill, McMillan, Martin, Thunberg and Commissioners Chris Carney and Frank Rader – met with Morrison Plantation developers to discuss the development’s problems and, specifically, the stoplight at the Morrison Plantation Parkway and Plantation Ridge Drive, with McMillan stressing the importance of Kale installing a traffic signal there.

“Mooresville staff was very much trying to find a way to help move the situation along,” recalled Carney. “Everybody was trying to find a way to be fair but still get the necessary improvements done – not just with that road, but all the other roads (in Morrison Plantation).”

Due to the number of improvements needed, Carney said the town decided to let Kale complete his work in phases, with the first phase being completed and approved within two weeks after the January meeting. Thunberg at that meeting appointed Justice the “go-to-man” for Kale. But nine months later, none of those improvements were complete. It is unclear how many, if any, of those improvements are included in the February 2008 punch list.

February 2006
Four months after the Oct. 3 town board meeting – and two months after Thunberg was sworn into office – and three weeks after most of the town administration and several commissioners met with the Morrison Plantation developers – Justice fired McMillan and Martin. In the separation notices, which were left anonymously on my desk at the Tribune, Justice listed several reasons for McMillan’s firing. Interestingly, one was “constant work issues with … the development community.”

But McMillan has contended that Justice fired him, among other reasons, for adamantly requiring developers to meet town standards and for refusing to violate numerous state laws despite the town manager's instruction.

Also in February 2006, Owens, no longer a town commissioner, urged the public in a letter to area newspapers to “listen to the developers” who criticized McMillan and the engineering department at the October town board meeting. Also, Owens wrote: "I have worked with and for many Town Managers and they all had their good traits and their bad ones. Mr. Justice, in my opinion, is the best Town Manager we have ever had. He stood up for what is right, knowing that your paper was going to bash him in print."

May 2006
Steve Allen, an independent consultant hired by the town in November 2005, told Mooresville commissioners that a barrier is needed between the town board and developers.

Developers, said Allen, should not bypass town staff and go directly to the board to seek approval for a project, either officially or unofficially, and no member of the board should respond to such overtures. “The seven most divisive words are ‘let me see what I can do,’” he said.

Allen’s report also concluded that while more staff members were needed in the engineering department, and the town’s technology and design standards needed updating, the engineering department, under McMillan’s leadership, had a quicker turnaround time for review than many towns in the region and a well-established plan review process.

September 2006
Bush was killed in the dangerous Morrison Plantation intersection.

February 2008
Justice resigned, per the request of the majority of Mooresville’s town board. About three weeks later, the town sent Morrison Plantation developers yet another punch list of items that must be corrected in their development before the town will take over the streets.

To bring it all home: A lady died. Yes, a much-needed stoplight was eventually erected at the intersection where she died. But many other improvements still need to be made in the development. And for some reason, the town and the Morrison Plantation developers can’t seem to get it together and move it along.

Why has the town continued to allow the developer to build and receive COs when he clearly has not completed his project? Are all developers in Mooresville treated this way, or only a select few?

Why would our town manager risk being fined by the state in an effort to “work with the developer?” Why would our town manager and Assistant Town Manager Erskine Smith – who’s now our interim town manager – ask developers to show up at a town board meeting and publicly blast our town staff? And why would one of our former town commissioners, who was a sitting commissioner during that meeting, promise those developers they would be "treated better"? Why, after that commissioner was ousted, did he write a letter to local newspapers, asking us, the Mooresville taxpayers, to “listen to the developers” instead of our own town staff?

Further, why would Mayor Bill Thunberg, two weeks after witnessing the fiasco that happened in that Oc.t 3 meeting, accept campaign contributions from the same developers who were there, publicly blasting our town staff – the same developers who in 2008 are still dragging their feet?

Why did our town manager fire the two men who were jumping up and down about this situation, clearly trying to look out for the best interest of Mooresville taxpayers?

And what the heck is up with those darned championship golf tickets???...

CBS' The Early Show will be in Davidson tomorrow

I'm gonna switch things up just for a moment to post this, from the President of the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce:

The Lake Norman Chamber has been contacted by CBS News - The Early Show which will broadcast from the Davidson Campus on Thursday morning. We have been encouraged to contact the local business community and public and share the following invitation which has been sanctioned by the college:

Share your Wildcat spirit! The CBS Early Show will broadcast its national weather segments LIVE from the Alvarez College Union at Davidson College from 7 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. this Thursday, March 27. All are invited to attend and show their support for Davidson.

Free coffee and donuts will be served in the 900 Room at the Union beginning at 6:30 a.m., and the Union Café will feature a Breakfast Special. Mr. Cat, the Davidson Cheerleaders, and the Davidson Pep Band will attend.

Show your support for the Wildcats at this nationally televised event. Wear your red and black! Wave to your mom! Help make Davidson proud!

All are welcome. Go, ‘Cats!

Bill

W.E. "Bill" Russell
President
Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce
704-892-1922 (o)

Town continues discussion of MDC funding

Town commissioners, who were scheduled on Monday to discuss next year's funding of the Mooresville Downtown Commission, continued that discussion until a later date.

(For the full story, see the "Downtown Drama" blog entry, March 16, 2008.)

I'll keep ya posted...