County not ready to give secret report

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

Ten days and counting.

The county has been slow to produce a copy of a real estate appraisal first requested on Jan. 22.
The News Reporter has obtained a copy of an invoice for a real estate appraisal of the Columbus County Department of Aging building in Whiteville from the county finance department but the actual appraisal has not been released.

The $750 Lacy Wilson Properties invoice indicates the appraisal was conducted on Jan. 6 – ten days before a closed session was held to discuss selling the building. The invoice was stamped “received” by county administration on Jan.18 but not forwarded to the finance department until Jan.31.

It appears Chairman Sammie Jacobs signed the in-voice.

Attached to the statement is a handwritten note to County Manager Jim Varner, dated Jan. 17, that reads: “Jim – Lynwood told me to forward this invoice to you and that you knew about it and would have it paid from county funds. Thanks Ed Worley (Department of Aging Director).”

“I haven’t seen an appraisal,” Commissioner Lynwood Norris told The News Reporter last week. “I had nothing to do with getting an appraisal or anything.”

On Monday, Commissioner James Prevatte hand-delivered a memo to The News Reporter.
“As you are aware, an appraisal has been completed on the Whiteville Senior Center. After speaking to County Attorney Steve Fowler, we acknowledge this is indeed public information.

“However, Mr. Fowler and County Manager Jim Varner are out of their offices due to illness.

“Mr. Fowler also serves as the county’s public infor-mation officer and has been directed to release this in-formation and all public information requested as soon as possible,” the memo reads.

The document includes notarized signatures of Com-missioners Prevatte, Ronald Gore and Ricky Bullard.

Last week, Fowler told The News Reporter his office was not the only means of ob-taining a copy of the public record.

Dodging a direct answer to the question “Do you have a copy of any appraisal in your possession?” Fowler finally responded that he was not aware of any appraisals.

Fowler also told The News Reporter that a request for closed session minutes from Jan. 16 could not be released until the commissioners voted to release the minutes.

“We’ve been down this road before,” Attorney Amanda Martin with the N.C. Press Association and firm of Everett, Gaskins, Hancock and Stevens said. “Minutes do not need approval before being released.”

Fowler argues otherwise.

The News Reporter learned that a real estate appraisal had been conducted on the Department of Aging Building in Whiteville and sale of the building had been discussed in closed session.

At that time sources said the hospital was interested in purchasing the property. The News Reporter later learned that the Columbus County Community Health Center was interested in the property, not Columbus Regional Healthcare.

Martin said discussing the sale of property in a closed session is no exception to the N.C. Open Meetings Law.

The request is not the first stalled request for public information. In September 2006, the personnel department, under direction of County Manager Jim Varner, would not release a copy of an employee policy manual prior to a vote on its adoption. The 153-page document included lifelong health insurance benefits for commissioners leaving office.

That vote was rescinded after a flurry of public outcry. A record number of letters to the editor poured into The News Reporter and more than 200 upset residents showed up at a special called meeting of commissioners.

Later, a request at the clerk to the board’s office to see the fiscal 2005-2006 budget resulted in a reporter being sent to County Attorney Steve Fowler and was told that all requests must go through Fowler.

In October 2006, a reporter was told the county man-ager’s contract was not a public record. Several days later a copy was delivered to The News Reporter after the contract had been located on-line at the county’s web-site.

Varner’s contract (approved in June) had not been signed until October. Conflicting language in the con-tract makes it unclear when Varner’s contract ends due to the contract reading in part that it is effective upon the date of being signed.

Shortly thereafter, then-Chairman Kip Godwin and County Attorney Steve Fowler asked to be mailed ques-tions via the Internet rather than participate in inter-views over-the-phone or in person.