The board of the North Carolina’s Northeast Partnership terminated the contract of its president and CEO, Rick Watson, on Monday, after a longtime disagreement among the partnership’s county members about his contract and his personal business dealings.
Randy Keaton, the manager for Pasquotank County who helped develop recommendations for organizational changes to the Northeast Economic Development Commission and the partnership, said Watson’s termination was retroactive to March 1, and that he would receive a one-year salary severance, amounting to $165,000.
Vann Rogerson, a Department of Commerce employee who worked out of the Partnership’s Edenton office and helped Watson negotiate many of his deals, will serve as the interim director.
According to Mort Hurst, chairman of the Martin County Board of Commissioners, Watson’s contract was ended because a state audit — not yet released — determined that Watson’s relationship with country music entertainer Randy Parton presented a conflict of interest with his duties for the Northeast Partnership. Representatives of State Auditor Les Merritt’s office yesterday had no comment.
Jack Runion, chairman of the board of both the Northeast Partnership and the Northeastern North Carolina Economic Development Commission, from which the partnership was spun, confirmed Watson’s termination.
“We are in the process of adjustment due to the relieving of the CEO/President, and do not have a statement at this time,” Runion said in a phone message left with Carolina Journal. “We will notify you after the boards have met and discussed this situation.”
Watson arranged to work for Parton and his Moonlight Bandit production company in Roanoke Rapids while still retaining his head role with the partnership, and sought state money for Parton’s music-theater project that is planned for Northampton County. He also asked for public money for the Advanced Vehicle Research Center in his role leading North Carolina’s Northeast Partnership Foundation.
Watson in the past has tried to use his position with the partnership to leverage personal investments with a fingerprint technology company, a biotechnology company, and an ethanol plant, among others.
“I’m not enthused over Rick and his contract with the Partons,” said Mack Nixon, vice chairman of the Perquimans County Commission and a member of the Northeastern Economic Development Commission board. “I do know there’s going to be a reshuffling of some positions.”
In addition, according to Hurst, the board terminated its relationship with attorney Ernie Pearson of Raleigh, who has been the Northeast Partnership’s legal counsel for years. Pearson advised Watson on economic development deals and about its obligations regarding the state’s public records laws. Both Watson and Pearson maintained that the partnership was not subject to the records law, despite receiving almost all of its funding from the state.
“We’re using tax money,” Nixon said. “We should be as transparent as possible.”
County managers from the territory represented by the Northeast Partnership had banded together to call for Watson’s resignation, and he announced last month that he would leave his post on June 30. Hurst, who called for Watson’s removal in February, hoped the immediate change would lead to a restructuring of the partnership’s organization.
“I think that the [auditor’s] report was a good finding,” Hurst said. “I’m glad they did find it was a conflict of interest in the Parton deal.”
Pasquotank County’s Keaton said he hoped Watson’s departure would lead to improvements in disclosure. He said the structure in which the Commission received the state funding, then turned it over to the Northeast Partnership as a private entity with a much smaller board of directors to control decisions, was problematic.
“It create[d] the appearance that they [were] trying to convert public money to private money,” Keaton said, “without all the accountability measures that they would have with public money.”
Watson’s status as an independent contractor for the Partnership, instead of as an employee, created problems with accountability also, according to Hurst, Nixon and Keaton.
“I don’t think [Watson’s replacement] should be a contract person,” Nixon said. “It should be an employee of the partnership.”
Nixon added that perhaps some of the nonprofit organizations created by Watson and the partnership could be realigned or eliminated. Some county representatives favor that idea.
“I’m quite sure some changes will be made to satisfy a majority of the [county] members,” Nixon said.
At the same time, Hurst and Keaton said the 16 counties represented by the Northeast Partnership needed its help in recruiting businesses to the area.
Paul Chesser ([email protected]) is associate editor of Carolina Journal.