THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260445
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BARCO LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
The Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission met for three hours in a closed session Wednesday to select a law firm to defend the pump-primers against a charge of holding illegal closed meetings.
When the commission members emerged, they announced they had selected the heavyweight Raleigh legal team of Maupin, Taylor, Ellis and Adams to fight the suit brought by Estelle ``Bunny'' Sanders. Sanders was fired in July as head of the panel's tourist division.
A senior member of the law firm is Thomas F. Ellis, who in 1972 founded the conservative National Congressional Club to elect Jesse Helms to the U.S. Senate and keep him there.
Commission Chairman Jimmy Dixon, an Elizabeth City businessman and Democratic county commissioner, had no immediate comment. It was not clear how many members of the economic panel knew that the Raleigh lawyers they planned to retain included Ellis.
Helms and Ellis have since had a falling out, but both remain dedicated to conservative GOP politics.
Most of the members of the commission are Democrats, appointed by Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. or state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, president pro tem of the state Senate.
Sanders attended the public part of the meeting in the Currituck County library at Barco.
``I was on my way to the beach and thought I'd drop in,'' s commission's extended closed session that preceded her dismissal.
``It violated the state's open meetings law,'' she said.
In other business Wednesday, the commission interviewed three candidates for executive director to succeed Lancaster.
``One of them looked pretty good,'' said Dixon.
``We'll probably vote on a new director soon, in time to make an announcement at the November meeting,'' he added. Dixon said two of the candidates were from out of state and one was from North Carolina.
Prominent among observers who waited for the commission to end the long closed session was Currituck County Manager William S. Richardson.
``No, no, no! I'm not a candidate for director,'' he said when asked the obvious question.
Richardson has often been wooed by other communities in search of municipal talent.
The commission awarded a plaque of appreciation to Andrew Allen, the Plymouth business executive who was the group's first chairman, from 1993 to 1995. by CNB