THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604140062
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
There will be an unpleasant side order of headaches on the menu along with barbecue, country ham, and fried chicken when members of the Albemarle Commission sit down with their financial troubles next Thursday.
For the first time since the 50-member governing board of the Albemarle Commission discovered earlier this year that the agency was broke, details of the money troubles will be publicly discussed at an April 18 working banquet in Sunbury, N.C.
The 7 p.m. meeting of the full commission will be at Jimmy's BBQ at Sunbury, after an executive committee session.
During that session, commissioners will polish a proposed finance-fixing budget for 1996-97 that will be presented at the dinner.
The $3.5 million-a-year agency runs on money largely provided by federal and state grants, as well as income from 24 Albemarle counties and cities that pay dues.
``The biggest problem that we have to solve immediately is replenishing our general working fund,'' said Executive Director Hal Walker last week.
``Because of book-keeping methods, the general fund was drawn down before anticipated income came in to replace the debits,'' Walker said.
``I want to emphasize that there's no money missing and the bookkeeping has been corrected,'' he said.
Walker will probably be in for some heavy hits Thursday when commission members try to find out how the agency's financial structure fell apart before any alarms were sounded.
``I may lose my job, but I hope the delegates hear enough to know what really happened,'' Walker said Friday.
There have been concerns about whether Albemarle Commission employees in Hertford would continue to be paid on schedule before July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. The commission receives most of its state and federal money early in each new fiscal period.
At a February meeting of the commission's executive committee, Charlena Spence, the agency's finance officer, said the commission was ``still operating on a day-to-day basis'' with the payroll budget ``down to $52,000.''
Later, Walker said the commission might have difficulty meeting its payroll between April 1 and July 1.
Walker pointedly praised the work that Spence has performed on the agency's budget.
In a 24-page memorandum, Albemarle Commission Chairman Leonard Ballou last week provided the delegates with details of the commission's financial difficulties.
Ballou reported that many of the problems arose in recent years when the commission had difficulty getting an audit, despite contacting several different accounting firms.
In at least one case, a professional accountant refused to take over the commission's books because of an ``unfair presentation of the state of affairs of the Albemarle Commission,'' Ballou said.
Much of the commission's January meeting was devoted to previous audits of its finances.
When one delegate asked Walker whether an audit Walker had received in January 1995 ``was so bad that the errors that ultimately came out were disguised and not caught,'' Walker replied that a balance sheet he had received in June was also incorrect, but it was better than the January one.
Also in his memorandum, Ballou indicated that the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission will take over responsibility for the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center on U.S. Route 17, north of South Mills, N.C.
Controversy developed last month when Penny Leary-Smith, who runs the center, said Walker was withholding part of the $75,000 annually appropriated by the General Assembly to operate the center. The funds are handled by the Albemarle Commission.
Leary-Smith, with considerable local support, asked the economic commission to take over responsibility for her center from the Albemarle Commission.
The economic commission's executive committee agreed last month to manage the center, and Chairman Jimmy Dixon notified state disbursing officers to send the $75,000 annual funding for the center to Dixon's agency after the new fiscal year begins July 1.
Last week, Walker continued to resist the move.
``We are reorganizing, and it may well be that we will continue to fund the welcome center when it all works out,'' Walker said. by CNB