DATE: Monday, November 3, 1997              TAG: 9711030227

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: ANN SJOERDSMA

                                            LENGTH:   93 lines

OUTER BANKS POLITICS REAL ``HEART'' OF PUBLIC-FUNDED FAVOR IS ACCOUNTABILITY

When Joseph ``Mac'' Midgett learned that an elderly couple in Avon, N.C., needed a 900-foot-long, 10-foot-wide driveway to their son's grave repaired, he didn't hesitate to help. The Hatteras Islander arranged for a crew to do the job.

Soon, the couple had a clear path to the private, one-plot cemetery where their policeman son, killed while on duty, rests.

Sounds like an admirable case of do-gooderism, doesn't it? A kind act. But there were a few problems with this largess.

Mac Midgett is a member of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, and the four-man crew and its equipment came from the county.

In other words, taxpayers footed the bill.

And we're still footing it, in the incredible aftermath.

Called on the carpet at the Board of Commissioners' Oct. 6 meeting by Commissioner Shirley Hassell, Midgett first defended himself by accusing Hassell of trying to score political points.

Midgett said: ``If I was a politician, I'd have never touched that road,'' somehow missing the point that if he weren't a politician, he wouldn't have been able to ``touch that road.''

At least, not with public monies.

An ardent Republican, Hassell, who was ``tipped off'' to the road, has long been a thorn in the side of the county Democratic ``machine'' - what some folks on the Banks call ``the gang of four.''

Outer Bankers seem to love Hassell or hate her. Whatever, she was on the right side here, though she didn't prevail.

At the board's Oct. 20 meeting, both Hassell and Commissioner Cheryl Byrd, another Republican, introduced resolutions to hold Midgett accountable: Hassell sought reimbursement from him. (She had a private job estimate of $18,000; the county said it cost about $3,000.)

Byrd accused him of breaking the law and called for his resignation or for a criminal investigation.

Said Midgett: ``If I did wrong by helping somebody, then I've been doing wrong for 57 years.''

Yes? Well?

Tomorrow, when Virginians go to the polls to elect their state's leadership for the next four years, we Outer Bankers will be voting in nonpartisan municipal elections. Positions are open in Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and Manteo, with contested mayoral races in KDH and Nags Head.

Though neither Midgett nor his six fellow commissioners are up for re-election, the timing of his flap couldn't be better. Fiscal responsibility is a prime criterion for political office on the tax-conscious Outer Banks, and ``throw the rascals out'' is a prime incentive for voting.

Midgett and his Democratic colleagues - board Chairman Geneva Perry, Doug Langford and Stan White, all real-estate professionals - provide a textbook example of rascality. The kind of thick-as-thieves partisanship that Outer Bankers don't need and have shown they will oust.

Perry and Langford reacted to Byrd's and Hassell's resolutions first by launching personal, and factually unfounded, attacks on Byrd and the third Republican commissioner. Then, together with White, they refused even to admit the seriousness of the open-and-shut charge, much less press for an investigation.

To make matters almost comically worse, Midgett actually voted on Byrd's and Hassell's attempts to discipline him. He cast the tie-breaking vote on the reimbursement question, 4-3. (Byrd's tougher call for his resignation failed, 5-2.)

Didn't I say this was an incredible aftermath?

Contrary to Chairman Perry's claim, the issue here is not ``heart.'' Midgett can be as big-hearted as he wants, on his own dime.

The issue is misappropriation of funds, abuse of public trust and, ultimately, preserving the integrity of political office. No matter who's serving in it.

Voters have to wonder: Exactly how many other Midgett-type favors has the county done?

Dare County Manager Terry Wheeler, who disavowed any foreknowledge of the Avon driveway repair, admitted that the county has helped churches with road work.

But he had no choice: The Avon crew spilled the beans to Hassell, who went to the site with a camera.

How nice that Wheeler doesn't let a little thing like separation of church and state get in the way of giving away public resources.

I don't want to beat up on Mac Midgett for helping some people out, though he clearly ``did wrong.'' The salty Midgett, a native islander who runs a shopping complex in Rodanthe, represents a constituency that needs a voice on the county board.

But I would like some assurance that this sort of thing won't happen again. And the only way that will happen is if the commissioners and the county manager put some controls in place. They have to fix it.

Integrity of office.

We voters will be watching. MEMO: Ann G. Sjoerdsma, an attorney, is an editorial columnist and book

editor for The Virginian-Pilot.

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