Chocowinity Town Board rejects Recreation Director's resignation | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The "Godfather of the Chocowinity Recreation Program," Jeff Haddock tendered notice of his resignation as Director of Recreation at the regular monthly meeting of the Chocowinity Town Board. But it was not accepted. Commissioner Billy Albritton made a motion to accept the resignation but the motion died for lack of a second.

    Other town board members then express regret that Haddock had decided to resign and assured him that they supported his continuing as Director. He had stated that the reason for his resignation was that he did not feel the Town Board was supporting him. After assurances of support the discussion then turned to attempting to resolve the issues that had precipitated the resignation.

    Haddock indicated in an interview the day after the meeting that he would be amenable to continuing as Director but that his role and relationship would have to be resolved given the fact that he was now no longer a town employee. Prior to his retirement in September as Public Works Director Haddock had served as Recreation Director from the inception of the program. He was the primary person who secured the grants that allowed the facilities to be developed. The town bought the land but grants funded the facilities. Beaufort County provided $8,000 and year while the Town provided a thousand. The remainder of the funds were raised from concessions, fees and fundraising.

    The Town Clerk managed the county and town funds and the Recreation Board managed the other funds as a non-profit corporation. The non-profit corporation's members, who pay a $5.00 membership fee, elect a Board of Directors which is currently headed by Dennis Wiggins.

    Mayor Jimmy Mobley indicated that his sense is that most of the Town Board members want the non-profit to operate the program, including managing the money. "I'd rather see the county and town money go directly to the non-profit and them operate the program," he said in a brief interview after the meeting. "I hope we can all sit down and work it out. I think most, if not all of our town board members would like to see Jeff continue directing the program."

Wiggins could not be contacted for comment.

    We'll keep check on developments and let you know how it all works out.

    Commentary

    We don't know what the problem is here. But this we do know from personal experience. Jeff Haddock has been the heart and soul of the Chocowinity Recreation Program for years. Under his leadership it has been an outstanding program, from the standpoint of participants. We know for a fact that he has devoted countless hours way and above the call of duty to the program. And as far as we know the finances have been properly managed.

    But we fear that is in jeopardy. Non-profits are fine. But it is a far cry from a set of By-laws to sound management using volunteers. That is especially true with respect to financial management.

    We would suggest the Town pause and give serious consideration to how the money is going to be managed before they just give $9,000 of taxpayer money to a group of volunteers. Sound financial management requires, at a minimum, two things: Seeing that the expenses are paid and accounted for appropriately and even more importantly, that there is sound financial oversight by a competent governing board. That includes proper accounting, auditing and public reporting. It also involves have clearly defined duties and responsibilities.

    It will be, in our judgment, a serious mistake for the Town to turn over taxpayer money to the Recreation Board without insuring that a sound financial oversight process is in place first and that it is monitored carefully and systematically going forward. This board need look no further than its own EMS department to see what we mean.

    The town has a major investment in the recreation facilities and it has a fiduciary duty to insure that those facilities are used appropriately and taken care of. That responsibility cannot be delegated. Performing the functions can be delegated, but responsibility for oversight cannot as long as taxpayer money is going into the operation and as long as the town owns the facilities.

    Great care should be exercised here. Otherwise we predict impending foul balls.