Leake Seeks Clarity On Cronyism
Before voting Tuesday night to approve a $10.9-million business investment grant for Siemens Energy Inc., Mecklenburg Commissioner Vilma Leake wanted to know how soon she could start landing jobs at the company for her friends. It turns out, not as soon as she thought.
Leake, a Democrat, said she “took some young men out to Siemens last Thursday to look at employment,” only to be told that the company wasn’t hiring and that the men couldn’t get an interview.
That apparently didn’t sit right with Leake, who along with a majority of commissioners had already voted not once, but twice in closed session to move forward on the business bribe, er, investment grant for Siemens.
“Some I’m wondering,” Leake said, “how then do we get these young people interviewed for jobs and when will these jobs be available?”
“My concern is we’re talking about bringing in jobs, so help me for clarity, for the general public, we talk about companies coming to us and providing X number of jobs,” Leake said. “But we’re not hearing that people are readily being employed. So we need to say that within the next two years these companies will be in Charlotte and not to lead us thinking that they’re coming next week or next month.”
At which point John Allen, with the county’s real estate services division, explained that the Siemens project wasn’t even slated to be completed until the fall of 2011, and would likely begin to hire at that point.
“Alright, then,” Leake said, armed with fresh clarity, “that misled some people in the public and also probably misled me by taking them out there to be interviewed to be a part of that list of employees in that process.”
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