Teachable Moments
It started with a simple request during a recent Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners meeting, when Chairman Jennifer Roberts asked her colleagues to approve a change to the minutes from the board’s June 15 meeting, which commissioners were preparing to adopt.
As originally recorded, the minutes noted that the board had approved a five-year service contract with The Keith Corporation for library facility maintenance. Roberts wanted the following sentence added: “Chairman Roberts asks whether this represented any savings over current-year services and staff replied, yes, about a half-million dollars in the first year.”
“I just want to add that one sentence,” Roberts, a Democrat, told her colleagues, “to let our residents know we’re saving them money.”
In response, Commissioner George Dunlap, a Democrat, asked why the contract in question was extended over five years.
“Well, this is just a motion to change how the minutes read,” Roberts said.
“Well, then,” Dunlap asked, “I’m just curious why we’re doing this.”
The inquiry drew an awkward silence, until Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, enlightened Dunlap.
“Because then it will be in the minutes that you guys saved a half-million dollars,” James explained. “I sort of see it on a campaign flyer in a couple of months.”
When Dunlap pressed for an answer about why the contract was extended over five years, Roberts offered, “I don’t know if there’s anybody here to answer that. We’re not really discussing the topic, just the way it was recorded in the minutes.”
It was left up to another Republican, this time Commissioner Neil Cooksey, to explain to his Democrat colleagues how they we’re saving money that they could use for campaign fodder.
“It allows you to spread your equipment costs over five years, instead of buying all of your equipment over one year, so you’ll get a better price if you have a longer term contract,” Cooksey informed. “If you do a one-year contract, you have to basically amortize all of your equipment over one year.”
“So we’ll save some money?” asked Commissioner Vilma Leake, a Democrat.
“Yes,” Cooksey said. “We’ll save some money.”
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