It’s rare that I find myself agreeing with an editorial in the Page News and Courier (PN&C), but I readily admit that the editorial page is the first one I turn to in the paper every week, and that’s exactly the situation I found myself in after the article “Invest in People” was published last week. I’d like to summarize some of the article as my second “action spectacular” post about the Page County EDA.
Essentially, PN&C argues:
“…the one thing that we can all agree on is that the money that is collected through our taxes should be spent wisely on the things we designate as priorities in our community.”
The editor goes on to conclude that the emphasis should be education:
“The dividends on investing in people may produce quicker returns than real estate.”
Some of the issues mentioned in the editorial happened before my wife and I arrived on the Page County scene. But this is quite a summary:
• A landfill deal that cost millions of dollars
• Thousands more lost in a sale of the landfill because of poor management, permit violations, and legal fees
• Millions more to repurchase the landfill
• Thousands again on consultants, legal fees, and staff time to see these transactions through
• The cost of subsidizing another county’s use of the Page County landfill
Most of what I read about the landfill lays the blame for all of these issues at the feet of the Page County EDA. If that is an accurate assessment, it’s quite a track record – I don’t know if the private sector would tolerate these issues for so long…at least in my experience they wouldn’t have!
Notably, Baughan’s letter in the same issue of the PN&C doesn’t mention the landfill track record, and it doesn’t seem to benefit from the hindsight of these things gone wrong. He is focused totally on Project Clover, and argues that everything is okay because the Board of Supervisors approved his actions.
Regarding the EDA’s speculative real estate ventures, PN&C adds:
• The thousands of dollars spent on unused plans and architectural designs for a new office complex that seemingly will never be built
• A $650,000 purchase of nine acres that sits partially in a flood plain and may never be built upon
• The $7.5 million spent on the hope that business will come to an open field along the tracks
• The many dollars lost on interest for those debts
In my business we have pretty straightforward measures for a person’s productivity. The company has to earn enough money to pay salary and benefits, the costs of the roof overhead and utilities, and supplies that support the work, plus profit, which compensates for the risk of being in business. In one of my past companies, that meant I was responsible for keeping twelve people busy – our motto was "Growth is an imperative" - the company made me responsible for $2.5 million in annual revenue as the cost associated with those twelve.
That metric could apply to Lowell Baughan, except that, according to the PN&C, he’s probably cost the County that much per year over the last few years. And it’s a reality of the rural economy, but that amount would easily support twice the number of jobs I had to deliver, or more.
Now, I keep going back to the past strategic plans that the EDA is supposed to be following, and that Baughan cited in his letter to the editor. Referring now to the July 2009 update of the 2008 plan, there are two “priority b” education objectives:
“Department of Economic Development will develop a list of targeted industries and communicate that information to the Technical Training Center and Lord Fairfax Community College in order to provide direction regarding the skills that are needed.
“Encourage the school district to have conversations with students in middle school and high school about topics such as life skills, introduction to different kinds of professions and schooling necessary to achieve success in the areas, importance of completing GED, etc.”
Just as these goals have been moved to the side – to the “priority b” list, it seems that the schools in Page County have been treated as second most important compared to EDA. PN&C estimated that the cost of the poorly conceived and executed projects above amounted to 60 to 75 percent of the cost of the new high schools – and the decision to build them was 66 years in the making!
Perhaps, just maybe, if some attention had been paid to these needs along the way, Baughan’s son would not have been writing his letter of support from Charlotte, NC. I often hear the remark that the younger generation moves away from Page County in search of opportunities.
All of this is just food for thought, because it doesn’t seem that Project Clover is going to unwind itself with any kind of speed – and it is only going to cost the County more, no matter which direction it goes in from here. But I will close today’s post with the thought that EDA has to take responsibility for the advice it gives the Board – advice that doesn’t seem to have delivered on expectations by any definition.
It's clear that the County has no business trying to engage in speculative real estate deals at this time. We can't afford it in the first place, and the projects don't deliver the results we need in the second. And maybe that makes the PN&C editor’s suggestion that, just now, reprioritizing County investment in education is the right way to go.
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