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In 2004, Dell’s plan for a North Carolina computer assembly plant was little more than a code name, literally a state secret.

As the deal came together, state and local officials unfurled its size and economic impact, along with a $280 million economic incentives package to land the company.

But even then, it wasn’t Dell doing the bragging. The company, even in victory, stayed circumspect, as though talking too much would tip its hand to competitors such as Hewlett-Packard or Apple.

Five years later, with an economic recession well into its second year, corporate America is in full-scale retreat. Layoffs and worker furloughs are the norm, and Dell is no different, in many respects.

Although the company says it has had to lay off some of its workers, it has steadfastly refused to say much more, going so far as to tell workers they’d lose their severance pay if they spoke to the media.

Taxpayers and government officials, who made tremendous public investment in this one project, do not know how many people still work at Dell, how much the company has received of its incentives package or whether more layoffs are coming.

Critics of the Dell project, who didn’t like the huge public outlay to begin with, are even angrier now at the silence, especially as a populist anti-corporate voice rises in the wake of the financial crisis and multiple government bailouts.

“I would ask this: Does AIG need to answer to the public? I think the public would say right now, 'You’re damned right they need to answer,’” former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr said.

“All this incentive stuff is just like bailout money,” said Orr, who mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit in 2005 to block the incentives deal. “That money could have been used for bonuses, corporate junkets, who knows what that’s being used for. It could have been used overseas to outsource jobs. Yes, I think they have an obligation to discuss this.”

Keeping quiet

Even as it accepted the deal in 2004, Dell asked state officials to keep its average wage and other data from the public.

“We do not want the data provided to be distributed,” Dell executive Cindy Oakes wrote in an e-mail to a state Department of Commerce official on Nov. 4, 2004 — the date the entire General Assembly met in an emergency session to approve the incentives package.

The state eventually released the information anyway.

State officials were careful Friday not to criticize Dell. Looking back at the 2004 negotiations, they say the company’s wish for secrecy is common.

“Our experience is that many companies are, understandably, concerned about confidentiality of information they believe may give other companies a competitive advantage,” Katharine C. Neal, assistant secretary for communications and external affairs at the Commerce Department, said Friday in an e-mail. “We make certain that (job grant) applicants are aware of the state’s public records requirements, including what constitutes a trade secret.”

Dell spokesman David Frink said the company will release only the information it is required to release.

“We’ve got no plans to discuss specific work force reduction numbers for sites or business groups including” the Winston-Salem plant, he said. “If you call again next week, the answer won’t be any more specific.”

When asked whether the company has an obligation beyond the minimum requirement to inform the public, Frink said:

“The answer is that Dell will meet all requirements to provide information to the appropriate authorities and that information is publicly available.”

Working with Dell

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines won’t let the matter rest there, however. He said he is sensitive to Dell’s corporate wishes, but he has already met with Dell officials over the layoffs and plans more meetings soon.

“We’re trying to make the point that this is a community effort here and the public is asking us those questions and so we’re trying to get as much information as we can.”

Under legal reporting rules, Dell’s state and local work force records are months old. Commerce officials are still reviewing the 2008 report.

If Dell fails to meet employment targets, its agreements with the state and the city call for a variety of “claw backs” that require it to pay back some of the incentive money.

Dell has told Winston-Salem officials its total work force is now 1,400.

Orr believes corporations such as Dell are essentially abusing government because states are desperate to score big recruitment wins.

“Unfortunately state governments and local governments, out of this sense of desperation in the need to get the jobs, are forced to go along and allow this veil of secrecy from the beginning all the way to now when we find jobs are being lost,” said Orr.

State memos show Dell wanted to keep all employment information from the public.

“Please make sure that Dell is clear that it is unlikely we can keep 'all’ employment and wage data confidential,” Don Hobart, an adviser to then-Gov. Mike Easley, wrote in an e-mail to members of the Commerce Department group working on the deal.

“They need to be aware,” Hobart wrote in the days after the General Assembly approved the deal, “that it will ultimately be their responsibility to defend the confidentiality of their data in the event anyone from the press or public challenges its confidentiality.”

Various state spokesmen denied four requests for an interview with Hobart, who is now an adviser to Gov. Bev Perdue.

A state commerce spokesman said no single state official is responsible for monitoring whether Dell complies with all facets of its deal.

“Who’s out there really analyzing whether it in fact has been a good investment for North Carolina?” former Justice Orr asked. “Nobody that I’m aware of. And if it doesn’t look like it’s turning out well, all the people responsible don’t want to talk about it.”

Terms provide for a combination of rewards for employment and revenue from computer sales for as long as 20 years.

So far, at least $16 million has been paid from various sources:

* The state Department of Revenue reports that Dell received $6.5 million in various tax credits for 2006.

* The Department of Commerce has paid more than $1.5 million in job grants for 2006 and 2007.

* Winston-Salem has paid more than $1 million for job creation and about $7 million in land before the plant was built.

In turn, the company has already invested more than $100 million in plant and equipment and hired workers required to meet progressive benchmarks.

For Orr, however, Dell has a link — a $280 million link — straight to the taxpayers. And that comes with an obligation.

“If you’re going to take public money,” Orr said, “you need to let the sunshine in.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com