news-record.com

The Recovery Zone Facility Bond program was new and unfamiliar to  local government officials in 2009. But some managed to administer the program without controversy.

That wasn’t the case in Guilford County, where the Board of Commissioners and the Greensboro City Council approved lists of projects in December in clouds of confusion.

There’s blame to go around. Congress created the program within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate lending and economic development but failed to provide enough guidelines. North Carolina had two agencies — the departments of Commerce and State Treasurer — instead of one with administrative roles. Some local government officials didn’t fully understand the deadlines.

Elsewhere, however, officials created their own guidelines. San Bernardino County, Calif., for example, posted criteria for ranking projects. First priority: net job creation, with an emphasis on high-wage jobs. Then net economic stimulus, net new investment, use of “green” practices and location. Greensboro didn’t develop such guidelines. The projects before the Guilford County commissioners, however, had been ranked according to potential job creation by the county’s Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Commission, County Attorney Mark Payne said.

San Bernardino charges successful applicants a substantial fee to cover the costs of evaluating their projects. Guilford County and Greensboro do not. Finally, San Bernardino set out a conflict-of-interest policy prohibiting approval of any project in which a county employee or officer in a position to influence the decision had any direct or indirect financial interest. A similar policy should be adopted here.

This program opens a new door for private financing, not public funding. But local leaders have an obligation to see that projects approved are likely to benefit the community and make best use of available resources. They also should ensure that a clear, orderly and honest process is followed. Greensboro and Guilford County could have done better.