Surplus property panel raises doubts

Three years ago, in tight budget times, legislators came up with an idea few argued over: A new commission would seek help from real estate interests to sell land and buildings the state doesn't need.

The sales would add millions to the state's treasury. Properties would return to local tax rolls. Brokers and agents who spotted the surplus properties would get a cut of the action.

But so far, the N.C. Commission on State Property has not produced a single sale.

The commission's work has been stymied by ethics questions, poor choices, political maneuvering and resistance from state agencies that owned land the commission targeted, according to interviews and a review of documents by The News & Observer.

There has been turmoil at the top, too. The commissioners recently dismissed the director and hired one of their own to replace him -- and gave their colleague a jump in pay.

"Members of the public shouldn't have any confidence in a commission that deals the way this one does," said State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, a Republican who has worked with the commission on several properties.

The commission's job is not to directly sell land. Instead, the commission is charged with identifying state properties it considers surplus so they can be sold.

In many cases, state laws and rules prevent the commission from passing judgment on a proposal it gets. Transportation rights of way, parks, ports holdings, some university sites and other tracts are off-limits. In other cases, agencies have argued that they need the property. Records show that most of the commission's work has been to tell brokers and agents making pitches that the land they want can't be sold now.

When the commission has acted to have property declared surplus, its efforts haven't panned out:

* With the nation at war, the commission tried to arrange for the sale of N.C. National Guard land in Alamance County to a farmer. Even as the Guard's leaders acknowledged they hadn't used the land in years, patriotic fervor prevailed. The governor and others stopped the sale.

* Some commissioners tried to force the sale of land in West Raleigh near the State Fairgrounds to local developers. A dinner gathering of two commissioners and the developers the night before a key meeting raised ethics questions. The state Attorney General's Office issued a reprimand and halted the effort.

* The commission wanted to arrange for the sale of a tract near Morganton -- land owned by a state center for the mentally retarded. The center's leaders and supporters rallied. They said the land, which is next to the center, was needed for vocational and educational programs. The commission voted to declare the property surplus but later reversed itself.

State Budget Director David McCoy, a key member of Democratic Gov. Mike Easley's staff, said last year that the 16-member commission has been described as a "group run amok" that didn't use common sense.

The commission's first director, former state Rep. Keith Williams, a Republican from Onslow County, said the commission should be abolished.

"It's a waste of taxpayer money," said Williams, a minister and developer.

Jim Black's baby

The commission's chief supporter was former House Speaker Jim Black, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County, who pleaded guilty last month to public corruption felonies.

The commission's staffers have all been tied to Black. And the House, under Black's leadership, made sure the commission was financed each year by adding language in the state's budget bill in the final days before passage, records show.