Don Carrington Speaks At Rotary

The Windsor Rotary was very pleased to welcome Don Carrington, Vice President of the John Locke Foundation and Executive Editor of the Carolina Journal, as today's speaker.

Before Mr. Carrington started his keynote address, the Rotary honored Kimberly Askew for winning the Rotary Scholarship, here being presented by Richard Whitley (shown below). Congratulations Kimberly!





After some other club business Mr. Carrington was introduced by Collins Cooper.

Mr. Carrington spoke about the investigative journalist function that the Carolina Journal performs, and the importance to clean government an organization such as the John Locke Foundation provides for our state. As a recent example, he talked about the incredible problems with the Rick Watson engineered Randy Parton Theatre built near Roanoke Rapids.




Rick Watson was a government official who arranged for bonuses for himself for simply doing his job, ultimately getting pay of approximately twice what the Governor is paid. In addition, there is evidence he negotiated with organizations which he was a part of to be provided government economic incentives, a clear conflict of interest that could well be illegal as well. However secrecy in this entire operation means we do not yet know the details of all of all these arrangements.

Randy Parton was the major beneficiary of a government deal that is still unbelievable. Mr. Carrington shared with us that details of the economic incentives for the "Randy Parton Theatre" indicate this operation was "launched totally with government funds."

There is also some indications that the whole idea for this "theatre" was conceived by Rick Watson and not Randy parton. In the process a $12 million theatre was funded with $21 million in local bonds. The theatre was paid for completely with public funds. In an unprecedented move Randy Parton was provided $3 million in operating capital. The other $6 million went for various "infrastructure" and other payments for whom the beneficiaries are not entirely clear.

An important question yet to be answered is why Richard Moore allowed this boondoggle to be built. It required his approval, which was given. However Richard Moore now acts like this approval was just a bureacratic step and oversight was not really his responsibility. What does he think a Treasurer is supposed to do?

The theatre is built and has been turned over to Randy Parton. Though publicly funded Mr. Parton has complete control. Mr. Parton is using the pubic funding he was given, the $3 million in operating funds, to pay himself $750 thousand a year in salary for operating the theatre, plus his daughters are on salary as well, being paid out of the public funds.

For a picture of the theatre click here.

Compare this to Mr. Parton's background. He was previously a hair dresser before he went to work for his sister as a band member at Dollywood, for a salary of $100,000 which was overcompensation. He never managed anything at Dollywood and even received reprimands for his conduct, including accusations of drinking on the site. He was a band member.

There is no indication that either Rick Watson or the town of Roanoke Rapids ever did a background check on Randy Parton. If they had they would certainly never have done this deal with someone with so little experience in the music busines.

Mr. Carrington called the Randy Parton Theatre "a unique low in public funded" actions. Most of the Rotary members agreed. You can click here for the exclusive series of articles that Don Carrington wrote about this fiasco if you want all the details.

Click on the title of this article above to find out more about the John Locke Foundation where Don is an executive. They are a great organization promoting good government in North Carolina.





Collins Cooper (shown above on left) presented Don with the traditional cobalt blue mug as a thank you for what was a very funny presentation, but which also provided us with some great enlightenment as to how corrupt government in North Carolina has become.

The sad part is that though this might be the most excessive abuse recently, similar things are still going on. That was the real point of Don's presentation.