Residents question fairness of baseball committee selection

When the Winston-Salem City Council voted to create an 11-person citizens committee to review the building of the city's baseball stadium, council members gave Mayor Allen Joines the task of reviewing applications for the review committee.

Council members said they wanted the review committee to provide transparency to taxpayers about the city's financial stake in the stadium.

But some city residents are questioning whether the review committee can be independent if Joines -- who has been a vocal supporter of the stadium -- is recommending its members.

"I'm betting that at least 10 of them were in that -- if they spoke or had any opinion on it -- were in the ‘we-want-the-stadium-and-we-love-the-stadium-and-we-should-pay-$100-million-on-it' group," said Gerald Wood, a city resident who is opposed to the city's financial involvement in the stadium. "You could always let the mice put the cheese in the traps, you could let the chickens choose which fox would babysit them. Or you can let the government count your money for you."

Joines and other city officials say they see no conflict of interest with Joines suggesting prospective members for the committee.

City Manager Lee Garrity said that the city council is the check and balance on the recommendations. "The mayor recommends, he doesn't appoint," Garrity said. "And as he does with every committee, in consultation with council. He's asked council members to forward them their personal recommendations and then he looks at the whole list … it's not like he hand-picks them himself."

Garrity said that Joines would consult with the members of the city council before making a formal recommendation.

Joines said he hopes to make that recommendation at the council's July 20 meeting.

After Joines makes a formal recommendation, the council then will vote on whether to approve his recommendations or to choose different members for the review committee.

The council voted to create the review committee earlier this week. The committee will be made up of 11 city residents, who will review every payment made from the city to the baseball-stadium owners to help get the stadium finished.

The stadium, which will be home to the Class A Winston-Salem Dash, is being built at the corner of Peters Creek Parkway and First Street. Construction on the stadium has been stalled for months as the team owners negotiated a buyout.

The city gave $12 million last year to help build the ballpark. Then, last month, after team owner Billy Prim said that banks would not allow him to borrow any more money to finish the stadium, the council agreed to contribute an additional $15.7 million in financial assistance to the stadium. Most of that will come from a loan that the city intends to borrow from a bank.

Citizens reacted to the council's decision last month with a mixture of anger and support. Joines said he intends to recommend citizens who questioned whether the city should contribute additional funding.

"I want to make sure it's a very independent group that has no ties to the stadium or ties to the elected officials," Joines said. "We're trying to hit the functional categories that were in the resolution -- construction, financial, banking, sports marketing, engineering, etc. -- and then on top of that, we have to make sure we have a culturally diverse committee and one that is geographically diverse, as well."

A. Fleming Bell, a professor at the University of North Carolina's School of Government and an expert on ethics and conflicts of interest in local government, said that it did not appear that the city council was doing anything illegal by having the mayor recommend applicants for the committee.

But, Bell said, residents' perceptions are also important.

"I think it comes down, not to legality so much here as to the perception of different people," he said.

■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.

Monitoring baseball

Any resident of Winston-Salem can apply to serve on the stadium citizens review committee. Applications are available on the city's Web site, www.cityofws.org, on the side "Related Documents" panel of this article, and at City Hall.

Joines said that applications should be e-mailed to his assistant at lindajb@cityofws.org. Applications can also be delivered in person to City Hall.