The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted last night to accept Dell Inc.'s repayment of $7.9 million in incentives regardless of whether the county can recoup all of a $20,000 discount Dell received for paying early.
The county already has the Dell payment in the bank. What commissioners decided last night was that the county won't try to bill Dell -- or Winston-Salem -- for any shortfall, if the county's investment of the money doesn't earn at least $20,000 over 90 days.
It took two split votes for the board to reach a decision.
Commissioner Richard Linville first made a motion to accept the Dell payment but check later to see how much the $7.9 million had earned.
Linville's motion failed, on a 3-4 vote, with commissioners Debra Conrad and Gloria Whisenhunt backing Linville's motion. Voting against the motion were Beaufort Bailey, Ted Kaplan, Walter Marshall and Dave Plyler, the board chairman.
Marshall then made a motion to essentially accept the Dell payment as is. That motion passed 4-3, with Conrad, Linville and Whisenhunt voting against the proposal.
Last week, Whisenhunt had complained that the Dell repayment, complete with the discount, had been negotiated by Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines without approval from the county.
Joines discussed the repayment with Plyler and received Plyler's backing for the early-payment discount.
Marshall said he made the motion to accept the Dell deal last night because he wanted to back Plyler as the county's negotiator, and because he felt that the county should be satisfied with getting the money now.
Under the original agreement with Dell, the incentives repayment would have fallen due sometime in February.
"We need to take that money and forget about the two or three thousand dollars we might make or not make," Marshall said.
In other action, the board unanimously approved a document to guide planning on the southeast side of Winston-Salem and nearby parts of the county, after a public hearing in which several people called the plan a good idea.
"One of the things we want to see a lot of are green trees and grasses," said Ellen Motsinger, speaking in favor of the Southeast Suburban Area Plan.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
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