Editorial Shorts

Pricey hamburgers

The area ABC board, like some of its counterparts in other parts of the state, was apparently badly in need of new regulations regarding meals paid for by liquor companies.

An Alcohol Law Enforcement investigation found in December that Diageo Americas Inc. had spent $12,700 for a dinner for 28 Mecklenburg County ABC officials, prompting the N.C. ABC commission to recommend the tighter regulations for local boards. Diageo officials provided the state with all the receipts for meals it had bought for ABC officials around North Carolina. Two officials with the Triad Municipal ABC Board, which includes Forsyth, had meals paid for twice in 2009 by a Diageo representative, the Journal's Wesley Young reported. The average price per person was $32 over the two meals.

Local ABC administrator Gregory Bradsher and Pat Britton, the local ABC board's human-resources manager, went to the meals with the Diageo official, according to the records furnished by the company. "From my knowledge we had a hamburger and we talked about business and that was the extent of it," Bradsher said.

Bob Stebbins, the chairman of the local ABC board, said that it has confidence in Bradsher. The local policy had been to interpret a ban on gifts as not including occasional meals. As long as the meal price was reasonable, Stebbins said, the local board felt that a meal wasn't the same as a gift, which would be banned outright under the policies in force for the local board as recommended by the state. That's changed now, he said, and no free meals are allowed. "You'd be a fool not to take the recommendation of the state," he said.

Thirty-two dollars for a hamburger is not a reasonable price. Some might interpret it as a gift from the company buying the meal and seeking business. And as Agnes Stevens, a spokeswoman for the ABC Commission, noted, "money generated in ABC stores is the public's money."

It's good that the local board has tightened its policies, but there must be a method to ensure such standards are followed here and elsewhere. Gov. Bev Perdue has called for tougher ethics standards at the local ABC boards. To effect that, the legislature should put the local boards under the state's ethics law.

When money and liquor are combined, there's enormous potential for abuse.

Giving in tough times

The fact that United Way of Forsyth County exceeded its 2009 campaign goal by more than $200,000 in these economic hard times says a lot about the generosity of our community.

United Way announced this week that it raised $17.2 million.The agency's fundraisers, led by campaign chairman Keith Vaughan, had emphasized that as bad as the economy is, many have it a lot worse. The number of first-time givers increased significantly.

Companies, as usual, donated heavily, and many even increased their giving. "This year, everyone knows somebody who's experienced real difficulties in this economy," John Conrad, a United Way spokesman, told the Journal.

After a significant shortfall in the 2008 campaign, United Way had set a more realistic goal for the 2009 campaign. Still, officials with United Way of Forsyth County note that their 2009 total was just above the total for the Triangle United Way, which includes four counties and Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham.

United Way's 34 partner agencies will use that money for everything from food for the hungry to mentors for students. The giving shows that our community realizes just how important that work is.

Disaster relief

Now that President Obama has signed a disaster declaration to help with cleanup costs from recent mountain storms, federal officials should ensure that North Carolina quickly gets it share -- more than $9 million.

Several North Carolina mountain counties caught a double whammy -- the Dec. 18 snowstorm followed by a Christmas Day ice storm. The counties along the N.C.-Tennessee border stretch from Asheville and include Watauga and Ashe counties, where the ice storm was heaviest.

The ice storm coated limbs, downing thousands of them and causing widespread power outages. Roads and bridges were damaged. Early damage and expense estimates for Watauga alone were more than $3 million. It's estimated that the total recovery costs will be more than $12.5 million.

The snow and ice, and the expense of dealing with it, continues. "Many of these same counties incurred additional costs last weekend responding to our most recent snow and ice storm," Gov. Bev Perdue said this week in a prepared statement.

The federal money should ease some of the strain that the cleanup costs have placed on the state and local governments. And more federal help may be needed before this winter is through.