Subject: Lee's unemployment rate jumps to 13.4 percent

The unemployment rate in Lee County jumped to 13.4 percent in January, according to numbers released Thursday by the state Employment Security Commission.

The rate for Lee County in December was 10.9 percent.

Statewide, the unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent, up from 8.1 percent in December. It was the highest unemployment rate in North Carolina since March 1983, when the rate was 10 percent.

The jobless rate increased in each of the state's 100 counties.

Read more about this breaking news in Friday's Herald. (Source: Sanford Herald Facebook email 3:18 pm.” - Becoming a member of Sanford Herald's Facebook is a good way to stay up on late-breaking stories.)

Posts Returning With Lots of News

NOTE: THE DATE OF THE COUNTY REPUBLICAN CONVENTION WAS INADVERTENTLY STATED AS MAY 30 WHEN IN FACT, IT IS MARCH 30TH. PLEASE BE SURE TO MARK THIS CORRECTLY ON YOUR CALENDARS.

Special Note:Significant time has been invested in making a number of resources available for those 2000+ people who have lost jobs in Lee County. Tremendous research and effort went into the development of the "Job Listings" link found at the center of our top navigation bar. Based on careful research of potential sources and available technology, this link contains constantly updating listings in 29 job categories of the latest job openings within 50 miles of Sanford. With two clicks from our main page, a person can get what could be their key to employment. Please email any one you know who is unemployed, is at risk of being unemployed, any personnel officers who face the task of letting people go, local organizations that assist the disadvantaged, and let them know of this service. You can send this post by clicking the email icon at the bottom.

Work on the e-Lee Dispatch on our commitment to bringing Lee County citizens new, information, and analysis is just a strong as ever. With a direct link to the Sanford Herald on line, 10 constantly updating sources of regional and national news, the return to this area of columns by Ann Coulter (who lost her spot at the Sanford Herald in a "political correctness" controversy) along with prominent columnists Cal Thomas, George Will, and David Broder, we have provided a comprehensive, one-stop source for your news. See my personal blog for some of the reasons behind the redesign, with many new features.(click here).

Concern over the continuing job losses that have left Lee County with an unemployment rate higher that national and state rates will mean more posts about the local impact and what the community is (or isn't) doing about it. In fact the following post deals with a proposal to be considered Monday as to how to cut positions from county government.

Now that voters have brought Robert Reives' iron-fisted control of county government to an end, there isn't necessarily a lot of fodder for posts coming from commissioners meeting. (If we can find the time, however, we will excerpt from the video last meeting in which Reives and Jamie Kelly were laughing and congratulating themselves for not funding renovations for Lee County High because of an economic downturn that has brought concern and difficulty to area businesses, employees, and owners of 401-k's)

Research for some posts with potential consequences is always on going. The perjury complaint was discussed this week with State Board of Elections Director Bartlett and District Attorney Susan Doyle. Those who keep expecting that the grandfather of one of the key players can keep it bottled up, should step forward now and come clean. It is not going away.

Meanwhile, another prominent elected official has become a matter of controversy in the case, and will shortly be the subject of a post. There will also be a post answering the question, "Who is Steven Thomas" who signed the form without knowing what he was signing at the request of two friends. We now know why Thomas requested that we remove locating information about him from an earlier post. He will find out how much we have learned from Raleigh and from the satellites. It turns out he perjured himself in more ways than reporting an expenditure to the sign manufacturer.

It also appears that a real showdown is coming for leadership of the Lee County Republican Party Monday night, MARCH 30, in the old courtroom, beginning with precinct meetings at 6:30 with the convention following afterward. It looks as if there will be a battle between former school board member John Bonardi and at least a surrogate for Richard Littiken - whom some of his closest supporters have urged not to attend. One surrogate under consideration is County Commissioner Linda Shook, famous for her focus on national issues in her term on the board thus far.

Editors Note: Take advantage of the opportunity to subscribe to posts by email. Take note of the link "click here" if you want to subscribe anonymously. All current programs for signing up by email make the list of subscribers available to the bloggers who use them for marketing. We don't mind knowing who our readers are, but we have no interest in using the list information. We also know some people would want to protect their privacy with us and other sites and the link will take you to a way to do that.

Sanford Herald Sweeps Awards at North Carolina Press Association

For Bill Horner, and especially Billy Ligget, North Carolina Press Association's annual awards banquet Thursday must have been a heartening time. It had not been an easy year with some readers adjusting to a change in layout, a change in printing platforms and key production practices, a new online offering, and its share of downsizing and turnover. Nevertheless, they left the banquet with 9 awards, a record for the newspaper. The Herald's newsroom won first-place awards for spot news reporting, appearance and design and graphic illustration. The "spot news" recognition, a paper's coverage of a single event. was a result of The Herald's coverage of President Clinton's visit to Sanford in late March of last year. Coverage was led by former Herald reporter Chelsea Kellner, news reporter Gordon Anderson, Community Editor Jonathan Owens, Special Projects Editor R.V.Hight and former Herald photographer Brooke Wolfe. With Clinton's stop being one of many in North Carolina as he stumped for his wife, then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, papers all across the state were faced with providing plenty of "spots news" opportunities. Two late September items, one of them including the preparation for last October's unveiling of the 2nd Century Project, Sanford's new branding campaign, brought in the gold for "appearance and design". The latter award should be especially appreciated by county citizens due to the long-term importance to the county's future. Editor Billy's Liggett's top finish for graphic illustration of Sanford city councilmen who were either for or against the city's business privilege tax should come as no surprise to Herald readers and others who gave their own personal kudo's for it at the time. Liggett was the only North Carolina columnist in all four daily newspaper divisions to be awarded for both "serious columns" and "light columns," winning second place in both categories. One of Liggett's "lighter columns" dealt with the joy and agony that came with raising a new puppy, while one of his "serious columns" focused on the area's need to complete the soon-to-be-built green way in Lee County.The awards should be especially gratifying in that newspaper editors in towns the size of Sanford can catch a lot of flak, and it shows his wide ranging talents. They do little, however, to help others who are still trying to decide his philosophy of life. Herald movie critic Neil Morris also received a second-place nod in the"criticism" category for his movie reviews, which included his glowing review of the 2008 blockbuster, "The Dark Knight." The fan of any local sport should be well pleased with Sports Editor Alex Podlogar's third place award for his sports columns, one of which included a story about his 5-year-old daughter playing soccer. The award was Podlogar's third sports column writing award in his four years with The Herald. The awards should be especially appreciated as alternative sources of state and national news abound on the Internet, but local sports fans must depend on the Herald for its excellent coverage of the many sporting events in the area. Publisher Bill Horner said.

"Winning second place and third place in the special section category is also a coup for The Herald. That means of the hundreds of special sections produced this past year by newspapers in our category, we have two of the top three. Credit for that goes to Special Projects Editor R.V. Hight and contributor Chip Pate who coordinated the annual industrial edition and a third place award for its annual Lee County Living magazine."

Horner also noted the work of former Herald photographer Brooke Wolfe on these sections as well as the "spot news award." That compliment was right on the mark. The volume, yet excellence of her work was incredible. Editor Billy Liggent wrote on his blog, "The Herald has a wonderful young photographer in Brooke Wolfe, and I’d say it’s about time we started paying her, and not just in Bojangles gift certificates." A decision on her part to "move on" was probably a good one for her, but her fingerprints are all over the work that brought these awards and she will be missed. One would not have been surprised to see her place in the categories of General News Photography and Feature Photography. Another category where an award might have been expected was Headline Writing, where Ligget has written some clever ones. No surprise in the General Excellence Web Site despite this year's improvements. The Paxton group, of which the Sanford Herald is a part, is not known as an innovator there and has not come to grips with the realities of the Internet market yet.

Commissioners Upset Over City Attitude

"As mentioned previously, the City of Sanford is not interested in controlling dispatch services for the Emergency Medical Services or rural fire departments."Hal Hagwar, Sanford City Manager

Letter to Lee County Commissioners, January 28, 2009



The Fayetteville Observer reported this morning that the Sanford "Refusal on 911 plan angers [Lee Board of Commisioners] members." That statement came in a letter (click here) from Sanford City Manager Hal Hagwar to commissioners 10 months after the city was sent a proposed written agreement for the operation of the county's 911 center. During that period, the county's request, started under the prior board, was largely ignored, and the city has never offered an alternative contract to the county's proposal. Also, during that period the city tried to get the county's PSA designation removed so it could operate completely independently.



The primary issues are money, control, and accountability. As one official put it, Sanford wants all the money and control but no accountability.



The letter was received as being belligerent, uncooperative, and disdainful of the needs of Lee County citizens not living within the city limits. This should come as no surprise. The 911 center operates under the exclusive control of Police Chief Ronnie Yarborough and is typical of his management style and the acquiescence to that style by what has too long been a majority of council members and the city manager. Yarborough has been chief for 36 years and established a reputation as an arrogant and vengeful manager, and few officials seem willing to take him on.



One exception has been Lee County Sheriff Tracy Carter. In a manner similar to the shared 911 operation, drug enforcement was in the handled in the county as well as the city by a Joint City-County Drug Task Force under Yarborough. Carter ran his campaign on disbanding the Task Force and the Sheriff's Office taking back direct responsibility for drug enforcement in rural areas felt neglected by Yarborough. The Sheriff's Office has proven much more successful in cracking down on drug dealers across the county than the former task force, including some busts in the city. Sheriff Carter has said, however, that he has no interest in operating the county 911 center and is hopeful that the city and county can come reach a workable and lasting agreement.



The statements made about rural fire departments and EMS dispatch were viewed as a threat by most of the commissioner's, except Commissioner Robert Reives who is part of Yarborough's network. Despite the impression reported in the Federal Observer, Commissioner Jamie Kelly was very muted in his response. Kelly is unlikely to take on Yarborough while Yarborough is protecting Police Detective Kevin Bryant during the State Board of Elections investigation of perjury in connection with signs Kelly acknowledges he had printed, and in which Bryant has been implicated by Steve Thomas.



Until the letter, there had been no interest whatsoever on the part of commissioners in terminating the arrangement with the city, only is establishing a vehicle for accountability and a means of resolving public concerns which have long been ignored by Yarborough. The letter's clear lack of interest of the citizens of the entire county and exclusive focus on its own citizens will undoubtedly anger rural county residents who may recognize that the narrow focus and arrogance of the city could leave them waiting for an EMS response to a heart attack or see their homes go up in flames.



The city may regret delaying the matter until the new commissioners were seated. The current board of county commissioners appears much more aggressive and supportive of the county manager. A number of citizens have approached commissioners about requiring that the city employ a new 911 center director who reports directly to the city manager rather than Yarborough. They argue that given that most calls are for Sanford police, he is likely to look at concerns and grievances of other users as coming from competitors, and note the impossibility of working with a city official known for his arrogant and intimidating style.Commissioners are likely to demand an oversight board made up of stakeholders to address performance standards and patterns of cooperation. The tone of the letter, they argue, simply reinforces the need for these measures.



These additional features are similar to a contract between Wake County and the City of Raleigh which current commissioners are studying closely. When the county initiated its 911 system, it created an emergency telephone system that is required by law to enable the user of a voice communications service connection to reach emergency help by dialing the digits 911 and provide enhanced 911 service. The local funds to pay for the system are collected by Lee County and the operating cost of the center is shared by the city and county on the basis of call volume. The first point of reception of a 911 call is called a public safety answering point (PSAP), and the state recognizes Lee County, not Sanford, as the single PSAP for Lee County. As such, the county agreed to a verbal contact with the City of Sanford approximately 20 years ago that the city would operate the actual call center.



At the center, a call for emergency assistance is processed up to the point that the call is ready for dispatch, including the use of equipment, call classification, location of a caller, and determination of the appropriate response level for emergency responders. The city directly dispatches calls from within the city to police and fire departments, EMS, and rural fire departments. Calls from county residents are transferred to the Sheriff's Office and Broadway Police department where they the actual dispatching is done.



According to the city, the cost of operation of the call center is approximately $940,000 a year and the county's portion is about $150,000 a year. This reflects that 83% of the call volume is generated by city residents.



The state of North Carolina 911 Board distributes money to the county to support local, enhanced 911 service. The money cannot be used for operation costs but is used for training, equipment, and similar items to support the continual upgrade of the 911 services. Since Lee County is the designated PSAP, the funds go to the county and are distributed to the city to support authorized expenses of the 911 center. On occasion, the county has elected to distribute some of the money to other agencies for training and equipment involved in the 911 system. (Note: The city rate is inflated to some degree because it has elected to use the call center for such purposes as reporting water outages and sewer problems, not what most people think of as traditional emergency 911 calls. Yes, your call with a genuine emergency could be delayed by an operator responding to someone with a leaking water pipe.)



For a number of years, rural fire departments have raised repeated and numerous complaints about the manner in which Chief Yarborough operated the call center but with no success. As noted earlier, Yarborough, after 36 years on the job and the center of the "good ol' boys network", recently refused to attend a meeting with the mayor and others (See post) to be briefed on newly discovered information related to the perjured election form filings. The chief is virtually inaccessible. A visit to the City of Sanford web site does not even disclose his name, he seldom, if ever, participates in activities like the Committee of 100, and it is well known uses the powers of his office to intimidate council members to concur with the level of independence with which he operates the police department.



Ronnie Yarborough's minions on the Sanford City Council balked when the county proposed that the 20 year old verbal agreement be put in writing, establishing standards of performance, procedures documenting the use of state 911 funds and other forms of accountability. According to Hegwer's letter to the commissioner's, "The agreement is simply asking the City to blindly hand over the keys to our communications center and all operations to Lee County." This reflects the Chief's position that he will not work under circumstances of accountability.



The city's real interest is having sole control of the state 911 funds. Due to the controversy, $173,768 in state 911 funds earmarked for Lee County have been held in Raleigh. The current fund balance on hand is $615,005. Two members each from the commission and the city council are expected to meet this week to see if common ground can be found on the issues.

Kevin Bryant Had Grievance With Herb Hincks

May Explain Bryant's Involvement With False Forms

It is the season of choose your successor. In recent weeks the clerks of court of Lee, Moore, and Chatham County have resigned from office, each with just about two years left in office. In their cases, the Chief Superior Judge will name a successor who will have the advantage of incumbency in the 2010 election. This is how the last two sheriff's initially came to office in neighboring Moore County. Naturally, usually the person resigning the position and the individual or group filing the vacancy have come to some agreement on who that successor shall be.With a little less than two years in Sheriff Billy Bryant's term, Kevin Bryant, then the Chief Deputy, persuaded Billy Bryant to take the same approach provided that he (Kevin Bryant could) get the necessary appointment from the county commissioners. Doing so would have allowed him to face the assumed challenger, Tracy Carter, as an incumbent. Instead he could only run as Chief Deputy who had to publicly admit he wasn't allowed to make any policy decisions in the sheriff's office, a comment considered by many a turning point in the race.

Pfizer Buys Wyeth in $68 Billion Consolidation Move

Combined pharmaceutical company to layoff more than 19,000 workers to scale back costs.

According to Market Watch  Pfizer Inc., the world's top drug maker, said Monday it will buy rival Wyeth for $68 billion in the biggest pharmaceutical merger in eight years.  Wyeth is Lee County's largest employer, and the impact in terms of loss of jobs is at this point unknown.  Even without the merger changes, the nature of the industry would likely put some employees at risk.

At the same time,  Pfizer Inc. reported a 90% plunge in fourth-quarter profit, stemming mostly from a large legal settlement. The company also announced a 10% reduction in its workforce and said it would cut its dividend payment in half in order to help pay for the Wyeth acquisition. The layoffs will be folded into a larger round undertaken by the combined company, which expects to shed more than 19,000 workers -- amounting to about 15% of its combined workforce.(Read More From Market Watch)

But Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler, who took the top job in 2006, insists the Wyeth deal is different from its earlier mega-mergers with Warner-Lambert in 2000 and Pharmacia in 2003.

Kindler told a news conference that the Wyeth merger is not about "a single product or cost-cutting," as with past deals. Instead, "it's about creating a broad, diversified portfolio."

Nevertheless, cost-cutting there will be. Pfizer expects to achieve about $4 billion in "synergies" by 2012, enabling it to reduce the combined workforce of the two companies by 15%, or some 20,000 jobs. As part of those synergies, Pfizer announced Monday that it will eliminate 8,000 jobs, 10% of its workforce. It is also closing five of its 46 manufacturing plants.

Pfizer announced today that it plans to cut another 10 percent of its workforce, or 7,800 jobs. Analysts,pharma watcher Daniel Hoffman and Sanford C. Bernstein analyst, Timothy Anderson told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the job-shedding that will attend the merger will likely hit Wyeth harder than Pfizer. "Generally, in this kind of deal, you would be looking at 25 to 30 percent cost reduction," Hoffman told the paper, "but here it's going to be more like 50 percent." Timothy Anderson, however, predicts Pfizer would cut 70 percent of Wyeth's current $10 billion spending on R&D and marketing/administration.
 
In an article written in speculation of the merger, Business Week offered this analysis:

The general reaction: Acquiring Wyeth might boost Pfizer's fortunes in the short term, but it won't solve the long-term problems that are roiling the major pharmaceutical makers. As many observers have noted, Pfizer and the rest of the drug industry suffer from a lack of promising new products to replace older ones going off patent. What is less widely understood is that Pfizer also will face an increasingly constrained marketing environment, even if it succeeds in bulking up with Wyeth. 

Industry Analysis:  Biotechnology Firms Outpacing Big Pharmaceuticals Pfizer alone spent $8 billion last year which was greater than the sum spent by biotech’s top five companies. What this tells us is that pharmaceutical companies are grossly unproductive when it comes to drug discovery and development. This would explain why nearly three-quarters of all new medicines approved for sale in the US last year originated at biotechnology companies. 

It is becoming increasingly apparent that biotechnology companies are much more efficient at R&D than pharmaceutical companies. More importantly this suggests that something must change so that pharmaceuticals can continue to receive adequate ROI on internal discovery programs. Perhaps big pharmaceuticals ought to spend a greater portion of its R&D budget on biotech mergers and acquisitions rather than continuing to invest in inefficient and failing internal R&D programs.

While biotechnology companies are exceptional in drug discovery, they are severely lacking when it comes to clinical development of new drugs. This is largely due the high costs of conducting human clinical trials (which are required for regulatory approval of all new medicines). Most biotechnology companies are strapped for cash and don’t have sufficient funds to conduct clinical trials on their own.

Not surprisingly, given the recent financial downturn, there has been a recent spate of deals in which pharmaceuticals have been willing to pay large sums of money for clinical development rights to promising new biotechnology drugs. Moreover, a majority of the almost 160,000 employees layed off by pharmaceuticals companies in the past few years have been R&D scientists.  Unfortunately, this paradigm shift doesn’t bode well for doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows who are training in the life sciences. This is because many entry-level biotech positions, traditionally filled by newly-minted PhD's and postdoctoral fellows will likely be filled by experienced, pharmaceutical employees who lost their jobs in the recent rounds of layoffs.
Source: BioJob Blog

Editor's Note: Two Videos on the Pfizer-Wythe Merger have been added to the video page. In one two experts discuss the impact of the merger and in another Jeffrey Kindler, CEO of Pfizer, puts a brief spin on the merger. (click here)

Chief of Police, City Manager Refuse Mayor's Request

"Not Interested" in Elections Briefing


Police Chief Ronnie Yarborough lived up to his reputation last week when he and city manager Hal Hegwer refused a request to meet with the mayor and the editor of this blog so that information obtained in connection with the board of elections complaint could be shared with them. Actually they refused twice, once with Mayor Olive going through normal clerical circles and once when each was contacted directly by the mayor personally. 

The city manager, like others before him, appears to allow Yarborough, who in reality is just a city employee, to operate unchecked, free of supervision. The actions seem to confirm widely held views of Ronnie Yarborourgh's  running the Sanford Police Department free of supervision, a degree of secrecy and isolation.  While the mayor does not supervise the city manager or police chief, Cornelia Olive is the elected representative of all of the citizens of Sanford, disregarding such a personal request from the mayor shows his arrogance in his position.

The mayor had sought the meeting  to bring to their attention information obtained by the e-Lee Dispatch and was not to be an interview. The background for the meeting included relaying the position taken by Kim Strach who was adamant that the ongoing election board's investigation should not in any way impede any law enforcement from pursuing their normal procedures or legal responsibilities. (See previous post) Her position had no yet been published.

This information was thought to be of potential benefit in managing the difficult position for both Kevin Bryant and the department given the prevalent rumors regarding the involvement of the city detective. The meeting was also to reveal, as explained below, that a Sanford council member had initially claimed to have been told directly by Steve Thomas that a Sanford police detective was indeed one of the two "friends" who persuaded him to sign the form. More documentation than is being disclosed here was to be shared so that they could be assured of the reliability of the claim that Thomas had indeed told Stone. This appeared to provide much more creditable information at the same time the city was about to learn it was free to follow its normal procedures during the Board of Elections investigation--information neither the police chief or city manager might have yet had.  The claim of Kevin Brant's involvement would appear to have more credibity than local rumors.

The mayor had been told that there was potentially significant information that should be relayed directly to the city manager and chief pertaining to the election perjury information and was willing, as she put it, "to give it a try." No doubt she had dealt with the independent attitude of Chief Yarborough before and was also aware that the city manager had demonstrated no willingness to take him on.  In most towns and city, a mayor would have been more confident.

Most everyone agrees there ought to be a lot of care in reacting to rumors--even widely and quickly developed ones. That is particularly true when the rumor is potentially (in most towns) devastating to any law enforcement officer's career. Those rumors also had to be evaluated in light of what some expect to be another campaign, and opponents of such a campaign may have reason to start such rumors. Careful reactions would be appropriate for the City of Sanford to consider in reacting to them.

Careful investigation has confirmed from numerous highly responsible sources that City Councilman, and Thomas business partner, Mike Stone had claimed that Steve Thomas had told him directly  the name of at least one, if not both, of the two individuals involved in bringing him the false statement . Those sources all agree that Mike Stone had called the night the first form was filed to tell them that Thomas had given him Kevin Bryant's name as one of the two individuals involved. This was likely creditable information from an elected official related to a possible crime, not a rumor over breakfast.

With Stone now denying making those calls or ever making that claim, it seems unlikely he made this information available to the city manager or chief of police. Saying that Thomas had secured an attorney and told Thomas to stop talking, by mid day the next morning, Stone was no longer making the claim of hearing directly from Thomas. Over time, Stone has offered different descriptions of what happened that night, denies that Thomas told him or that he passed such information along, and claims that his source of information was the same rumors everyone else was hearing.

When asked in a follow-up call why he had declined to have the meeting, Hal Hegwer said "We just aren't interested." In most cities and town refusing such a request from the mayor at all would be unusual and dismissing it with such a comment would bring his future into doubt.  Apparently not in Sanford where it appears to be evidence that the manager understands that when it comes to the police deparment, it is only what Ronnie Yarborough says that matters.  that in such matters the chief of police, not he or the mayor, makes the decisions.

It would seemingly be important that there was now credible evidence that Thomas had claimed that a city detective was involved directly to a city official.  The information concerning Stone's claim  was support by reliable sources as to the their source, not the rumors. One would also believe that a city council member who has taken his own oath to uphold the law would have himself made this information available to the city manager or police chief. But Stone and Thomas are business partners, and Stone may have correctly assumed the information would have no influence on the long time chief who answers to no one and might chose to do whatever was necessary to protect Kevin Bryant.

Stone knows, as do most others, that  hired Kevin Bryant as a detective immediately after the sheriff election in 2006, filling the position without following normal procedures. Many took this as evidence that Yarborough, as rumored, supported Bryant over Tracy Carter. Carter had strongly supported the disbanding of the joint City County Drug Unit, which operated under the Sanford police department but included sheriff's deputies and had jurisdiction over all the county. Ronnie Yarborough strongly disagreed with that position since dissolving the unit  markedly reduced his jurisdiction.

 Perhaps there has already been an internal affairs investigation of the allegation or for some other reason Ronnie Yarborough is satisfied that there is nothing to Thomas's allegation. While the public information laws about such investigations would seemingly not require the disclosure of one of its findings, in most cities, clearing an officer of such a charge would be important to the police department and the officer.

With an unaccountable, arrogant police chief who doesn't care if one of his detectives was involved, an intimidated city manager would just be being practical when he said "We just aren't interested." Even if that is the case, the refusal to honor a request directly from the mayor by a deparment head supported in his refusal by the city manager, shows an attitude of indispensability and the kind of arrogance that should concern every citizen, especially when it is the arrogance of the chief of police.

Editor's  Note:  Sentence Structure Clarified at 6 pm 1/19/2009