Even though the news comes from December of 2010, it seems to be of interest even today. It’s a story about the corporation, Cleveland County Public Facilities Corporation, a non-profit started by the leadership of Cleveland County. And their board of directors is equally interesting. Here are the members, look on page six in link, and also listed below.
The five County Commissioners, the County Manager and the County Finance Officer make up the Board of Directors with the Clerk to the Board serving as the Secretary. Do you think any of them would vote against one another on corporate decisions that they wouldn’t vote against in regular commissioner meetings? There’s a word for that. Red flag, I think it’s called.
I’ll give you the background on the info and you can decide for yourself what the deal is. The original info comes from the official Cleveland County NC Government website. But, the biggie comes from RedState.com. Here’s a little sample:
Cleveland county leaders claim to run a “balanced” budget. But if 40% of our budget comes from Raleigh, are we truly running a balanced budget?
Moody’s Aa3 debt rating for Cleveland County Public Facilities Corporation, the issuer of $22 million dollars worth of “limited obligation” bonds, is one level away from being downgraded from low risk to “Medium” risk.
Cleveland county formed the Cleveland County Public Facilities Corporation to issue $22 million in limited obligation bonds to build the LeGrand Center at Cleveland Community College, and the new Shelby Middle School.
Why a limited obligation fund? Because Cleveland county did not want to raise our taxes to pay for it. Instead, they opened a new credit card, under a different name, based on new ”revenue” it received from Raleigh.
I have done extensive research to see if the bond rating has been adjusted back up, but as of the moment, it has not. I also haven’t found anything in the local media that tells this story. If the stories are true, this is a serious issue for the people of Cleveland County. The official CCNCGOV site confirms the fact but doesn’t seem too concerned about the issue. Other sources claim that it’s a risky thing here. Either way, it’s not good to keep the folks in the dark.
The people need to know, and the people have a right to know. The good, the bad, and the ugly, because when it comes down to it, they are the ones who are footing the bill for all this. I hope that someone in charge if such a person exists, will speak out and explain this mess to the people. Silence nor ignoring the issue will solve anything. We’ve already seen that.
