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Asked questions by the Daily Herald, Baker responded in an interview and a written statement outlining his feelings about The Roanoke Rapids Theatre and the council's inclination to raise the property tax rate in order to fund the entertainment venue and restore the financial integrity of the city's fund balance - money kept on hand for emergency situations.
“The citizens can't afford a tax rate hike and the city can't operate without one. It's a paradox,” Baker said Friday.
He was absent from Wednesday's council work session, when the panel indicated it would consider raising the tax rate by 5 cents instead of the original 3-cent proposal.
“There's no choice at this time,” Baker said of a tax increase.
Better decisions, however, would have prevented it from happening, he added.
Baker claims some $2.5 million had been squandered on the theater since the original vote to build the entertainment center with Randy Parton as its star performer and general manager.
While admitting he voted for the $21.3 million bond package to fund the construction, he pointed to the wasted money and noted, “That equates to approximately 25 cents of the tax rate.”
The councilman said in his written statement, “I participated in and voted to build the theater, and have regretted that decision ever since.
“When this proposal was first explored, it was a very hard decision and I did not want to be viewed as standing in the way of economic development. The pressure to get the deal done was intense and was coming from all directions.
“I did not feel great about it, but I did vote for it. I relied on, followed and trusted other people instead of making an independent decision. That does not excuse my actions.
“Immediately following that poor choice, I learned not to follow along and trust people that were supposed to be guarding the city's checkbook.”
Six bad decisions
In the aftermath of the original decision, Baker says things got worse with each passing action.
“I vigorously fought against each and every one of these decisions and was ostracized by my so-called friends on Council for this. Six ill-conceived decisions were made after the original decision to build the theater. That equates to $2.5 million we could have used for our budget right now.”
Decisions one and two were when council realized there were problems at the theater and Parton was allowed twice to draw money.
The third decision was when a breach of contract notice was not given for his management of the theater, he said, while the fourth was when the contract with Parton was renegotiated.
The fifth was when the city gave $990,000 to Unicco, a management firm that was first hired than dismissed by the city council, and the sixth was when the city settled with Parton for $750,000.
Baker details these mistakes throughout his statement, while addressing Mayor Drewery Beale's apology Wednesday for the theater debacle.
“I am glad the mayor and Council have acknowledged their mistakes, because there have been a continuous supply of them for the last 12 months,” he wrote.
Baker says there are closed session minutes that can and should be released covering this project for the last 12 months.
While Baker objected to several closed sessions where high-dollar deals to bail out the theater were discussed, he said he was outvoted each time.
“When I suspected that money was misspent, I had to fight with my own colleagues to obtain the financials to verify this. There were two different times a vote was taken as to whether to allow Parton to withdraw money from the $3 million reserve fund.
“I was calling for a breach of contract notice to be served at each meeting, but was outvoted each time by four to one. The money given by these two votes was approximately 750,000.”
Baker says he and former Councilman Reggie Baird sent directions to serve a breach of contract notice to Parton and that call was ignored. “Instead, Parton's contract was renegotiated and he was given another sweetheart deal by these same four.” (Beale and council members Carl Ferebee, Ernest Bobbit, Ed Deese.)
He then discusses the Unicco deal. “A janitorial service company was brought in, and signed yet another sweetheart deal, and they were given $990,000 dollars of taxpayers' money. Again I voted against this. Then the decision was made to settle with Parton, and he was given $750,000 dollars of taxpayers' money to go down the road. I voted against this.”
That equals more than $2.5 million misspent, he said. “That equates to approximately 25 cents on the tax rate. Anyone can make a mistake; it is when you do not learn from your mistakes and continue to make bad decisions that serious questions should be raised.”
Baker also talked about Beale and his role. “The mayor said he has big enough shoulders to carry the responsibility, but it is the senior citizens who will shoulder this 5-cent tax increase, it is the waitress making tip money and trying to support her children, it is every Roanoke Rapids citizen struggling to make ends meet that will carry this burden.
“One bad decision can be explained, but a pattern of bad choices would lead anyone to suspect that there are major problems with the decision-making process (if any) that led to these actions. The people that vote blindly to follow along with these irresponsible decisions should clearly explain themselves and be held accountable. We need leaders, not followers.”
Asked whether he has lost faith in the mayor, Baker said, “I've lost faith in all of them,” referring to the members of Council, except for Ed Liverman, who was appointed earlier in the year to replace Baird who resigned when Unicco was fired.
Baker said he takes responsibility for himself. “I do not try to excuse myself for originally voting for the theater, and will accept the blame for my actions. I will not take responsibility for actions that were taken without my vote, especially when I did everything possible to stop such actions.”
There is no easy solution to the problem, Baker said Friday. “Bank of America can't just come and take the theater and forfeit the bond. Our sales tax is pledged to pay that debt; you can't do that.
“The other is you try to work your way out. To do that is going to cause a great deal of pain. You have over half of your tax rate going to sustain the theater and operate the city on what's left.”
The other option is to sell the venue, “If you can get a serious buyer. There have been no serious offers. The offers we've had are akin to kicking tires. Offers made based on a lot of contingencies are not serious offers. There were a lot of strings attached and we've been down that road before.”
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