Grassroots of Tarboro

At the March town council meeting, an issue was raised regarding a possible "conflict of interest" in hiring councilman John Jenkins son's firm, Circumerro Creative,  to re-design and develop the town’s Web site.

According to  Mike Blough, the town’s attorney, it’s not a conflict because John Jenkins has no financial interest in his son’s firm headquartered in Wyoming.  

Ok, so maybe legally it is not a conflict of interest, but COME ON, do the town officials really think the people are that naive?  We're talking about a $60,000 contract!  $60,000 is more than the median yearly income in Tarboro  ($48,187) and I can tell you without much worry of being wrong that the majority of the people in Tarboro would see it as a conflict of interest and as a betrayal of trust. 

According to Wikipedia:  A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust,  has competing professional or personal interests. Such competing interests can make it difficult to fulfill his or her duties impartially. A conflict of interest exists even if no unethical or improper act results from it. A conflict of interest can create an appearance of impropriety that can undermine confidence in the person, profession, or court system.  A conflict of interest arises when anyone has two duties which conflict - for example an employee's duty to well and faithfully perform their work as purchasing manager, and that same employee's familial duty to their sibling who happens to be tendering for the sale of widgets to the employee's employer. In that case the employee has a conflict of interest.

Circumerro may indeed be the best choice to do the job, but to be the best out of only 3 proposals submitted still implies a level of inappropriate favoritism.  Why were only 3 proposals submitted?  How did the town let it be known that they were seeking proposals?  We know that Market Force was aware because they are connected to Electri-Cities (as is Sam Noble),  and that Latham Jenkins' Circumcerro had the inside scoop from his family connection, the 3rd group, Regency Interactive Corporation, from Rocky Mount, read about Market Force's proposal and presentation in the local paper. I just happen to have a copy of the proposal that Regency submitted to Sam Noble.  The total price for their proposal is $32,500.

I personally, don't think Tarboro is ready to hire ANY company to "re-develop" the town website, and if you've been reading my blog you already know that, BUT if they are going to legitimately seek out internet development and marketing proposals they need to do more than announce it at a town meeting and make their decision from 3 proposals.  They need to seek out other small towns with great examples of promotional websites, research the results that the towns have experienced from those websites and ask for proposals from the creators of those sites.  It would be nice if we could keep that money in Edgecombe County. If  that's not possible, try to keep it in North Carolina.   It doesn't take a genius to know this. 

If we (I'm referring to WE, the people of Tarboro, WE the people who elected THEM to represent US) are going to spend $30,000 to $60,000 for a website, I think it may be appropriate to spend some time and get a larger selection of candidates to choose from, especially since one of the candidates up for selection creates an apparent CONFLICT OF INTEREST.