Publicly funded groups should be held accountable all the time

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Among the news stories that gave me pause this week was the one about the Charlotte City Council voting to review how much money it is giving to four groups and whether the city is getting any bang for its — or, more accurately, the public’s — buck.

Council members want to know more about the city’s financial relationship with the Arts and Science Council, Center City Partners, Charlotte Regional Partnership and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

The council is taking a keen interest in how much it is giving to these groups, in part, it seems, because of worries about the large salaries being paid to top officials in the groups and whether they are even effective organizations.

It’s good that the council is reacting to those concerns by delving into how much in public dollars is going to the groups.

But the council should be holding groups that receive public money accountable all the time, not just when concerns arise about a group’s effectiveness or salaries being too high. Such performance reviews should not be prompted solely whenever the effectiveness of the groups is suddenly in question. Rather, they should take place regularly, on a set schedule throughout the year, to make sure public money is being spent wisely, just as good businesses conduct regular performance reviews of their employees.

“I don’t have an outcome in mind,” Councilman Michael Barnes said in a news story about the council’s vote Monday. “But it’s our job to look at the financial relationships. It may be that we determine they are performing as well as they can.”

Some might disagree with that last sentence, especially because of the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s abysmal performance, for example. The hall, which has been unable to meet attendance projections in its first year, has projected that it will lose $1 million to $1.3 million when the current fiscal year reaches the finish line next summer. Last month, officials with the publicly funded facility said attendance had only been around 170,000 in the six months since the venue opened, despite original projections of up to 800,000 visitors in the first year.

The CRVA manages the hall, which was closed on Thanksgiving, a move questioned by Councilman Andy Dulin, who called it “a huge miss.”

“There are 100,000 people that will be in downtown Charlotte for the parade on Thursday,” Dulin said the week of Thanksgiving, adding that with the right planning and marketing the CRVA could have made visiting the hall after the parade a tradition in Charlotte.

The four groups aren’t exactly getting pocket change from the public. CCP, for instance, is getting $2.7 million in fiscal 2011. The city is paying $146,053 in fiscal 2011 to be a member of the CRP, while the CRVA will get $2.9 million. The ASC, meanwhile, will get $2.8 million in fiscal 2011. Combined, that’s more than $8 million.

So, yes, it’s good that the council is paying attention to how millions in public funds are being spent, especially as the nation and city try to recover from a recession.

And since the council is not involved in the operations of those groups, it should be holding them accountable all the time.

Editor Deon Roberts can be reached at [email protected].