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 Good Government Must be Open Government
by Tom Campbell
October 18, 2007
This is a sad story about what can happen when the public’s business is conducted behind closed doors. Former NC Ferry Division head Jerry Gaskill lost his job, reputation and a court case. Several other Ferry Division employees admitted guilt to crimes and lost their jobs. The State of North Carolina will lose well over half a million dollars. But worst of all, Ferry Division supervisor Danny Noe lost his life.
Conclusive evidence now indicates that the state decided to initiate ferry service from the Currituck County mainland to Corolla, making a trip in minutes that can take an hour or more by car. The ferry was necessary, we were told, so that Currituck school children could shorten the time they spent on busses each day traveling back and forth to school. In actuality there were very few school children involved, with other options available, and there is more than a strong suggestion the ferry service was actually prompted by businesspeople who wanted to cut the time required to pay their maids, clerks, and other employees to make the lengthy trip so as to work in hotels, restaurants, and shops.
Without adequate discussion or research, and with strong urging from Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, who represents Currituck, the state entered into a contract to purchase a 50-foot ferry boat, at a cost to the state of over 0,000. Even though specifications called for the boat to be capable of operating in very shallow water, the completed boat couldn’t make it through the two-foot deep channel to Corolla. Ferry chief Gaskill wrote his boss, DOT Secretary Lyndo Tippett a memorandum, stating that a wider, deeper channel was needed. But that would involve a costly and lengthy process to secure necessary permits. Previous such applications for the dredging had been denied. Basnight wanted the project completed.
Mysteriously, three DOT workboats “got stuck while marking the channel,” and had to “kick” a channel with their propellers in order to get clear of the shallow water. The result was a 700 foot long, 30 foot wide path that was 5 or 6 feet deep. When the N.C. Division of Coastal Management found out what was done they issued a citation of violation to DOT, who, of course, claimed they knew nothing about “kicking” the channel but were required, nonetheless, to fill it back to its original depth. Federal and state authorities conducted a raid on Ferry Division offices in 2004. We still don’t know exactly what they learned from documents they seized.
We do know that Danny Noe, the supervisor in charge of ordering the boat, died mysteriously in April 2005. The Carteret County Sheriff ruled it a suicide, but his family claims that Noe was murdered. He was reportedly found with his hands tied behind his back and a bag over his head.
The ferry service was never initiated because the boat couldn’t navigate the shallow water and the boat has remained at a dock in Manns Harbor for almost three years. An attempt to sell it on E-Bay didn’t even draw the minimum bid. Nobody wants this white elephant.
Many think this story is closed and should be forgotten, but we repeat it because the lessons gained from it are important. The costly reality of this saga is that the loss of a life, loss of careers, or costs of so much money would never have occurred had the entire transaction been conducted in the open, with sufficient input from the public and experts. All of us must insist that our leaders remember the Currituck Ferry and the lessons learned from this tragedy. Good government must be open government.
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