Chamber Director Don Cason Resigns

The Director of Jefferson County’s Chamber of Commerce, Don Cason, has announced his resignation from his position at both the Chamber of Commerce and EDOC, who share administrative employees. According to information provided Thursday by the Chamber of Commerce, Cason’s last day will be July 3, 2014.

Jefferson County Mayor Palmieri stated that he was not informed of Cason’s decision until shortly before it was publicly released in a local print paper. It is unclear what, if any, impact Cason’s departure will have on the budgeting cycle for the next fiscal year. The Chamber of Commerce has requested $155,000 and EDOC $180,000 in allocations from the County. Hotel/Motel tax in the County, which is estimated to bring in around $220,000 in the next fiscal year, has historically been assigned to economic development via the Chamber of Commerce, with the remainder of funds coming from property tax. Cason is listed as the requesting agent for both the Chamber of Commerce and EDOC on allocation request forms that are presented to the budget committee in the funding process. Jefferson County Finance Director Helton stated that, as the Financial Officer for EDOC, he was informed by Cason on Wednesday of his plan to publicly announce his resignation. Helton stated that EDOC will be finalizing their budget at their June 20th meeting and that Cason will still be serving the Chamber and EDOC at that time. He said that Cason has primary responsibility for fiscal planning for both the Chamber of Commerce and EDOC and, while his exodus could bring some changes to the budgeting process, Helton speculated that the changes would not be that significant. Though EDOC and the Chamber of Commerce both contribute to Cason’s salary, Helton is unclear if EDOC will play a significant role in choosing Cason’s predecessor and denied that there is a short list of possible candidates already compiled.

Cason’s announcement came in the throws of one of the Chamber’s most significant events, the Bass Pro tournament. A little more than one calendar year ago, a defunct megasite project and the resignation of the Chairman of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce put a bright spotlight on alleged transparency issues within the Chamber of Commerce and EDOC. Currently, a citizen driven law suit regarding transparency and open records issues has been filed against the Chamber of Commerce and EDOC, as well as Jefferson County Commission. Attorney Scott Hurley is representing the citizen’s group and represented a large group of property owners that opposed the location of the proposed megasite.

Scott Hurley stated:

“The resignation of Mr. Cason will not have an impact on the lawsuit that is pending in Jefferson County over open records and open meetings for EDOC and the Chamber of Commerce. The citizens who filed that case continue to believe that secret deals and secret spending of taxpayer money is bad business, and bad government.

Mr. Cason will remain a defendant, as he was an officer of EDOC and the Chamber at the time the megasite plan was conceived. While my clients have very different views from those of Mr. Cason regarding economic development in Jefferson County, they certainly wish him well in his new endeavor in North Carolina.”

The request for an official statement was forwarded to Cason via the Chamber office, however no response was received as of the time of press.