week of 4/24/02
 
 
 


Media plays into Stakeholder debate
By Don Hendershot
Tuckasegee Stakeholders spent part of its April 18 meeting discussing media issues that arose after stories regarding Duke Power’s trial balloon proposal for removing all or part of the Dillsboro Dam appeared in the Smoky Mountain News, the Sylva Herald and WLOS news reports.

The dam removal was one of several topics proposed under eight general areas: recreation facilities, public information, lake levels, minimum flow and bypass flow, angling and recreational flow, resource enhancement project, shoreline protection and cultural resources. The Stakeholders Team was formed by Duke as part of its federal relicensing of its hydroelectric power plants in Western North Carolina.

Some members of the stakeholders team feared the media coverage could jeopardize the team’s mission to “develop a set of consensus recommendations that will provide enhancement of the Tuckasegee River, its tributaries, Duke Power reservoirs and the related natural resources of the basin.”

There was a lot of concern expressed about “negotiating” in the media.

“Swain County is not interested in negotiating in the media. We would lose the reason this group was formed,” said Jason Walls, who made it known at the April meeting that he would be leaving his job as economic director of Swain County to take a position at Duke Power in June. He said if stakeholders weren’t cautious, the emphasis could shift to “who can get stories in the paper the fastest.”

Lake Glenville stakeholder Carol Adams suggested giving guidelines to the press.

Chris Goudreaux, of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said the Tuck stakeholders began as a parallel process to the traditional relicensing protocol.

“This was an attempt to see if we as a group could take the decision-making power from FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). We want to make something positive in consensus mode. If you don’t feel, if you’re not committed to arriving at consensus on all issues, perhaps you should not be a part of this group,” Goudreaux said.

Other stakeholders had a different take on the role of the media.

“Public information is critical for us in the Western North Carolina Alliance,” said Roger Turner.

Turner said the media had perceived the stakeholders’ preparation, organizational and logistical work over the past 18 months as a “classroom exercise.” Now that there is a trial balloon and discussions have started in earnest, “The ball game has changed,” he said.

“We don’t want to debate issues through the media. We don’t want to lose what we’re able to do here. But there has to be media involvement. These are not closed-door meetings. We have to figure out how to make that work,” said Steve Smutko of the Natural Resources Leadership Institute and facilitator for the Tuck stakeholders team.

According to the team’s charter, members of the press are welcome to attend meetings and summaries of the meetings are available to the press upon request.

“I don’t want us to lose track of a lot of the more important things this team can do. We can come to consensus and help the relicensing process,” Jeff Lineberger of Duke Power said.

He told the group that if all trial balloon topics were dealt with like the Dillsboro Dam issue, “you won’t see a lot of trial balloons from Duke.”

Doug Odell, a stakeholder representing Lake Glenville Homeowners, welcomed media coverage.

“I feel Duke has done their job. We have the ability for the press to be here. Most of the community think relicensing was completed about a year ago,” Odell said.

“The more restrictive we are with information, the more problems we create,” said new stakeholders Bill Kane of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation.

“How can we negotiate in the press? Who would we be negotiating with? The people making the decisions are in this room,” Kane said.

Stakeholders reached consensus on the media issue and slightly amended their charter. Members are free to discuss their interests and interests of their constituents with the media. Members are prohibited from addressing specific positions held by other team members or negatively characterizing other members or other members’ interests.

The team also agreed to a 20-minute public comment period at the beginning of scheduled meetings. The purpose of the comment period is to hear from members of the public who lack representation in the stakeholders group. The team will hear comments, and there will be no discussion of comments during that day’s meeting.

The next Tuckasegee Stakeholders meeting will be May 16 at the old NP&L building in Franklin.