FOUNDATION SHOULD HAVE BYPASSED `OPPORTUNITY'

Governor Mel Carnahan named the Southeast Missouri University Foundation the new agent for the Missouri Department of Revenue fee offices in Cape Girardeau and Jackson. It replaces the chambers of commerce in Jackson and Cape Girardeau, operators of the offices the last dozen years.

Foundation and university officials see this move as positive for the university a way to generate additional revenue. It's true additional dollars will be funneled to the university, but at what cost? There's no way this money can offset the ill will it has triggered.

First let us say we are disappointed that Gov. Mel Carnahan took the fee offices from the chambers. The premise of many university officials is that the chambers would not be reappointed, so the foundation was the next best choice. To that we ask, why was the governor so bent on naming new agents?

It isn't because the state chamber endorsed Bill Webster. Other Missouri chambers of commerce retained their fee offices. The local chambers are not politically active.

It isn't because the local chambers have not done a good job. They have been admirable stewards of the offices, plowing proceeds back into economic development and community betterment.

We realize that historically these offices are sheer political patronage, but that hasn't been the case here for a dozen years. This governor, who is supposed to be for economic development, has snatched revenues for that purpose from both Cape Girardeau and Jackson. Mel Carnahan chose politics over community good.

But our disappointment does not end there.

The university and its foundation shrouded the process in secrecy. Regent Don Dickerson met with friend Carnahan in late May or early June to urge funding of the business building. The governor told Dickerson he had decided on a change for the fee offices, and the regent subsequently recommended the university foundation. Approval by the foundation and Board of Regents followed all in closed session.

Chamber members were left completely in the dark.

Executive Director Bob Foster said university and foundation officials did not feel at liberty to discuss the situation with chamber leaders since there was no certainty Carnahan would name the foundation as agent. As a past president of the chamber board of directors, we would have expected more of Foster. That is not the way people treat their friends.

And there's little doubt chamber members have been good friends and ample benefactors to the university foundation since its start. The foundation has grown quickly since its inception a decade ago. A recently completed capital campaign garnered $28.5 million in gifts and pledges. Last year alone, the foundation raised $4.46 million in cash and property. Its endowment now tops $7 million.

For a multi-million dollar foundation, $50,000 of extra income is paltry. Many individual contributors give well over that amount. The hard feelings generated by this incident may reduce foundation donations by that amount or more.

We have to wonder if the university went to bat for the chambers to retain the fee offices. When negotiations were under way, Regent Dickerson and local attorney John Grimm were telling chamber members not to contact the governor.

We also question the legality of the regent's closed session to vote on this matter. President Kala Stroup said the session was closed "to avoid the board being caught off guard." Just because you don't want to discuss something in public isn't legal reason enough to close the doors. The official reason given by Board of Regents Attorney Joe Russell potential contractual matters is lame, since there was no contract on the table. An attorney representing the Missouri Press Association feels the closed meeting did not meet the standards of the Missouri Sunshine Law and thus, was illegal. We agree.

The regent vote was not unanimous, which should have prompted the university to take a second look at the matter. Regents Mark Pelts and Ann Dombrowski rightly opposed the matter raising the issue of partisan politics. Ironically, had the regents discussed the issue openly many of these hard feelings with chamber members could have been avoided.

The university and local chambers of commerce have been partners in so many projects. Now every time a chamber member renews a license, they will be reminded of this unfortunate incident. If secrecy was the prerequisite, the university and its foundation should have bypassed this "opportunity."