Asheville News

WRAL: Asheville ABC Board CEO got $21,000 raise this year

Jason Sandford December 11, 2009

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Here’s the story:

Raleigh, N.C. — Across the state, ABC liquor stores have a wide range of employee salaries and policies. That’s because the state ABC commissioner has little say in how business is done, even though liquor sales are government-controlled in North Carolina.

“We don’t have any operational control over them at all,” said Jon Williams, N.C. ABC Commission Chairman.

Each store is controlled by a local board.

“Those 163 local boards are individual government offices,” Williams said.

Case in point, the highest ABC board salary belongs to the administrator in New Hanover County. He makes $214,000 a year with a $30,000 bonus, even though Mecklenburg County does triple the sales. In Asheville, the CEO received a $21,000 raise this year.

One reason is that job responsibilities may be different from place to place. State officials said they aren’t sure, because no one tracks the information. At the direction of Gov. Bev Perdue, the state commission asked local ABC stores to submit salary and policy information.

The chief executive officer for the Asheville ABC Board is Curtis Canty. Here’s the full list of staffers. Former Mayor Charles Worley is the chairman of the local organization’s board of directors. See the full list of directors here.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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5 Comments

Jan December 15, 2009

And yet Teachers get laid off while bums like this this guy get huge raises to run a handful of simple liquor stores. I bet we could get Fred Sanford (if he were still alive, god rest his soul) to do it for a 1/10th of the salary.

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sonsofliberty December 14, 2009

Nice — sales up 10% but how much did Camby pay for that little piece of property out highway 74 in Fairview that they can’t use?

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Deborah December 13, 2009

Whoa!
Nice to know NC has that kind of money and that the local refreshing beverage business is apparently booming.
Assuming the raise is tied to performance and productivity.

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ThePhan December 12, 2009

Just another reason why the government should not be in the business of retailing alcoholic beverages. This is a perfect example of why this should be left to the private sector.

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Loyal Reader December 12, 2009

CITIZEN-TIMES.com: ABC board plans new Leicester-area… 2/4/2007

Gross sales in Asheville last year totaled about $18 million, an increase of 10 percent over the previous year, Canty said.

CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Council reappoints ABC overseers…11/24/2004

New general manager Curtis Canty has already corrected many of the problems since taking the job in August, Bellamy said

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