By Scott Jenkins

Salisbury Post

EAST SPENCER — A former alderman who resigned after pleading guilty to taking secret payments from a company doing business with the town and failing to report the money as income is back in town business with an appointment to the planning board.

The Board of Aldermen voted 3-to-1 Monday to appoint Dr. Ronald Hash to a seat on the planning board. Carlton Ellis, who replaced Hash on the Board of Aldermen, opposed the appointment.

Hash was nominated for seats on two boards, planning and the town's fledgling Community Development Corp., but aldermen agreed to appoint him only to one body.

"I'd like to try to maybe get another citizen so he will not have so many positions," Alderman DeLoris High said. "I don't mind him serving, but I would at least like to have somebody else serve on one of these boards."

Hash pleaded guilty in June to failing to report on his 2001 federal income tax return $5,300 he received from Resource Management Services Inc.

Hash said he actually got the money from the Empowerment Network, a nonprofit agency that former East Spencer Mayor Kenneth Fox helped establish with Business Partners. The town contracted Business Partners and Resource Management to handle various services.

Fox, former alderman Chris Sharpe and Rick G. Slade, who owned Business Partners and Resource Management, pleaded guilty in 2005 to charges stemming from a corruption scandal involving kickbacks to town officials in exchange for contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Hash had been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, bribery and money laundering, but prosecutors dropped the felony charges in exchange for his guilty plea to the misdemeanor tax charge and his resignation from the town board.

After his plea, Hash maintained his innocence of all the charges and said he was only guilty of being ignorant of the law. He said the $5,300 was a loan to be repaid with his portion of a grant he wrote for the empowerment network, but the grant never came through and he didn't repay the loan.

Hash has not yet been sentenced.

Hash had served on the Board of Aldermen since 1999. Town Administrator Richard Hunter said Planning Board appointments are for three years.

Filling two open seats on the Planning Board with one vote, aldermen also appointed Stacie Watkins Maxwell.

After the meeting, Ellis, who replaced Hash on the town board, said he cast his vote against Hash. He declined to say why.

Alderman John Rustin Sr. abstained from voting.

"I have no problem with him serving, but I want to clear up all this ya ya," Rustin said. He said "ya ya" means unnecessary talk and agitation. "Every time I turn around, somebody's asking me something I can't answer."

Alderman John Noble III was absent from the meeting.

In other business, the board adopted a resolution supporting Salisbury's request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that Alcoa Power Generating Inc. mitigate the effects of sedimentation buildup on the Salisbury-Rowan Utilities water supply intakes on the Yadkin River.

Salisbury contends that High Rock Dam, the first in a series of reservoirs and dams in Alcoa's Yadkin hydroelectric project, causes sediment to back up into the river, blocking and damaging the intakes. Alcoa is seeking a new 50-year license to operate the project.

And the board appointed Mary Young, Faye Blackwell, Lewis Jeffries, Rashard Carter and Donnie Jones to the Community Development Corp. Board of Directors.