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In 2012, Ike Belk, a scion of the prominent Charlotte department store family, and David Koerner founded the Charlotte-based United States Performance Center. The for-profit company’s website says it takes “a science-based approach to create innovative and highly specialized training programs.”

The center has attracted athletes from at least 15 U.S. Olympic sports to train or hold events. But Belk and Koerner have a bigger dream: bringing the Olympics to the Carolinas.

They’ve gotten some North Carolina legislators to buy-in, with a $25 million allocation of public funds “for capital needs” to the center in 2021 and another $30 million to a nonprofit Belk founded in two years later. 

While the state money was supposed to fund capital needs, only about $10.2 million has paid for construction of sports facilities and equipment. As Ren Larson reports, the rest was spent on other purposes, including $9.8 million to USPC for its consulting services and $2.9 million to salaries and benefits.

North Carolina’s $55 Million Olympic Dream

Top legislators quietly allocated large state grants to attract Olympic organizations to the Charlotte area. No governing body has relocated, but the organizers and consultants have received millions in fees.

“None of these funds received had a proper hearing and vetting, and questions answered that should have been answered,” said former state Rep. Charles Graham. “That’s very, very unfortunate that the General Assembly leadership would allow that huge amount of money to go forward without a hearing.”

Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.

Back in the News

The North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings has been paying one of its judges to rent office space in downtown Winston-Salem, the News & Observer reported last week. 

The state office entered into a lease agreement with a company owned by Administrative Law Judge Jonathan Dills after abruptly losing space it had at the Guilford County courthouse in High Point, the paper reported. The state is paying a little under $5,000 a year. 

The Office of Administrative Hearings is an independent and nonpartisan agency that handles disputes between residents and state agencies, challenges to environmental penalties, and other issues. It has four satellite offices.

As we wrote two years ago, Chief Justice Paul Newby’s appointment of Donald van der Vaart as the office’s leader was controversial. Critics have claimed that van der Vaart, a Republican who served as environmental secretary under Gov. Pat McCrory, has used his position to push the state agency into a partisan direction. 

Michael Hewlett has more in this week’s courts newsletter.

What We’re Reading

Disorder in the Court: Bloomberg Law reports that a split between the White House and Sen. Thom Tillis over judicial nominees could become a problem in Greensboro, where a federal trial court is about to lose half its bench to retirement.

The VoIP of God: The N&O takes us inside Raleigh-based Bandwidth, an IT company known for its “evangelical tenets around faith and family.”

Hanging With Mr. Cooper: Gov. Roy Cooper talked to Politico about why he didn’t want to be in the running to serve as Kamala Harris’ running mate and why he thinks she can win North Carolina.

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