Up & Coming Weekly

STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Kirkpatrick editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Marybeth ???? Marybeth@upandcomingweekly.com Steve Rogers Steve@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Suzy Patterson suzy@upandcomingweekly.com –––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Renee Gibbs, Heather Griffi ths –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a “Quality of Life” publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what’s happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. INSIDE Dr. Henderson Steers Docks on the Rocks Internet Directory ............................ 12 Calendar ........................................... 14 Concert Connection ........................ 18 TV ..................................................... 20 Movie Review ..................................20 Movie Schedule ............................... 21 PUBLISHER’S PEN by MARK HACKLER Publisher’s Note: Wow! What at story! Mark Hackler is the former Operations Manager of Docks at the Capitol. For more than two years he has worked directly for Docks’ owner Dr. Melvin Henderson. When Mark spoke to me last week about the plight of hundreds of Docks’ former employees, I concluded that no one could tell this story to the Fayetteville community better than someone who was directly involved with it. So, I have yielded my Publisher’s Pen space to Mr. Hackler on behalf of his friends and the hundreds of victims. I feel their pain and so will you. There has been much speculation in recent days as to the circumstances surrounding the demise and closing of Docks at the Capitol in Downtown Fayetteville. I and most of the employees of Docks have remained silent throughout this ordeal in hopes of receiving weeks of past due wages that the company owes us. Unfortunately, the likelihood of receiving these wages has diminished greatly over the past few weeks so this silence is being lifted. I worked directly for Dr. Melvin Henderson, owner of Docks at the Capitol, for more than two years. I also am the person who organized the demonstration outside of the business last Friday with the intent of bringing public attention to the facts and truth about how poorly Henderson has treated his loyal employees and this community. To date, 55 employees have not been paid up to fi ve weeks of wages, unemployment benefi ts are being denied, payroll taxes and other garnishments were taken out of paychecks with no payments being made to the proper agencies and there has been a failure to accurately report outstanding wages to the Department of Labor. The list goes on. I know this is true because I was his chief operations offi cer and spent approximately 70 hours a week for two years working desperately to save the failing project. It’s been extremely diffi cult for me to read newspaper articles and watch television interviews where Henderson is blaming this atrocity on the bad management of others. This is simply not true. Henderson recently stated that “….. day-to-day operations were handled by management, including payroll.” This statement could not be further from the truth. Henderson was the only signer on the bank accounts and was in complete control when he abandoned his employees. This was his biggest offense of all. We (the management team) of Docks became aware of $250,000 in unpaid state taxes from 2007 after an audit in 2009 by the N.C. Department of Revenue. Henderson assured us at that time “….the taxes would be paid.” In September 2009 he hired a new Chief Financial Offi cer, Heather Rowe. Together, they did not submit the required reports to the Employment Security Commission, N.C. Department of Labor, N.C. Department of Revenue and IRS for the fourth quarter of 2009 or the fi rst two quarters of 2010. They also did not pay payroll and sales taxes to the IRS and the NCDOR for several months. In April, Docks hit the radar screen of every government agency that hadn’t received reports or money, and agency investigators began coming by daily requesting to speak to Henderson or his CFO. Again, Henderson, stating that “times were tough,” assured the staff that additional fi nancing was coming if we would just “keep hanging in there.” Soon after, Henderson wiped out the payroll account to pay for an appraisal needed to secure a $40,000 loan through a credit card processing company that took a percentage of every debit and credit sale as repayment. This supposedly would catch up the past due payroll and begin paying taxes. The loan was granted and the $40,000 was deposited into Docks’ operational account where it remained for only a few hours. Henderson and Rowe withdrew the money saying it would be deposited into another account held by Henderson so he could closely monitor the disbursements. The money was never seen by the employees or tax agencies and federal garnishment of Docks operational account began. Cash fl ow problems could no longer be concealed or ignored. Rowe initially resigned as CFO but was convinced by Henderson to return only to resign again a week later. The operation was 4 UCW AUGUST 4-10, 2010 in turmoil. With no money one might wonder how we remained open for an additional three months. Well, I was responsible for that. I believed in Dr. Henderson so I assembled a “dream team” of employees I’ve worked with in the past. These were “the best of the best” and they came on board and worked tirelessly 40-70 hours a week to help me save Henderson’s business. Again, I believed in Henderson and they believed in me. During this time the business improved, operational procedures were being followed, operating expenses were reduced and our customers were writing praises about the new staff and the great experience they had at Docks. In April, when all the fi nancial troubles were fi nally brought to light, it was this exceptional staff and myself that would wait for our delinquent payroll checks just to get the business through another tight week. Why did we do this? Because Henderson assured us that this situation was temporary and that additional fi nancing was on the way. On many Fridays I would actually pay for food and supplies out of my personal checking account and hope for a good weekend of sales so that I could be reimbursed. Eventually, the reimbursements stopped, the paychecks stopped and Henderson ran out of excuses. After fi ve weeks with no pay I informed Henderson that my journey with him was over. I left. He was then fl ooded with mass resignations which he tried to prevent by assuring those who remained they would be paid. The situation worsened. Former employees who fi led for unemployment benefi ts were denied because Henderson failed to report wages to the ESC. Finally, Henderson informed us that he would be paying as many checks as possible on Sunday, July 25. So, we went to Docks on that day and asked him if he was going to pay us. His response was “Excuse me for a moment.” He left to make a phone call and when he returned he said, “I’m going to have to ask everyone to leave and the police are on the way to ensure that you are off the property.” Truth! He actually put us out of the building. Hence, the employee demonstration we held last Friday. Henderson responded to the media with this statement, “I know these are families that are suffering from this situation and we are very concerned about that. Umm, I’m a little concerned about the way they’re going about trying to get some remedy but our intent is to take care of all of our obligations.” We would like to know how he would prefer 55 previous employees, and their families, to remedy the hardship he alone has created. These are the people who trusted him, were loyal to him and who defended him and “had his back” when no one else did. These were the people who turned Docks into a legitimate business that Henderson enjoyed for more than two years. These are the people who dedicated their lives to fulfi lling Henderson’s “dream” and these are the same people he deserted and disrespected when they dared bring his injustices to light. The greatest people I have ever had the pleasure and privilege of working with are now being treated like trespassing criminals just for wanting their past due wages. The respected doctor’s situation at Docks may be “breaking news” to the uninformed general public; however, we are the ones that know him best and we are the ones that know the truth. I can also assure you that the banks, credit card companies, the City of Fayetteville, Chamber of Commerce and anyone else close to Henderson or the Docks operation have long been aware of this situation. All of which may soon be having collective demonstrations of their own because I’m sure they have not been paid either. It is my only hope that when the truth fi nally comes out, and it will, that the hard work, dedication and sacrifi ces of the hundreds of employees, staff and managers be acknowledged for the good that they have done. The deception and demise of Docks at the Capitol was always in the hands of Henderson and him alone. With this acknowledgement of truth we will be vindicated. MARK HACKLER, Contributor. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Free Wheelin’ Feelin’ ....................... 22 News of the Weird ........................... 23 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 23 Classifieds ........................................ 24 Games .............................................. 26 Dining Guide .................................... 27

• Cover