EAST SPENCER — A tie-breaking vote by Mayor Kenneth Fox maintained East Spencer’s working agreement with Business Partners USA Monday night.

With the 4-3 decision, East Spencer continues its experiment with privatization, although town officials have taken back administrative and zoning duties. Business Partners USA remains responsible for water-sewer, street maintenance, sanitation and recreation duties through June 30, when its contract again comes up for renewal.

(The East Spencer Police Department has always remained under the town’s control.)

“I think this is a sound decision for the remainder of the year,” said Town Attorney Eric Ellison, recommending that the East Spencer Board of Aldermen sign an independent contractor agreement and lease agreements with Business Partners USA Monday night.

Fox and Aldermen Chris Sharpe, Deloris High and Jerry Miller voted for the agreements. Mayor Pro Tem Ronald Hash and Aldermen Don Caldwell and John G. Noble voted against it.

When the aldermen tied, Fox cast the deciding vote.

“We had to fine-tune it,” Sharpe acknowledged of the town’s contract with Business Partners USA and the recent weeks of negotiations. “I think it’s fine-tuned.”

The agreement allows for “checks and balances,” Sharpe added. It will require Business Partners USA to meet with committee chairmen the third Friday of every month to report on work that’s going on.

Business Partners also will make a report at the regular monthly meetings of the Board of Aldermen.

Deloris High said after Monday’s meeting she is happy with the contract and the work Business Partners USA has done for East Spencer.

“The town is in better (financial) shape now than when I first came on the board,” High added.

Business Partners’ total contract costs the town $235,999.92 a year, as agreed on by the town board Monday night. It includes $11,666.66 monthly for general services (the street and water-sewer departments), $6,833.33 monthly for sanitation-maintenance and $1,166.67 a month for recreation.

Noble has opposed privatization since the town handed over supervision of its daily operations to the Winston-Salem firm in February. His views haven’t changed.

“I don’t feel like the citizens of East Spencer are getting the service they deserve for what we’re paying Business Partners,” Noble said after the vote. He added that the town could save money by taking back total control of its operations.

“I’ve said that from the beginning,” Noble said.

Hash, who originally supported hiring Business Partners USA in February, agreed the town could “save more money by doing it ourselves.”

“I gave it a try,” Hash said, adding that he thought the private firm did the best it could. Hash estimated that the town could save about $100,000 and have better control if it returned to overseeing all operations.

His vote to end the contract “wasn’t anything against Business Partners,” Hash said.

Caldwell had serious reservations about how state Powell Bill monies for street maintenance would be allocated through Business Partners. He said the town needs total control of Powell Bill funds.

Sharpe and Fox told Caldwell that town officials would still decide what streets to pave and Business Partners will document how Powell Bill funds are spent, as the town had done in the past.

Caldwell especially had questions on whether Powell Bill funds would pay for Business Partners’ salaries.

“I say you’ve got a nightmare right there,” Caldwell predicted.

Caldwell also questioned why the town couldn’t do its own garbage collection.

“We would save a lot of money if we did our own trash,” he said.

Before the vote, Caldwell said he couldn’t accept the contract as it was written, “not with these numbers.”

In taking back the administrative and zoning duties, the town clerk and office employees return to the town payroll. In all, the office has two full-time positions and a part-time person. Town Clerk Gwendolyn Crump is out on maternity leave.