CCTA AUGUST WATCHDOG REPORT

16 August 2011

CCTA WATCHDOG REPORT


The Craven County Board of Commissioners continued the practice of using CDBG to purchase land in James City with county funds. It then plans to sell the property at minimal cost to a non-profit organization that, through covenants conditions contained in the deed will be required to bring the dwelling up to code and make it available as a low-moderate income (LMI) family dwelling.

The county takes a great risk with taxpayer money, in that if a person who receives a free house by CDBGs is not able to meet the property tax liability and if the county forecloses in order to collect the taxes and then buys the property at auction in order to re-sell it the chance are in today’s market that the property will not bring in enough to cover the outstanding mortgage. So far the difference has been “forgiven” but this practice may not continue as state and federal budgets tighten. We hope not so maybe the County will have to stop the practice of throwing away federal or state taxpayer’s money as long as it does not cost the County anything.

The Commissioners approved a request from the Health director to add two staff members to expand Adult Primary Care to cover people who make more than twice the federal poverty level and don’t have insurance. Why should the taxpayer pay for those who choose not to take care of themselves? Well, the rational the Board used was that if not treated at the clinic, they will show up at the emergency room and get service that they can’t pay for and therefore, those with insurance or can pay will see their costs go up. Is it a given that these people have to get free health care? Or is it a given that if the federal or state government or insurance companies will pay for it that the County will not turn it down? The salaries of these two new staff members will be paid for by someone other than the county for the short term, but what about the long term? Commissioner Mark asked this question and what we heard was that the Health Director thinks they can cover the salaries indefinitely. Time will tell. The Health Director promised to come back in about a year and let the Board know how it is working out. All 7 Commissioners voted to approve this move.


At the last evening board of Commissioner’s meeting I petitioned against both these proposals and complained about the 4-day boondoggle that Commissioners Sampson and McCabe took to the west coast at the National Association of Counties. I was surprised that no member of the Board supported me in the complaint about the two board members even though it was obvious from previous Board meeting that some members took a pass on the boondoggle to save the taxpayers some money. Nancy Murdoch wrote a letter to the editor of the sun Journal on behalf of CCTA taking the two Board members to task for this, it appeared on Sunday, Aug 14, 2011.

Tyker Gonzales is really concerned about President Obama appointing a Czar (his eighty something one) to connect his administration to “Rural America.” That includes about 16% of Americans. Why does he think that federal government needs to reach its tentacles down through the state and counties to reach American families directly? He has told every agency in the federal government to support this Czar including the Treasurer and the Secretary of Defense. Weird!


Raynor and I attended The Commissioners “Retreat” or “Work Session.” I never was really clear on what they called it, but it was very informative. Some of the subjects were:

1) The Convention Center- Several options were carefully considered to correct the problems caused by the settlement of the building into the silt. The Board has asked the staff to continue to work on an option that will cost the least and will not be a permanent solution to this problem but will allow for the continued use of the facility and therefore, generate some income while the process of repair goes forward and, who knows, could fix the problem for a goodly number of years. It seems like a good direction to go to me. I have a degree in Civil Engineering and while I am no means an expert on such structures the discussion seemed well founded in engineering principals. Commissioner Tyson was especially helpful in this dialog.

2) The Board spent considerable time and effort to plan for a celebration of the County’s 300th birthday. Some of the suggestions were:

a. Cook up the world’s largest hotdog. Try for a Guinness world record.
b. Bury a “time Capsule.”
c. Develop a scrapbook and displays.
d. Display a timeline of County history.
e. Work with the History Museum on an exhibit to highlight the County’s history.
f. Highlight each city, town, and community in the County’s history.

Gwendolyn M. Bryan, Clerk to the Board of Commissioners will be the Chairperson of a committee to plan and execute this celebration.

3) Property value re-evaluations- This subject generated a great deal of discussion. Everyone, Commissioners and staff, seemed to agree that the County should not wait 8 more years to have a re-evaluation. Several board members cited complaints that citizens did not believe the last one was done fairly. They also expressed concerns that in this market of rapidly falling property values, the citizens will not be taxed fairly because the changes in property values have been different for expensive properties and more modest properties with the most expensive ones taking the worst hits. Commissioner Tyson was very insightful in this discussion. He observed that some more modest properties have actually increased in value as buyers were more likely to seek lower priced housing while waterfront and other prime properties have dropped in valued dramatically as fewer people are willing to buy them and lending institutions are more reluctant to finance them. One of the staff members pointed out that if the property values are lowered across the board, the tax rate would have to be increased. Does it never occur to some people that maybe cuts should be made in the budget and taxes simply lowered?


4) Water rates- Careful study was given this subject. There was consensus that rates should discourage the use of more water than 9,000 gal per month. So the Board is considering a scaled rate structure that will increase the costs for those customers who consume more than that. I don’t like the idea of soaking the wealthy again so that less fortunate citizens have an easier ride, but that is obviously going to happen. Some money will have to be raised to provide for switching to another aquifer and treating the water, as it will not be as pure as the present source. There is also a storage facility that must be built. The increased charges proposed seemed modest to me in light of all that.

5) Drawing district lines within Craven County for Commissioners-The districts are supposed to be drawn to have each one contain about the same number of citizens. That would be about 14,300 or so for each one now. District 1- Tom Mark has 17,300, District 2-Jeff Taylor has 18,200, District 3-Johnnie Sampson has 21,800, District 4-Scott Dacey has 14,000, District 5-Theron McCabe has 10,000, District 6-Lee K. Allen has 11,000, and District 7 Steve Tyson has 21,800. So you can see adjustments will likely be made. The Board authorized the staff to move forward with a proposal by Marshall Hurley PLLC, Attorney, to act as consultant for the county on re-drawing the districts.

County Manager, Howard Blizzard, distributed copies of the Commissioners Bylaws (I got a copy) and said that the following subjects would be taken up after Commissioners have had time to review them:


1) Commissioner’s Travel
2) Appoints (term limits, procedures revisited)
3) Agenda Preparation and Adoption (deadlines, requests for proclamations/resolutions)
4) Protocol for engaging County Attorney (associated cost)

Please attend the sessions if you can. (And wear your CCTA Badge!)

What’s Ahead?

We should continue to keep up with the activities of our Board of Commissioners. They need our support to have anything like a conservative direction in philosophy of government. Our new representatives to the North Carolina General Assembly have done an excellent job and likewise need our support, but we can trust that they will continue to take the state in a more conservative direction. Some good legislation that passed this last session are:

1) Removed cap on the number of charter schools.
2) Tort Reform for Business and Citizens. Protects against frivolous lawsuits.
3) Annexation Reform Laws.
4) Amended Environmental Laws.
5) Repealed Land Transfer Tax.
6) A business exemption for the first $50,000 in business income.
7) Medical malpractice reform.
8) Regulatory reform. Simplifies some confusing and outdated regulations. Coordinates the regulations of different state agencies.

Several of these new laws required a veto override to become law.

However, the federal government is another story. We need to ride herd on our elected representative to Washington. So I took several issues that we at CCTA are concerned about due to our conservative philosophy of government and researched how the three elected representatives from our area have done at to supporting the conservative view on them. Here are my conclusions:


1) Right to Bear Arms- All three have done well on this one.
2) The Food Safety Act- Burr and Hagan voted for it and Jones did not.
3) Increase the Debt Limit-Burr and Hagen voted yes, Jones no.
4) The Balanced Budget Amendment- Burr and Hagan against it. Jones for it.
5) Repealing Obama Care- Burr and Jones yes, Hagan no.

We need to make our voices heard by all three of these elected representatives.

The Congressional Super Committee (unconstitutional) is shaped in favor of the left (only 1 strong conservative has been appointed). We are approaching the end of the government’s fiscal year, still without a budget.

Americans for Prosperity is sponsoring a bus trip from New Bern to Washington on 4 & 5 Nov 2011. It’s called Defending the Dream Summit. The program hasn’t been set but last year’s speakers included Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, and George Will. Nancy and Don attended and said it was fantastic. I believe we can get a group rate if we have a group of from 6 to 10. Let’s try to get 2 groups. Raynor and I, Nancy and Don plan to go. Let us know if you can go. I’ve attached the information I have on it.


Hal James
CCTA Watchdog and Issues Committees Chairman