ADDITION OF SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN TO WATCH DOG COMMITTEE
I am very pleased to announce the expansion of the Watchdog Committee-
SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRS-
- Federal Government Watchdog- Lynn Childs
- State Government Watchdog- Raynor James
- Craven County Government Watchdogs- Hal will continue with support of several members in attending the meetings of the BOC.
- Farm and industry concerns- Tyker Gonzales
- Craven County School Board- Heather Puchalski, Chairman--Committee Members: Ann Tipple and Randy Siler
- Craven County Sheriff's Department- Chip Hughes, Chairman--Committee Member: Joe Albanese
- New Bern Board of Aldermen- NEED A VOLUNTEER
- Havelock City Board of Commissioners- Nancy Murdoch
- Trent Woods Town Board of Commissioners-Eddella Johnson
- River Bend Board of Commissioners- Ann Tipple
Swearing in Ceremony for Senator Norman Sanderson and Representative Michael Speciale- 6 January 2013
This was a special day for CCTA. Celebrating the election of two of our number to the North Carolina Legislature! A huge crowd was there for the occasion, but the thrill for me was the camaraderie shown by our CCTA family. Smiles, hugs, even a little dancing. It was wonderful!
NOW, as much as we love them, we need to hold their feet to the fire. We expect big changes in North Carolina and there are no excuses now for not making them happen.
Prayer at Craven County Board of Commissioners Meetings-
- Prayer at the Board Meetings- At the 7 January 2012 Board meeting, Commissioner Sampson said the invocation and ended it with invoking Jesus' name. Two citizens, Lynda Johnson and Ray Griffin petitioned the board to thank them and ask them to continue this practice in spite of the ACLU's threats. Both their petitions were met with applause. We appreciate the delicacy of this situation, but we also applaud the board's wishes to remain true to our Judeo-Christian heritage.
- Jerry Schill, Christian Coalition and Christian Religious Services, has also thanked the Board.
Transparency in Government-
Seems to be getting worse, not better.
COMMISSIONER DACEY AT HIS LISTENING SESSION SAID HE INTENDS TO GET TO IT, BUT HAS BEEN VERY BUSY. LET'S TRY TO BE PATIENT A LITTLE LONGER.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANTS
FY10 Community Development Block Grant Closeout- A "Closeout Public Hearing" will be held on 22 Jan 13 at 8:30 am. The stated purpose of the hearing is to review the budget and activities that have been accomplished through the County's FY10 CDBC Contingency Program. I hope to learn more about what they did and why we need to continue to spend taxpayer money on such programs. I wish such public hearings were set for evening meetings so that more citizens might attend.
Budget amendments-
1) SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENED AT THE 7 JANUARY 2013 MEETING OF THE BOARD! Assistant County Manager for Finance, Rick Hemphill, asked for another $514,800 (if I added it up correctly) to be added to the budget. One of the itemized amendments was $363,194 for "DSS Mandated Services." DSS stands for Department of Social Services (the fastest growing portion of the budget). $101,839 for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program.
For whom? What are the "qualifiers"? Exactly how is the money to be spent?
- $230,549 for Crisis Intervention Program- What crisis? Exactly what circumstances? Whom will it help? Exactly what are the "qualifiers"? What will the money be spent on?
- $30,815 for administration. Well we know how that will be spent. Salaries and benefits for employees.
Low and behold! Commissioner Dacey asked for an explanation of the term "mandated." By whom and in what amounts? Mr. Hemphill said he did not know. It was just a name the Department Head had given the budget item! (Do you detect a snow job on the part of the department head?) At this point Commissioner Taylor asked who would be hurt and in what way if the funds were not budgeted? Again, Mr. Hemphill could not answer. Commissioner Taylor then asked if the County did not budget the item if the money would be sent back to the federal government (who, by the way, would be paying 100% of the money, no County match required, but it is taxpayers' money). This time Mr. Hemphill had an answer. He said it would be sent back to the State since the State acted as a conduit for these federal funds. County Manager, Jack Veit, came to Rick Hemphill's rescue and said the Finance Officer should not be expected to know the "nitty gritty" of these programs and suggested that the Director of the Department of Social Services be consulted. Whereupon a motion was passed to table consideration of the DSS portion of these budget amendments until such time as the Director of DSS could be present. TO MY KNOWLEDGE THIS IS ONLY THE SECOND TIME THE BOARD HAS CONSIDERED NOT ACCEPTING FEDERAL FUNDS CART BLANC. The first time (last month) also involved DSS, but the amount was small, only just over $18,000. At that time, the Director of DSS was also consulted and the money granted at the subsequent Board meeting.
AT HIS LISTENING SESSION, COMMISSIONER DACEY ASKED OUR ASSISTANCE IN MOBILIZING OTHER MEMBERS OF OTHER COUNTIES AND OTHER JURISDICTION'S TO RESIST BEING THE CONDUIT FOR WASTE OF FEDERAL TAXPAYERS DOLLARS. (Scott feels that many counties sending back the same sort of money would make a much larger impact than just Craven County's doing it alone.)
I HAVE ASKED OUR TEA PARTY CHAIRMAN, LYNN CHILDS, TO MOBILIZE OTHER TEA PARTY GROUPS AND ANY ACTIVE CONSERVATIVE GROUPS WE KNOW OF TO HELP IN THIS EFFORT! They are very apt to know which Commissioners in their areas will be willing to work with Scott.
2) Important issues (involving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars) taken up in Budget Amendment requests without proper staff explanation of the changes requested-
COMMISSIONER DACEY ASKED ME TO FIND MORE EXAMPLES IN PAST MINUTES OF THE BOARD AND I TOLD HIM I WOULD!
Tall Structure Ordinance and Contract-
No word on this effort to prevent structures high enough to restrict flight patterns being built. This is one of the many efforts on the part of the County to keep Cherry Point active! It is also supportive of our local airport.
Promise Place-
Another very interesting happenstance. As many of you know,
Raynor volunteered to serve on the Board of this organization after some urging to get conservatives on the various public boards. This group has a policy of vetting new board members in a 3-month or so trial period on their board. They obviously want to make sure they are progressive enough to suit their tastes. Well, after only one meeting of listening to "governmentize" and liberal espousements about how to get more taxpayer dollar's from the State and local government, Raynor declined. I don't think that was the end of the story. Apparently, the Board of Promise Place objected to a name even being placed in nomination for their board without their advance approval. At this Board of Commissioners meeting the question was raised as to why Promise Place thought they had that privilege when other organizations accepted the Board of Commissioners appointment to their boards. Commissioner Mark asked which by-laws were to be followed, Promise Place's or the Board of Commissioner's. He pointed out that this organization was now officially a "non-profit" and no longer State related and sought taxpayer support. The matter was referred to the county attorney for study and a report.
I WANT TO SAY THAT I HAVE NO PROOF THAT THIS IS EXACTLY HOW IT HAPPENED, BUT IT IS WHAT I SUSPECT, AND IT IS VERY LOGICALLY AN OUTGROWTH OF RAYNOR'S NAME BEING PLACED BY THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS TO SERVE ON PROMISE PLACES' BOARD. Needless to say, I'll be very interested in the lawyer's report. County Manager Jack Veit also suggested a work session on Promise Place in February or March.
Craven County Hospice Hospital-
December 3, 2012 - The Craven County board of Commissioners authorized spending $21,500 for Keystone Planning Group to provide Certificate of Need Strategy and Development study. SOMEONE
PLEASE TELL ME AGAIN WHY MONEY SHOULD BE TAKEN FROM CITIZENS TO BENEFIT ONLY A FEW CITIZENS. WE DID NOT GRANT THE GOVERNMENT THE POWER TO DO THAT BECAUSE THAT POWER HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN TO US. In fact, God said "Do Not Steal."
Hospice Study - There is a "work Session" of the Board of Commissioners scheduled for 22 Jan 13 after the scheduled BOC meeting which starts at 8:30 am to study this proposal. I hope we can have several members attend. UNFORTUNATE THAT IT IS A MORNING SESSION.
Municipal Planning Organization-
There is no municipality within Craven County with over $50,000 population. That is why New Bern planners are trying so hard to put together a consortium! The proposal put to the Craven County Board of Commissioners in December was on New Bern City letterhead and titled "New Bern MPO ( NBMPO). Their presentation showed that they had to have The City of New Bern, Town of River Bend, Town of Trent Woods, Town of Bridgeton, and 14,947 from the rest of Craven County, a total of 50,503 to make up the proposed MPO.
Pray tell, what are we to call that "municapality"???
CRAVEN COUNTY DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A PART OF THIS BOONDOGGLE! It will only add more layers of government bureaucracy, staff and overhead. It has the potential of upsetting the existing structure of the Down East RPO.
WE DON'T KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT IT, BUT IT REEKS OF "AGENDA 21"! COMMISSIONER DACEY AGREED THAT MORE INFORMATION IS NEEDED.
It smells of another case of throwing taxpayer money willey nilley,
OR WORSE, IF IT'S Agenda 21 related as I suspect.
There is a "work Session" of the Board of Commissioners scheduled for 22 Jan 13 after the scheduled BOC meeting which starts at 8:30 am. I hate to see either of these taxpayer dollars eating steps taken in Craven County. I believe the Board will try to sell the Hospice Hospital on the grounds that it will save money over providing the hospice service in people's homes (can you believe that?) and the MPO by saying that it is "mandated" for communities of over 50,000 population. Frankly, I don't believe either of these arguments. IN ADDITION I THINK IT IS TIME THE BOARD STOOD UP FOR THE TAXPAYERS AND TOLD THE FEDS WHAT THEY COULD DO WITH THEIR MANDATES!
HATTERAS YACHTS-
Recently there was an article in the
Sun Journal that showed that this company has been troubled economically since 2008. Since they have been in New Bern they have had a high of 1400 employees, now down to 500 (I was told 900 when I called the Hatteras Yachts office in November, 2012, Now it appears that they really had only 500 (again, according to the Sun Journal).
November 5, 2012- The Board of Commissioners approved budget amendment of
$34,034 to be "passed through" to Hatteras. This is a drop in the bucket to the roughly $3 Million that the company has received from all government grants and loans. This is as reported by an internet source. I will try to verify it. I have a copy of the Brunswick Corporation's annual report, but I have not had time to review it yet.
A condition of these grants was that Hatteras would create 350 new jobs.
AT HIS LISTENING SESSION COMMISSIONER DACEY SAID, "THESE GRANTS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!
Respectfully Submitted,
Hal James, Watchdog Committee Chairman
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