Scott Dacey to Hold Town Hall

The Chairman of the Craven County Board of Commissioners, Scott Dacey will be holding a 'Listening Session' at the Trent Woods Town Hall on Thursday, August 22, 2013, from 4:00-5:00 pm.

Come out and make your voice heard!

I hope you can make it.

Scott Dacey

www.scottdacey.com

CCTA Watchdog Report- 7August 2013

Craven County Board of Commissioners Meeting 5 August 2013

5 AUGUST 2013

My Petition on behalf of CCTA

Petition to the Craven County Board of Commissioners Meeting - 5 Aug 13

I'm Hal James, and I am a spokesman for the Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association. I'm here to ask you not to set up the non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization for economic development that has been proposed by County Staff and the consultant hired to evaluate our economic development program.

These non-profit consortiums between government and private companies have a miserable record of failure everywhere they have been tried.

Let's start with the one involving the state of North Carolina, the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. Auditors (thank God for auditors!) found that the nonprofit agency failed to provide proper oversight of millions in grants while paying its president $221,000 annually.North Carolina pays the State Secretary of Commerce $96,394. Additionally, the Center's vice-presidents were paid $130,000 and $120,000 annually. The center had earned $20 million in interest on taxpayer money placed in private banks and was holding it in reserve to pay salaries and benefits to its staff. Now the state of North Carolina is determined to get it back. HEY! IS IT ANY WONDER THESE STRAP-HANGERS LOVE NON-PROFITS!

The Governor called for the president of the center, Billy Ray Hall, and the Board Chairwoman to be replaced. There is a new Sheriff in town!

And what about the wonderful boondoggle of the Randy Partin Theatre in Rocky Mount? Another 501 (c) 3 consortium of government and private enterprise, it wasted God know how much taxpayer money!

Close to home, as a result of what auditors found, the president of the non-profit economic development agency in Lenoir County has been charged with embezzling close to $800,000. After an audit of the local Eastern Carolina Council of Governments, the president and the treasurer (who also ran a non-profit that contracted with these non-profit economic development agencies) resigned. Out of the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars that had been loaned out, only 4 of the loans had been repaid! It's only Taxpayer money!

Now we come to the North Carolina Eastern Region which is the inheritor of the legacy of Global TransPark. Its grant writing and business loan talent are no longer in demand, and its staff is fighting to stay alive and employed. They're choosing to do this by transforming into yet another non-profit 501 (c) 3 consortium of government and private companies with the ability to obtain taxpayer money.

I don't know how the various county Boards of Commissioners around the state have escaped culpability for failure to provide oversight of the 501 (c) 3 organizations after taking part in establishing them and then appointing members to serve on their boards.

Just look at this record of these 501 (c) 3 economic development agencies and the multiple ways they have misused and stolen taxpayers' money, and run don't walk away from this.

Thanks for listening.

No action was taken by the Board in regard to my petition.

The Board considered the Language Access Plan

This Plan is to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It affects all "programs or activities administered by Craven County." It benefits people with "Limited English Proficiency (LEA)." It requires the County to:

1)    Promptly identify LEA people.

2)    Obtain qualified interpreters.

3)    Provide written translations.

4)    Provide notice of availability in writing in a language they will understand that assistance is available free of charge, and the free service includes an interpreter.

5)    Monitor language needs and implementation including procedures, reporting, and monitoring.

6)    Resolve any complaints.

Of Course, the Board had "no choice" but to adopt this plan to avoid the wrath of the federal government.

The Board also considered Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)

Fair Housing

This program is also covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Language in this policy statement includes: "Craven County desires that every citizen be afforded the opportunity to select a home of his or her choice."

Obtaining these grants requires the county to accept the following Fair Housing Policy:

1)    Receiving, acknowledging and informing the NC Human Relations Commission of all housing discrimination complaints, then assisting the commission in the investigation and reconciliation of the complaint.

2)    Publicize that the Planning Director is the local official to contact with housing discrimination complaints.

Conduct of Officers, Employees, or Agent

No employee, office, or agent of the County will:

1)    Solicit or accept any gratuity intended to influence contract awards.

2)    Participate in the selection of contractors or contract with family members, partners, etc.

3)    Accept gratuities from contractors.

4)    Discipline offenders.

5)    Take action to punish contractors who violate the policy.

Scattered Site Program

Local Economic Benefit for Low and Very Low Income Persons Plan

Requires the County to adopt the following resolutions, guidelines, plans and policies:

1)         Housing Assistance Policy

2)         Housing Work Contract Award Policy

3)         Citizen Participation Plan

4)         Residential Anti-displacement and Relocation Assistance Plan

5)         Local Economic Benefit Plan for Low and Very Low Income Persons

6)         Equal Employment and Procurement Policy

7)         Policy Concerning Code of Conduct

8)         Fair Housing Policy

9)         Policy Prohibiting Use of Excessive Force

10)           Temporary Relocation Policy

All these policies, etc., require the county to do the federal government's bidding on a lot of subjects. The requirements are written on normal printing paper that when stacked together are about a half inch thick. I won't bore you with more detail, but I do have a copy if you want to pursue it.

The feds will spend $750,000 of taxpayer money in Craven County this year on their CDBG Infrastructure Program. That program comes with many strings attached.

911 Radio Equipment Purchase

The final subject I want to cover is the request by Stanly Kite, Emergency Service Director, to obtain funding for 911 radio equipment. This request was for $256,305. Stanley told me after the meeting that vendors pressured him to replace all our 911 equipment with the latest and greatest equipment at a cost of around $4 million! It gets hard to be a good steward of taxpayer money, I am sure! We owe Stanley our appreciation for his efforts to get taxpayers the most bang for our bucks.

Respectfully Submitted,

  

Hal James, Watchdog Committee Chairman

Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association

New Bern, North Carolina, 28560

Commissioner Scott Dacey to Hold Town hall Listening Session

Craven County Board of  Commissioner Chairman Scott Dacey will be holding a Town Hall Listening Session on July 22, 2013 at 3:00 pm at the County Administration Building in New Bern.

Come out and make your voice heard.

Craven County Board of Commissioners Meeting 15 July 2013

CCTA WATCHDOG REPORT

Craven County Board of Commissioners Meeting 15 July 2013

Settlement of 2012 Taxes

Roughly $47 Million taxes were levied for 2012. 98.4% was collected, putting Craven County in the top 15% of counties in North Carolina in collection efficiency.

Assistance by the County Manager's Office.  

The two presentations discussed below were presented after the regular meeting of the Board, and the County Manager's Office very graciously provided me with the Power Point slides used. (I can present them at a CCTA meeting if you want more detail.)

Public Health Cost Containment Plan

Isn't it interesting how appropriate our study of The Marketing of Evil is? The plan presented is anything but "Cost Containment," though we all now recognize how words are systematically used to make bad things sound good.  Scott Harrelson, Director of the Health Department, gave the presentation. He started with a chart that showed that, over time, the county's share of the Health Department budget has gone down to about 22%. He then showed a chart that showed that "Clinic Revenues" are replacing the county tax dollars. Of course, "Clinic Revenues" are provided by Medicaid, Medicare, insurance, Grants, and a little from the patients, meaning, of course, that most of the revenue is gained on the back of some taxpayer somewhere. He then showed a chart that showed the federal taxpayer financial support was way the heck up at 47%! This is progress?

Then came the pitch for the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). The first advantage listed on that slide was that the Defined Service Area could keep undesirable FQHCs out of our area. Meaning competition would be stifled. Great, huh?   Remind you of anything?   He then added to Medicaid and Medicare income the advantage that employees could pay off their taxpayer student loan debts by working off about $25,000 per year of their debt to the taxpayer by their service to the FQHC.   Wonderful, huh? Good for government employees and bad for taxpayers.

The FQHC would also get 340 B drug pricing. I guess that is good because it is high and not paid by the patient. Wow! How great is that?

Then the real kicker, base funding by the federal taxpayer is $650,000. But, Mr. Harrelson warns, that might not materialize. DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP!

Next Mr. Harrelson told the Board what they would have to do:

            Provide $22,000 to the grant writer. A great grant writer will do it for that!

            Set up a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as a co-applicant for the public entity application. (The Health Department will also be a co-applicant). I think I am beginning to hate "501(c)(3)" as much as I hate the word, "grant."

            Set up a separate board to oversee services under the FQHC.

Bottom line...

EVERY MEMBER OF OUR CRAVEN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS VOTED TO PROCEED WITH THE PLAN AND APPLY FOR THE FQHC CERTIFICATE OF NEED.

WOW! ISN'T THAT WONDERFUL?

Now let me give you the real kicker. Before the meeting, I asked Mr. Harrelson if all this profit the county could make (like New Bern does on its electricity utility company) would make it feasible to "privatize" the venture. He said some localities in NC are doing that. The idea never got mentioned in the meeting. I guess staff is not ready for that.

Comprehensive Economic Development Strategic Plan   

I will say it surely is "comprehensive."

A presentation was made about this "compressive plan" by Kyle Talente, Vice-President of RKG Associates. No mention was made of North Carolina's Eastern Region, AKA Global TransPark or the potential to recover roughly $1.5 Million dollars of Craven County taxpayer's money to be used for economic development in our county. BUT there was a huge push for funding and staffing (up to 4 staff positions were mentioned, most sounding pretty high salaried).

After working hard to get County control of economic development within the County, and to get rid of the regional approach that had expensive staff and showed very little results, the Board of Commissioners appears to be bent on creating a similar situation again! Without even having received a written report from the consultants hired to make recommendations on economic development, and based on conversations with the consultants, and a slide presentation, they appear ready to buy this expensive venture hook, line, and sinker!

I also suspect, but don't know, that they will want to take the $1.5+ million received from departing NCER and put it into this new 501 (C) (3) joint venture with government and private entities. The consultant advised them to go slow and give a contract (any idea who wants it?) to a consulting firm to provide services until it would cost more to extend the contract than to directly hire staff.

The recommendations made under the title, "Workforce and Asset Development," are either already being done in Craven County or have already been tried and proven ineffective:

            Create a development site inventory- already tried out at Clarks. (This tends to be expensive, a waste of money, and it will be done FREE by a developer when the time is ripe for such a move to be economically feasible.)

            Build a shell building- Didn't we try this once? (Same criticism as the point above.)

            School to work connectivity- Already being done.

            Tie-in Community College- Already being done.

            Implement a business needs survey- Already being done.

The only thing new I saw was a formal existing business retention program. Good idea! Get tax and regulation off their backs! That works every time.

There is to be a meeting this evening at the Convention Center in New Bern of "stakeholders" to receive the same sales pitch as the Board of Commissioners got this morning. Everyone and his brother appears to be a

"stakeholder" except the taxpayer. How does that work? Even though three members of the Board of Commissioners are members of CCTA, so presumably they recognize our perspective as that of taxpayers, we have not been invited. Oh well, I've heard all I want to hear about it anyway. Our Board of Commissioners is tuning up to greatly enlarge government in two ways. So here we go again. And as Raynor points out, the economic development aspect could be handled by decent industrial/commercial real estate agents/brokers for FREE if the tax/regulation/transportation network/workforce elements were handled properly by government.

Respectfully Submitted,

Hal James, Watchdog Committee Chairman

Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association

New Bern, North Carolina

Craven County Board of Commissioners Meeting 17 June 2013

CCTA Watchdog Report- 18 June 2013

Craven County Board of Commissioners Meeting 17 June 2013

Budget Ordinance

The Craven County budget as approved by the Board of Commissioners on Monday is roughly $97 million for the coming fiscal year. It was about $94,000 at the start of last year. This represents a growth of about 3%, or about half of what I feared. GOOD! The growth can be attributed to "pass through" tax dollars from taxpayers who pay federal and North Carolina taxes. How is that possible with all the belt tightening we hear about? Well, maybe next year if we work hard to communicate with our representatives at all levels of government. In the final analysis, all money spent by government in Craven County is paid for by we the people who pay taxes. Why can't our county elected representatives do more to protect us from that? We need to continue to work to persuade them, and we need to do the same with our state and federal representatives.

Taxpayer Support of Charities

The practice of taking from some citizens in order to give to others continues with this budget. Strangely, the only dissenting vote on the adoption of the budget came from Commissioner McCabe who objected to the curtailment of the practice of providing "congregate meals" to anyone over 60 years of age regardless of any demonstrated need. To quote Commissioner Dacey, "It is not the responsibility of the county to provide food for anyone with a financial hardship." I surely agree, but I think it runs deeper than that. It is not the taxpayer's obligation to provide food for a social meeting with recreation for Harlowe residents or the residents of any other area of the County.

The Craven County Commissioners still think that the "truly needy" should be helped by the taxpayers. That is not a proper function of government, but at least they are trying to restrict it to the "truly needy." (I believe every CCTA member wants the truly needy to be looked after; however, we believe it's the job of families, friends, churches, neighbors, and philanthropic organizations.

Department of Social Services (DSS)

The entire program for DSS needs to be gleaned for practices similar to that of the "Congregate Meals" program. That is, providing taxpayer money to provide services for people who experience some financial hardship, but who are able to provide them for themselves. These programs include: Family Caregiving, Day Care, Special Assistance to the Aged, Smart Start, Work First Transportation, and on and on. THE LIST IS SEEMINGLY ENDLESS!

Health Department

The same can be said for the Health Department. Programs include: Random Moment Study (whatever the heck that is), Camp Seagull, Medicaid Maximization, Child Health, Women Infants and Children (WIC), WIC Education, Communicable Disease, Family Planning, Home Health, Home Hospice, Inpatient Hospice, Cancer Control, Adult Health, Risk Reduction. ANOTHER SEEMINGLY ENDLESS LIST! Are all the people who participate in these programs really unable to provide for themselves in these areas? Really? Or do they just choose to spend time and money on other things?

News Flash: The taxpayers who are forced to cough up money for these programs would dearly love to spend their money on other things! Going to the dentist twice a year instead of just once? Contributing music lessons to a grandchild? Going out to dinner or to a play a little more often? What would you do if you kept a little more of your own money?

Craven Area Rural Transportation (CARTS)

Anyone can ride cheap. They'll even come pick you up when you call, and it's a lot cheaper than a private taxi. I've watched it happen at the physical therapy place, and at least one couple was going to their home in Fairfield Harbor. Truly needy?

Summary

How much do people who are not "truly needy" sponge off of these programs? My guess is that only God knows. At budget time each year, the Board of Commissioners ask the county manager to have the department heads (whose jobs are dependent on the retention and expansion of these programs) for budget requests. THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!! Why not ask them to identify the waste, and money spent on people who could very well do for themselves, in their departments' budgets, and see how much they could cut from their prior year's request??? Why not give an award to the department that reduces its budget by the largest percentage? Why not give a "merit pay" increase of 1% to the employees of any department that cuts its request for funds 3 years in a row?

North Carolina Eastern Region (NCER) aka Global TransPark

Here is the latest scheme for this bunch of bureaucratic straphangers to hang on to their jobs. Take the money that the state took from North Carolina taxpayers and fee payers and put it into a 501 (3c) "non-profit" private corporation. HUH! Thank goodness Craven County's representative, Mark Griffin, blew the whistle. Mark really deserves our appreciation. It cannot have been easy for him to have been the only dissenter. Our North Carolina House Representative, Michael Speciale, thinks the law establishing NCER does not provide for this. I should hope not! THE COMMISSIONERS ARE STUDYING THIS SITUATION.

As an aside, Michael has consistently worked for a government that functions in a constitutionally directed way since he's been in the North Carolina House, and he deserves and has earned our deep appreciation as a result.

Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)

As one example of this program, $750,000 has been earmarked to improve infrastructure in Harlowe and James City. That's a good idea. The infrastructure should function well in all areas of the county, and when something is substandard, money should be spent to bring water, sewer, storm drainage, and the like back into good order. That's not the problem, but shouldn't the State of North Carolina and the County of Craven take care of those things instead of the feds? OUR COUNTRY IS IN A LOT OF FINANCIAL TROUBLE! It's much less cost efficient to send money to the feds and get it back (with strings) than it is to take care of our own in the first place.

We do need to acknowledge and appreciate that the Board of Commissioners has recognized that it is not right to take from all taxpayers and benefit only one family with the keys to a new or renovated house without the property owner having "some skin in the game." That, at least, is a step in the right direction. You will remember that giving away houses to people with nothing from them in return used to be part of what "block grant" money was spent on.

Regional Hazard Mitigation Update

LOOK OUT FOR THIS ONE!! There are more houses in flood plains according to the new FEMA flood maps. This has happened because the assumption has been made that sea levels will RISE significantly. Scientists do not all agree on this; it is a theory only. Just think, a theory will mean MORE REVENUE FOR FEMA, and COST MANY CRAVEN COUNTY HOMEOWNERS BIG BUCKS! THIS IS A SLEEPER (KEPT UNDER COVERS). PLEASE APPEAL TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES ON THE FEDERAL LEVEL TO FIX THIS FOR US. Our Commissioners are being told that they have no choice but to accept the new maps or lose all FEMA flood protection insurance for Craven County residents. THEY ARE VIRTUALLY HELPLESS TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT THIS SITUATION!

Inpatient Hospice

An "Interlocal Inpatient Hospice Development Agreement" presentation was scheduled for this meeting, but was quickly deferred until a later meeting. I read this agreement which was attached as an addendum to the agenda, and I have many concerns and questions. I hope to get some answers at Commission Chairman, Scott Dacey's town hall meeting at the River Bend Town Hall today at 4:00 PM. I hope some of our members can attend.

To wrap up on the Budget

The 2013-2014 Craven County budget is much kinder to the taxpayers than those adopted by other recent Boards of Commissioners. We are grateful for that. Much still needs to be done at the federal, state, and local levels of government to really have a taxpayer friendly county budget, but some improvement has begun. The much touted quarter cent reduction in property tax rate is largely symbolic (amounts to about $4.00 on the average house). However, it is a start and does acknowledge that the commissioners would like to help the taxpayers. We have our work cut out for us because the future is uncertain, and our commissioners seem reluctant to make a bold move in the direction of tax reduction for fear of making a mistake that will come back to haunt them.

Respectfully Submitted,
Hal James, Watchdog Committee Chairman
Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association
New Bern, North Carolina

CCTA Watchdog Report- 23 May 2013

CCTA Watchdog Report- 23 May 2013

Craven County Board of Commissioners Budget Work Sessions

First, the transparency afforded to the public on these deliberations is to be highly commended. The County Manager's proposed budget is available on the county website at Manager Recommended 2013-2014 County Budget. A printed version is available at the County Manager's office.

The County Finance Officer, Rick Hemphill, has been very helpful in letting the Commissioners know when a budget item has been mandated by federal or state law. This is very important information for our Commissioners and for us to know, and I appreciate his making it available.

The budget work sessions are open to the public. I have been able to attend them all, and a couple of other citizens that I have seen at CCTA meetings have also attended. The Board has been very open with me and allowed me to ask questions on behalf of CCTA. For all this, I am very grateful.

Commission Chairman, Scott Dacey, has asked me on several occasions what is in the budget that I object to. I will now try to answer that question.

In order to answer, I first ask myself the question, "Where in the Constitutions of the United States and North Carolina is the authority to spend taxpayer money on this item found?"

The next question is, "Does it have the potential of serving all the county's citizens, or just a few?"

The third question is, "Can we afford it?"

There are many things in the budget that don't pass muster on the first question, and bring us back to that old discussion about forcibly taking money from one citizen in order to give it to another. I do not have the right to steal from one neighbor in order to give to a less fortunate neighbor. Ergo. I cannot possibly have given that right to my government. Here are some examples of that's being done in the proposed budget:

Day Care services-
$4.3 Million dollars of taxpayer money is to be spent in Craven County alone (remember there are approximately 3,000 counties in the US).

Maternity- (that's the name of a big budget item)-
$1,355,638 has been proposed for the budget. Mr. Hemphill said that a big portion of this is not mandated because it exceeds the federal requirement and costs the county a lot of money.

WIC (simply means Women, Infants and children)-
There are three budget items under this category. They total $634,556.

Breast Feeding Promotion- $36,304

Family Planning- $233,539

Risk Reduction, Drugs, etc. (not mandated) - $6, 860.
This list in the Department of Social Services just goes on and on! Suffice it to say that this department of county government, and indeed in the whole State, has gotten way out of hand. It sometimes serves useful purposes, but needs to be greatly reduced, and gradually transferred to the private sector.

Then apply the same rule to the Special Appropriations. Here are some requests:

Promise Place- $20,000
Coastal Women's Shelter- $10,000
Senior Companion- $10,000
North Carolina Symphony- $5,000
App Health Foundation- $10,000
RCS Homeless Shelter- $10,000
Red Cross- $6,000
Havelock Parks and Rec- $108,200

All of these organizations should look to their own resources for financial support and not to the County taxpayer.

Then there are memberships:

School of Government (how to get more tax dollars)- $11,651
NACO (prescription drug program)- $2,070
North Carolina Association of County Commissioners- $10,370
ECC Dues- $15,631
ECC Rural Planning Organization- $5,836
New Bern Municipal Planning Organization- $9,678
NC Association of Black County Commissioners- $100

Some supported organizations do good work like:

Association for Cherry Point's Tomorrow (ACT)- $25,000
Highway 70- $25,000
Highway 17- $35,000
NC20- $10,000

There is some good news:
A change in the billing procedure for vehicle tax produced a one-time windfall of $1,150,000.

The ABC staff estimates that the county will be receiving more than the $280,000 they have received for years. It is expected to be closer to $400,000 annually.

Ten DSS positions have been abolished in the budget, and one unfunded.

No new part time positions are recommended.

The new water treatment plant can be paid for without raising customer charges due to some really good planning by Rick Hemphill and the Commissioners. This is significantly good news.

And some bad:
The state has raised the required contribution for local governments for employee retirement plans from 6.74% to 7.07 %. This will cost the county $84,000. This kind of thing happens repeatedly. These plans need to be changed from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. The estimated return on investment is always too high, and results in requiring the taxpayer to make up the difference. IT IS A RIP-OFF! We need to communicate this to our representatives in Raleigh again.

General insurance cost increased by 17 % this year for coastal counties.

A 1% raise is included in the proposed budget for all county employees. THIS IS A BAD ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN IN!

County government expenditures continue to grow. Expenditures for FY2013 stood at $93,035,976 on 30 April 13. That's about $3 million more than last year's. So we are seeing about a 3% growth this year. IT SHOULD BE DECREASING UNDER A REPUBLICAN BOARD! The county manager's proposed budget will perpetrate that trend. PERHAPS THE COMMISSIONERS WILL CHANGE THAT IN THE FINAL APPROVED BUDGET. LET'S HOPE!

Respectfully Submitted,
Hal James, Watchdog Committee Chairman
Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association