Michael Bobbitt: Notes From The Peanut Gallery (Board of Commissioners August 3rd 2015)


The six active county commissioners held their regular monthly meeting this past Monday. The meeting was relatively short and much of the normal commissioner rancor. The meeting opened with public comments a nice change especially when the public is present to make meaningful and informed comments.

Public Comments

Sandra Butler Tubbs, spoke for her five minutes on an issue she says is on the near horizon, an increasing population of seniors. According to Mr. Tubbs in the next five years the senior population of Vance County will exceed the teenage population. If her data is correct then the commissioners may want to evaluate the services the county provides. Are our EMT and fire departments trucks adequately equipped to handle the common issues of senior citizens? How does the projected shift in the population impact the county’s school system? What is the impact on county revenue as the senior population increases? Ms. Tubbs suggested the commissioners re-consider a decision regarding the oversight of the senior center. She wants the county to be responsible for the oversight of the local senior center. Ms. Tubbs concluded her five minutes very politely saying she intended to be a regular attendee of the Peanut Gallery.

Water Committee

Following Ms. Tubbs’ public comment the six active members of the Board of Commissioners transformed into the Water Board. Mr. McMillen summarized the high points of the Water Committee’s agenda. Three commissioners asked rhetorical or redundant questioning about the construction plans and contract cost reductions. The Water Board approved the contract changes and a request for more Federal taxpayers’ money (grants) to pay for continued expansion of the pipe lines. All construction paid with borrowed money must be completed by September 15, prompting the Water Board to refund the deposits for taps that will not be installed has because the majority of property owners rejected the offer of county water. Before the Water Board adjourned Commissioner Brown asked about the status of the $30 month privilege charge. The privilege fee was not included in the original efforts to gain tap signups, especially for those buying a ‘dry tap’. Commissioner Brummitt was quick to defend the fee, basically saying that without the fee for ‘dry taps’ those with ‘wet taps’ will need to pay more for their water than was ever projected. There is no simplistic answer to the dilemma the commissioners created when expanding the system from Phase 1A into Phase 2A & 2B without sufficient committed property owners.

Committee Reports and Recommendations

Chairman Taylor over the past years has pushed his fellow commissioners to organize and formalize their respective committees’ especially their committee’s presentations to the Board. Five different committee reports were presented to the full Board for consideration and approval of recommendations. Commission Wilder, Planning/Environmental Committee chair, started his report at 6:30 pm or thirty minutes into the meeting. Commissioner Wilder was first commissioner to acknowledge that the Interim County Manager was not present for the Board’s meeting. The Board approved the sale of a new unoccupied home built in 2010 or 2011 using Federal taxpayers’ money (Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds). The sale price of $65,000 is about half the cost the taxpayers paid to build the house. Mr. Care did not allow the feel good glow to linger before telling the Board that the buyer of another of the new houses has backed out of their sale.

Commissioner Wilder failed to garner Board support for what appears as an ordinary expenditure of $15,400 of taxpayers’ money to demolish a house that once was in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The Board’s overall objected to sending the $15,400 without a plan beyond the immediate expenditure. Could this be an indication some commissioners are beginning to understand the need for their decisions to be based on a plan; a plan that supports the county’s key strategic objectives.

The last item on the Planning/Environmental Committee’s report is a reflection of taking an action (zoning change) without fully considering the consequences and ramifications. Mr. Wilder summarized the need for a public hearing on another two proposed zoning changes to govern the industrial scaled solar collectors located on viable agricultural land (solar farms). The public hearing is scheduled for the September regular commissioners’ meeting. Commissioner Brummitt strongly objected to the ordinance changes because it included more than the initial reason to make the zoning change, the decommissioning portion of the ordinance. So mark your calendar so you can come voice your approval or disapproval of the zoning changes regarding property line set-backs for the solar collectors and the doubling of the conditional use fee.

Interim County Manager’s Report

The Interim County Manager’s report include four items: two resolutions, a grant for Fox Pond, and the loan to Jerry’s Artarama. Last month the Board allowed public comment on an economic development matter without revealing any details of the economic opportunity. This month the Board approved lending Jerry’s Artarama money for their planned expansion, which was last month’s secret economic opportunity. The commissioners also approved the transfer of $6,250 to Four Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc. The transfer is the county’s match on a $50,000 grant for improvements at Fox Pond Park. Mr. Murphy’s report noted that “[the] project is a community project with many organizations providing support …” Vulcan Materials, Perry Lumber Company, “… and the City of Henderson has donated staff and equipment … , as well as financial support.” Vance County provided some limited financial support.

The Board approved both resolutions without comment. The Stepping Up Initiative, one of the two resolutions the Board approved, is long on words of intent and absent funding to achieve the objectives of the resolution. Stepping Up Initiative is “a national initiative” sponsored by the National Association of Counties (NACo) along with several partners including the National Sheriffs Association and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The intent of the Stepping Up Initiative is to “reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jails.” A real social and political issue that like the Hydra of Greek mythology has many heads (causes). The NC Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) is encouraging the boards of commissioners in all 100 counties to approve the Stepping Up Initiative. Not one commissioner asked, even wondered aloud, how to implement the initiative (slay the Hydra) without money (our modern Hercules). NACo and NCACC did not provide money. NC legislature and the governor have not provided money to fund the Stepping Up Initiative. Over the past ten or more years both state and federal spending on mental illness has declined so significantly that our jails and prisons are used to warehouse the mentally ill. Besides pleasing the NCACC and the NACo boards of directors what was the purpose of our Board’s approval of the Stepping Up Initiative? The meeting opened with a public comment on an immerging societal issue, an increasing population of senior citizens, and ended with approval of an essentially moot resolution intended to solve another societal issue, mental illness.