Susan Spaulding’s Ballantyne Policy Update

The breakfast meeting opened with talk of the county board meeting last night, June 3rd. The county board of commissioners “found” more money by increasing their estimation of the sales tax revenue. Some wonder if this is a good idea. Disappointment might follow in a few months if all of this sales tax revenue is not a reality. More libraries will close and teachers will have to be let go if the county does not receive as much as it is currently estimating.

Monday, June 7th, the city council will meet at 1:30 pm for a “straw vote” and later that same day at 5:00 pm for a dinner meeting. Will the city give money to the county for the libraries? The county is asking for a total of $8 million to keep the libraries open one more year. The county would like $2 million from the city. The county will pay $3.5 million. The rest would need to come from other towns in Mecklenburg County. Mint Hill is the only town that has indicated that they can afford to help the libraries. All of the other towns have said they do not have any “extra” funds to help. The county is now talking about several scenarios to keep the libraries open. One scenario would only keep open the regional libraries. In another scenario where the county does receive all $8 million for the libraries, they could keep open the regional libraries plus several of the local libraries. Carmel, Belmont and the “Check-It Outlet” all will be closed no matter which scenario is followed. Morrison might be closed soon as well. At some point before 2002, the city purchased land on Community House Road for a library. In 2007, their was a yes vote on a bond that would build the library on Community House Road in Ballantyne but this library was never built. The old library concept in Mecklenburg County was to build local libraries. The new concept in this county for libraries is to build regional libraries.

On the city council, there has been some arm twisting when it comes to votes to give money for the libraries. Edwin Peacock was originally strongly for giving money for the libraries. Now Edwin Peacock might vote not to give money for the libraries. Michael Barnes is still saying that he will vote yes to help the libraries. Warren Turner and Susan Burgess are wavering on how they will vote. Right now there are six council members voting against giving money for the libraries. In 1973 the General Assembly of North Carolina voted to let the counties take over the library system. Originally, the city was slated to give $2.2 million for the New Court System Technology Amendment for the District Attorney’s Office. This money might be given instead to the county for the libraries. We will need to wait for the local towns, the city council and county board members to meet before we know how many libraries can be saved.

The city is now talking about affordable housing and will need extra money to fund this project. The federal stimulus money did fund an extra 50 police officers recently. The city currently has a supplemental street resurfacing fund of $4.2 million dollars. This street resurfacing fund money can be used to pay for police officers after the federal stimulus money goes away. Also there
is a Powell Bill Fund that can be used to resurface streets. This is the “shell game” being played to keep more city police officers.

They city needs more money for several projects. The transportation action plan chart shows that the city does not have enough money for the current transportation plan. $7.26 billion is needed for this plan.

Andy Munn, from the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, was at this breakfast meeting. The new Whitewater Center is looking for a development land swap. Ron Kimble recently said that this land will not result in a city street later. Mr. Munn is concerned that the city is not following it’s own urban street design guide.

One of the many committees in this city is Committee 21. They are considering adding another half cent sales tax to get $81 million for the city. They were also considering toll roads for our freeways but have voted no on this measure. They are considering ways to raise more money.

Only 1% of the people in the city complain about their utility bills. “Peninsula” housing development does have 31 homeowners complaining that their water bills are too high. If the weather brings flood or drought, the water bills need to go higher in both of these scenarios. In comparison to several cities in the southeast, Charlotte is one-third lowest in water usage. Again in comparison to several cities in the southeast, only Tampa, Florida and San Antonio, Texas have lower water cost compared to Charlotte. All of the other cities in the southeast have higher water cost than Charlotte. According to the American Water Works Association Standards, Charlotte has below average “head count” in the water department. Starting in June, the city will review utility rates. Debt service projections for Fiscal Year 2013 state that costs will go down. This might drive a rate increase. The city might need to scale back the capitol plan. The city’s water utilities staff can be slow to respond to maintenance calls. Does the city always need a four man crew to respond to any water maintenance calls? Is the city researching the number of repair calls?

The city is now talking about a new way to evaluate the city manager. Right now, the city does not have a quantitative way to evaluate the manager. The city will need new benchmarks to evaluate the manager. Is the city is giving a bonus to he city manger this year? The city manager is scheduled to be evaluated in September 2010. Is the city saving money? Right now the city is hitting 90% of the benchmarks that are set.

Tim Morgan, C.M.S., stated that Dr. Peter Gorman will not be accepting any bonus money for the second year in a row. This same measure is true for Dr. Gorman’s top staff members. This is another cost saving measure for C.M.S.

The city is now looking to annex several parts of Mecklenburg County. These places include: Rhine, Whitehall and Camp Stewart South. This will include 4,000 people total in this annexation. This type of annexation is profitable for the city. In FY 2012 and FY 2014 the city will make money by annexing these three places. Tim Morgan added that residential areas pay for themselves. This is due to the fact that the city makes money.

H.U.D. money is now paying for a school in Charlotte. This school will be near Boulevard Homes which is close to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. This will be an elementary and work should begin in the fall. This cost for this school is $12 million. C.M.S. Board Member, Tim Morgan, stated that the elementary near Boulevard Homes is a replacement elementary. Two new high schools are on the current capitol list for C.M.S. These are the only two news schools in the current capital plan.

Councilman Michael Barnes is currently running for District Attorney. Tim Morgan asked if Councilman Barnes wins how will his replacement be handled. Warren Cooksey stated that they city will pick a democrat from District 4 to replace Councilman Barnes if he wins in November. This is because Councilman Barnes is a democrat from that same district. One person who is a possibility for this seat is Claire G. Fallon. The city wants to pick someone who will not run for election later.

There is a new Carolina Thread Trail in Charlotte where the public can explore new trails. On June 24th at 7:00 pm at Harrison United Methodist Church will be a forum moderated by Warren Cooksey. The public is invited to this forum on affordable housing. On June 3rd, W.B.T.V. Channel 3 did a segment on traffic problems on 485 South near Highway 51/Carolina Place Mall. Ray Eschert was interviewed for this piece and is in favor of using the shoulder on 485 to help ease congestion in this area. Mr. Eschert is encouraging leaders in Raleigh and locally to speed up the process on everyday use of the shoulder.

Susan J. Spaulding
Ballantyne Scoop

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