Ballantyne, NC – Will local governments consolidate? The Martin Luther King Holiday is January 17th so the city council meeting has been altered. This week’s council meeting will be on Tuesday, January 18th. Zoning will be one topic on the January 18th agenda.

The new parking lot with the ‘Four-Mile Green [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Will local governments consolidate? The Martin Luther King Holiday is January 17th so the city council meeting has been altered. This week’s council meeting will be on Tuesday, January 18th. Zoning will be one topic on the January 18th agenda.

The new parking lot with the ‘Four-Mile Green Way’ off of Rea Road is a topic for discussion. This parking lot is near the corner of Rea Road and Bevington Place. Currently there are a few spaces on the street. Others park in the ‘Trader Joe’s Shopping Center’. Those in the ‘Trader Joe’s’ Parking Lot will most likely get towed. The location of this parking lot is also a problem. It is difficult to get right in and get right out. Also there is no u-turn allowed here. Larry Huelsman(C.R.V.A.) has serious doubts that the new parking lot is the answer. The Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority(C.R.V.A.) anticipates around 150 U-turns on Bevington Place per day. A new wall is needed for this lot. The cost for the wall is approximately $150,000 – $200,000. Moms with strollers parked on the street are a safety issue. This might not be the sustainable solution.

The master plan for this green way is not finished. This plan will emphasize automobile traffic. 20% of the people at the green way are ‘coming up’ from South Carolina. Some believe that spreading the traffic out is a better solution. If the traffic is spread out, this could be cost prohibitive. Spreading traffic out might not be the right fix. The new parking lot will need trees and lights. Approximately 30 cars will be the maximum in this lot. Councilman Cooksey asked about parking at The South County Regional Library or at Calvary Church. Worries over vehicles safety might keep some from parking at either of these locations. Can the public be convinced with new signs to park at either of these locations?

The city council retreat will be starting on January 31st. This year it will be held at J.C. Smith University in Charlotte. Council member Nancy Carter is in charge of this years retreat. She has already announced that no ‘communications devices’ will be allowed in the meetings at the retreat. She also has asked other council members to pledge to keep everything at the retreat confidential. Council member Carter is asking for a pledge of confidentiality at public meetings. Public meetings can NOT be confidential. This is a mystery. This next council meeting the retreat committee will be meeting to talk about this mystery and other retreat issues.

The York Development Group will be working at the corner of Providence West and new 521. A rezoning request has been applied for only minor changes. The proposed site plans and changes can be seen here. The issue will be addressed at the March 21, 2011 Council meeting.

Consolidation is once again is a hot topic. C.M.S. District 6 Representative Tim Morgan stated that the majority of the local legislative delegation is unlikely to support consolidation. Councilman Warren Cooksey reminded all that ‘big’ steps toward consolidation have not been taken at this time. There would need to be a consolidation commission appointed in order to be closer to consolidation. This commission would need to also hold a referendum and allow all voters to vote on the consolidation. Then the charter would go to the North Carolina General Assembly. None of these steps have happened. Fifteen years ago in Charlotte, consolidation was talked about and a commission was appointed. After the commission was appointed, it was decided that there were too many ‘whites’ on the commission. Later, several African-Americans were appointed to this commission. Lynn Wheeler and Don Reid were part of this commission process at this time. Don Reid stated that the first to speak about wanting consolidation are the very people who want to be the first ’Metro-Mayor’. Now, both Mayor Foxx and County Chairperson Roberts claim to have firm priorities.

District 6 C.M.S. Representative Tim Morgan explained that the best consolidation would be with the county and the school board because the county funds a significant portion of the C.M.S. budget. District 6 Representative Morgan does not think it would be wise to consolidate the city and the county governments. Overall, Mr. Morgan does not support consolidation.

On January 17th, The N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame will participate in the Martin Luther King Breakfast. N.A.S.C.A.R. is one of the a sponsors of the M.L.K. Breakfast which will be held at the Westin Hotel at 7:00 am. January 26th is the National Media Tour Stop at the Hall of Fame.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer

http://ballantynescoop.com

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Ballantyne, NC – Who is getting the large salaries in Charlotte? This Monday night is ‘dinner meeting night’ for the city council. A few of the topics are: Gang Of One, Hall Of Fame and a closed session on economic development. The breakfast meeting on December 10th opened with items being discussed [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Who is getting the large salaries in Charlotte? This Monday night is ‘dinner meeting night’ for the city council. A few of the topics are: Gang Of One, Hall Of Fame and a closed session on economic development. The breakfast meeting on December 10th opened with items being discussed by the city council. This month the city will contemplate closing an alley near Mint Street. A hot topic is the new federal legislative agenda. How will the new Republican run House of Representatives handle earmarks? The firm of ‘Holland and Knight’ handle lobbying for the city. Charlotte would like money for extending the light rail ‘blue line’ and the Briar Creek Relief Sewer Line. Another topic is the extension of the federal service transportation program. The federal government has a proposed bill called the ‘Safe Water Drinking Act’. American cities would like to keep local control of drinking water.

Another proposed bill in the U.S. Congress is bargaining tools for public safety employees. This measure has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Senator Kay Hagan has not been clear on how she will vote on this measure. Senator Harry Reid has said that he will vote ‘yes’. Mayor Foxx commented recently that he is not sure this ‘bargaining tool’ bill will pass at all. The unions are not happy that Charlotte is not a union town. Mayor Foxx would like to see the Democratic National Committee Convention be held here in Charlotte. Is this a move by the Mayor to help increase our chances of having this convention? If Charlotte shows that it is not opposed to unions, will the convention be in Charlotte?

Councilman Michael Barnes made a motion to the restructuring government committee. He is asking why we pay large salaries to several groups. These four groups are: The Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority(C.R.V.A.), Center City Partners, The Charlotte Regional Partnership and The Arts and Science Council. Mr. Bryant is in charge of The Charlotte Regional Partnership. Center City Partners would like to begin helping with The Plaza/Midwood Areas and The South End. The job of Center City Partners is to ensure a ‘higher level of service’ for the center city of Charlotte. This includes having the streets cleaned everyday. Property taxes in the center city are also higher. And the revenue from the uptown is great. There is another group similar to Center City Partners, the University City Partners. Mary Harper is in charge of University City Partners. The property taxes in four districts of Charlotte pay for all four of these organizations. Other types of taxes and taxes from other districts in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County do not help pay for these groups. This is an ‘on or off’ switch and the city council can not ‘tinker’ with the details of these groups. Is this a fishing expedition? Councilman Barnes is ‘casting out a big net’. What is Councilman Barnes hoping to find?

Mayor Foxx stated that he is interested in changing the way the city council governs. He recently ‘opened a can of worms’. In the past, the city manager and the mayor only could put new items on the agenda. Other city council members could put new items on the agenda only with a unanimous vote. The new way that Mayor Foxx is now doing the governing involves just the opposite. Any city council member can put anything on the agenda at anytime. This may result in the city discussing some interesting subjects. Councilman Warren Cooksey suggested that this idea be deferred until the next city council meeting.

Another new item on the city agenda is a grant for delinquency prevention. This is a juvenile justice grant. This grant is for approximately $300,000. This money would fund a facilities manager and a few other positions to run this program. Councilman Warren Cooksey will be voting ‘no’ on this in the next council meeting.

Reventure will be building a ‘brown field’ north of the whitewater center soon. This solid waste will be converted to electricity. Some of the electric from this plant will go to the new northern waste water treatment plant. The ten year plan for solid waste in Mecklenburg County will need to be amended so that this new ‘brown field’ plant can be built by Reventure. This will help make Charlotte more ‘green’.

The Charlotte-Douglas Airport is receiving $135,000 in federal stimulus money. This money will help with the new ‘in-line’ baggage system. The department of urban development in the past five years has received 236 complaints. These are complaints about community housing. There is a new 84-page report that will be given to the city council this coming Monday regarding the department of urban development. The city will review this new report.

Does the new recycling company get overtime for late pickup? No, the city pays the company a set amount of money for the city’s recycling. If there are late pickups, the recycling company does not get anymore money from the city.

The Charlotte light rail blue line was originally scheduled to receive $40 million in federal dollars. Later this was changed to $30 million. The latest sad news is that the light rail blue line will be receiving $3.5 million from the federal government. Councilman Cooksey has voted six times against the street car. The city has already paid for one study that costs $5.5 million dollars for this short street car line. The shelf life of this study is five to seven years. Will the street car be finished in this time?

In the past the city paid for 40% of the cost to have C.M.P.D. Officers at C.M.S. Schools. This cost includes training and equipment needed. Another 40% of the costs were paid by C.M.S. Now the city has decided that over the next four years it will not help pay the 40%. This will be a gradual move to 0%. The school resource officers (S.R.O.’s) at the schools are critical at this time when schools are encountering more violence. Do S.R.O’s have any authority? Is the city choosing fluff over substance?

The federal stimulus money also paid for new C.M.P.D. Officers in Charlotte. The stimulus paid for 50 new officers and the city paid for 75 in the beginning. The city has a public safety pay plan. This was at one point 8% and later 3%. This year the city is not even giving a market adjustment to public safety employees. The new pay plan is for half the workforce. This might change the 2012 budget. The city has solid financial policies.

Recently Chief Jon Hannan of the Charlotte Fire Department talked about how the moral of his officers is down. Here is a partial list of fire department salaries: Fire Fighter: $ 47,813 and Fire Captain: $73,148. The city is spending $295 million on the fire department. This includes the new 5% pay increases. If fire fighters of all ranks are ‘good performers’ they will be paid accordingly. The city gives these performers salary that is within 5% of the pay of fire fighters in comparable U.S. Cities. The city fire department has it’s own pension plan separate from the main city pension plan. The fire fighters in Charlotte do not have collective bargaining. A fire fighter trains for one year before getting a paycheck. The police train for 22 weeks. The C.M.P.D. Officers make the following: Officer: $ 54,000 and Sergeant: $ 75,000. The pay for officer is equal to 97.8% of the national average. The pay for sergeant is equal to 106.2% of the national average. The total cost for the city of fire, police and debt services is $365 million dollars. The city employees get a pension and a 401k. The pension is figured on 80% of the three highest salary years. The city pays 2% of the pay into each employees 401k. The city is in the top three with regards to public pension plans of cities in the nation. Soon the city will need to have a ‘breakpoint’ in their plan for pension plans. The city can not sustain this level of pension plan for all former and current city employees. One suggestion was to change the level or eligibility for all employees hired after a certain date. Another was to restrict which employees are eligible for the 401k plan. The State of Illinois recently was in a similar situation and was forced to borrow $1 billion dollars.

The efficient review task force met recently. They suggest the city make the corporate technology line item more like other line items from the city. Right now the city has MANY software programs to manage all the ‘parts’ of the city government. The task force suggests one database for the city to simplify training and costs. The city could have this new database done in conjunction with the opening of the new 911 call center.

Mayor Foxx gave his State of the City speech this past Tuesday. His main topics were children, consolidation and collaboration. Next week Councilman Cooksey will cover more on this speech by the mayor.

In the news is The N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame. Out on news stands now is the Special N.A.S.C.A.R. Edition of Sports Illustrated. The Hall of Fame is featured on 25 pages of this edition. Thursday, December 16th the Hall of Fame will have W.K.K.T. Toys for Tots Event: details to be announced. Saturday, December 18th the Hall of Fame will have ‘HALLidays in the Hall’ with W.L.N.K.: A radio promo with Sherry and Santa. Also there will be a W.L.N.K. Movie Matinee: $5 for a holiday movie in the theater and story time with Sherry. Former C.M.P.D. Officer Marcus Jackson was recently sentenced to two years jail time including time served. Reverend and Mrs. Jinwright are facing eight years and six years of jail time respectively. Some noted the discrepancy between the jail times of Mr. Jackson versus The Jinwrights.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer

http://ballantynescoop.com

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Ballantyne, NC – Where will affordable housing be built? The November 19th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming city ‘dinner’ meeting agenda. Larry Huelsman, Tim Newman and others from the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority(C.R.V.A.) will be presenting to the city council this coming Monday night. The city is expecting [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Where will affordable housing be built? The November 19th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming city ‘dinner’ meeting agenda. Larry Huelsman, Tim Newman and others from the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority(C.R.V.A.) will be presenting to the city council this coming Monday night. The city is expecting a 45 minute presentation on results from The Hall of Fame and N.A.S.C.A.R. support of the hall, among other items. Most city council members are happy to have the C.R.V.A. present but are still saying “Do NOT ask for money”. The Plaza-Midwood Area has it’s own ‘street scape’ plan on Central Avenue. The old plans in Charlotte require 400 feet between businesses and any residential areas. The new plans call for 225 feet between businesses and residential buildings. The Housing Locational Plan does not govern but gives guidelines.

Charlotte is excited to welcome a new kind of bank to our city. Grameen Bank is originally from Bangladesh and gives micro-loans to the underprivileged. The maximum loan given is $1500 per person. Grameen is a non-profit business. There are seven other Grameen Banks in the U.S.A. New York City is one and Omaha, Nebraska is another location. Warren Buffet is involved with the Grameen Bank in Omaha. In the 2009-2010, the Omaha branch gave out $1.16 million in micro-loans. An example of the types of small businesses started by Grameen Bank micro-loans are: Selling clothing, catering, selling ice cream and day-care services. Grameen is asking the city for an initial grant of $230,000. The city might give this money as a grant, after Grameen raises the initial loan pool of $2.3 million. This money might come from the Business Corridor Fund belonging to the city. The Charlotte Business Privilege Tax is specifically how this bank is helping each business. Each new business in Charlotte pays a business privilege tax. The $1500 will pay this tax and still give each new business a little after the tax.

Grameen Bank also has a great ‘group’ problem solving seminar that is all part of the ‘package’ of getting a micro-loan from them. For example, a ‘group’ of five people would all train and be in a group management team. One at a time, ‘group’ members would get their micro-loan from Grameen. This ‘group’ also gets financial literacy training for at least one year. John Lassiter is one of the primary people to initiate interest in bringing Grameen to Charlotte.

The city council travel fund is an agenda topic as well. There are no individual city council member limits on this fund. The city manager has authority to give a maximum of $100,000. The fiscal year of 2010 has a travel limit of $25,000. The ‘old’ travel limit was $40,000. In the space of one year, Councilman Warren Turner used $10,000 in travel money. The mayor’s travel is figured differently. He has higher compensation for travel. When Pat McCrory was mayor, he became gifted at ‘hitching’ a ride on corporate jets to save tax payer money. The council is slated to vote on the ‘Gang of One’ project this coming Monday. This is a $852,000 federal stimulus project. Councilman Warren Cooksey will be voting ‘no’ on this project. A big part of the $852,000 is spent on hiring people and paying salaries. For example, this money pays for: a team of counselors, tattoo removal, cell phones. This money will ‘go away’ soon along with other federal stimulus ‘ear marks’.

Several are concerned about the new towing ordinance. This is being dealt with by the Community Safety Committee. This committee will be meeting at least one more time before a serious vote will happen on the new towing ordinance. The city has a new contract with Autobell Car Wash Company. The police department normally washes a minimum of 1,000 vehicles per week and the fire department 120 vehicles per week. This contract allows the city vehicles to stay clean but at a better price. A new contract from the city will be award to Bullseye General Contracting Company. It is a Certified ‘Small Business Enterprise’(S.B.E.) as is two subcontracting companies that will be working with Bullseye on this bid to repair the current storm water system in Charlotte. The city is excited to work with these three S.B.E.’s on this project.

The Quality of Life Chart of Charlotte works with the Locational Housing Policy. New, subsidized, mixed income housing is being dispersed based on the Quality of Life Chart. All neighborhoods in Charlotte fall into one of four categories: 1. Stable; 2. Transitioning; 3. Challenged; 4. Non-residential. Unfortunately, this entire process is slightly flawed. This idea guarantees that at least 32% of the areas in Charlotte are challenged. The Quality of Life Chart and the study associated with this chart used fourteen data points to decide how to categorize each area. The city is encouraging the building of new, multifamily, low-income, subsidized housing in ‘stable’ areas. These ‘stable’ areas must have less than 5% of the population living in subsidized housing currently in order to qualify for the construction of new subsidized housing.

The city would like to disperse this type of housing.. Recently, Councilman Warren Cooksey suggested more subsidized housing in Lincoln Heights based on the number of people out of work already in this subdivision. One of the regulations says there must be at least one half a mile between subsidized housing developments. However, in a ‘stable’ area that does not already have over 5% subsidized housing in place, the new subsidized buildings can be closer than one half mile. Neighborhood Statistical Area(N.S.A.) #187 had 2,700 people back in 2007. Now there are 11,000 people in that same area. Councilman David Howard predicts that the long term effects of the Locational Housing Policy is more apartments for ‘seniors’ in the Charlotte area. C.M.S. District 6 Board Member Tim Morgan asked if transitional neighborhoods with less than 5% subsidized housing could house people closer to their jobs. Most likely, the far north and far south of Mecklenburg County will end up with most of this new subsidized construction. The city also has a ‘permissible’ map that shows where subsidized housing is ‘permissible’. What about a mandate to keep the subsidized housing within a half a mile of a C.A.T.S. Bus Stop or near light rail? The Charlotte City Council will vote on this policy this December.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer

http://ballantynescoop.com

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Ballantyne, NC – The November 12th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming dinner zoning meeting for the city council. This zoning meeting is a short meeting. Childress/ Klein constructed a building in the South Park Mall Area in 1953. This building is now being remodeled by the city. Piedmont Town [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – The November 12th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming dinner zoning meeting for the city council. This zoning meeting is a short meeting. Childress/ Klein constructed a building in the South Park Mall Area in 1953. This building is now being remodeled by the city. Piedmont Town Center is opposing this remodel. Councilman Andy Dulin is one of the prime city council members helping with this project. There is a zoning change on Holt Street and another on Monroe Road that the city is considering. Another project is the ‘Allen Tate Office’ Building at the corner of state road 51 and Johnston Road. It is projected to soon be a Walgreens but rezoning is needed in order to make it a drug store.

After a few years of design changes, the Greater Galilee Baptist Church now has new plans for a sanctuary and office that seem to meet city standards. In the past there have also been concerns by the neighborhoods near the church as well. The city will also consider a new bicycle parking amendment. The big zoning change is the ‘Urban Street Design Guide’. This guide was started in 2007. This is a set of new subdivision ordinances. Block links are limited. The discussion right now is around how the approval process for this design guide will be structured. How does a developer get approval? There are three choices: Door 1: Strict adherence to the ‘urban street design guide’; Door 2: Staff leads the way on how to adhere to this new street design guide; Door 3: Put in place a new development review board with experts in architecture and public health. Then the developers can appeal to the board if they feel their blueprints are done in the ‘spirit’ of the ordinance.

Which door will the city choose? Susan Burgess used to be on the Transportation Committee for the city. After Council Member Burgess’s death, Nancy Carter is now on the Transportation Committee. Council Member Carter would like to have a neighborhood representative on the Transportation Committee. The rest of the committee did not agree and this will not happen. The upgrade at ‘Quail Corners’ is being deferred until December. In the recent election, the street bonds did pass. One of the projects is an upgrade to the intersection of Ballantyne Commons Parkway and Elm Lane. The city does not have a schedule for this upgrade but will have one. Many are excited to see this project start soon.

Center City Partners is working on a new project at the ‘Reid’s Fine Foods’ location on 7th Street in the uptown. The ‘Food Desert Activists’ were on hand recently when the city discussed this new project. This project is the ‘Center City Green Market’. The ‘Food Desert Activists’ are sure that this project is in the wrong place. They would like to see this project moved to the west side. This is where the majority of the food deserts are located in Charlotte. Mike Smith works with Center City Partners and recently called Councilman Andy Dulin. Councilman Dulin was there when Mr. Smith presented his idea to the city council. The projected cost of the ‘Center City Green Market’ is $1 million. The recent vendor meeting on this project there were only three farmers interested. Many are also skeptical of this idea due to the cost of the project.

The N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame report is scheduled to be given to the city on November 22nd. Larry Huelsman, a member of the C.R.V.A. board, helped with the news from the C.R.V.A. Councilman Michael Barnes recently sent a letter the the city manager concerning the facilities managed by the Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority (C.R.V.A.). Councilman Barnes would like a report on the attendance, cash contributions, performance and management structure of each part of the C.R.V.A. Councilman Barnes is most concerned about inappropriate personal conduct of
members of the C.R.V.A. Tim Newman works for the C.R.V.A. There is another member
of the staff working in Washington D.C. As a result of this inappropriate behavior, the female staff member in Washington D.C., will be soon not work for the C.R.V.A. Tim Newman was also cited in this according to his inappropriate conduct.

The City of Charlotte did invest capitol in the C.R.V.A. Councilman Barnes is mistaken to think the city invested $1 million. The city invested around $200,000 in the C.R.V.A. New to marketing with the C.R.V.A. is Lori Wilkes. The city can not manage the C.R.V.A. The State of North Carolina passed a law to create the C.R.V.A. The city’s only jurisdiction in this is to appoint the board for the C.R.V.A. The State of North Carolina wanted a board with no ‘political meddling’ to handle venues like the Bojangles Coliseum. This is why the C.R.V.A. was originally created by the state.

How will students be affected by school closings? Ken Gjertsen, former C.M.S. Board Member and Tim Morgan, current District 6 C.M.S. Representative, were both present to sort through the big changes for the schools. The changes include: closing ten schools in 2011 and one in 2012; consolidating students and programs at five schools; relocating two programs; expanding eight schools to pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and one to K-12; expanding one school to grades six through 12; adjusting boundaries for 13 schools; providing targeted assistance to nearly 30 schools and creating two new home schools and two new magnet programs.

The C.M.S. Board voted to move Villa Heights to the Irwin Avenue I.B. Elementary Building. Lincoln Heights Elementary will close and these students will be reassigned to Bruns and Ashley Park Elementary Schools; The Board also voted to move the math and science magnet program at Harding High to Phillip O. Berry, creating a new home area for Harding. Smith Academy is moving to Waddell High. Waddell High School Students will be merging into other schools. Community House Boundaries are different now.

Will there be new charter schools in Charlotte soon? Some would like to see more charter schools in Charlotte. Many are not happy with C.M.S. Board Member Trent Merchant. Some are opposing K-8 schools. Kaye McGarry’s children went to a K-12 schools. A member of the county board of commissioners, Vilma Leake spoke at the regular C.M.S. Board meeting this past Tuesday night, November 9th. County board member Leake’s point was that some in Charlotte have already had their libraries closed and their parks closed therefore they should not have anything else closed. County Board Member Leake must not remember that it is the board she sits on that made these closing decisions just a few months ago.

While Ken Gjertsen was on the school board the motto was ‘bus for space not race’. As a result, there were board members who did not want to build schools in the suburbs of Charlotte. Instead, the board bused these students into the center of Charlotte. At that time, the school board spent $500 million on schools in the center of Charlotte. Those schools were not needed but schools were needed in the suburbs. Later, the school board spent much money to build ‘huge’ schools in the suburbs of the far north and far south of the county. The original idea was to later build more of these ‘huge’ schools in the rest of Charlotte. This last part may never happen with the major budget crisis that all are currently dealing with in this country. There were 117 public speakers at the November 9th school board meeting. Two of these 117 were ‘positive’ speakers and were willing to admit that the school board did not lightly make these changes.

The current budget crisis is much like the 1930’s budget crisis. There is a lack of money due in part to less tax money. The school board is facing a $100 million dollar budget crisis. The $3.5 million saved is not much when compared to the $100 million that must soon be saved. Raleigh will not be funding as much of the school budget. The state will be cutting as much as 15% from the school budget. The county will be cutting money from the school budget as well. In the future, there might not be any transportation provided for magnet school students. Also more schools might have to be closed to save $100 million dollars. Soon several of the montessori schools may have to merge to save money.

Charlotte’s Mayor Anthony Foxx would like to see the city and county governments consolidate soon. The mayor would also like to give taxing authority to the school board soon. Councilman Warren Cooksey does not like this idea. He does not believe any one government authority should only have a single purpose for taxation. There needs to be checks and balances. Right now there are checks and balances in the school board budget. The federal government gives a larger percentage of the budget now than it did in the past. The school board now receives money from the county, state and federal governments.

2011 will be an important election year for C.M.S. because all of the at-large members of the school board are ‘up for election’. One at-large member, ‘Coach’ Joe White, has already announced that he will not run again for school board. He has voted for staff recommendations for the past several years. Current At-Large Board Members Kaye McGarry and Trent Merchant are both up for election in 2011. Rocky River High School is a new school in the ‘middle of nowhere’. It serves students from the Hickory Grove Area and the areas all the way to Rocky River. The other new high school is Hough High School and it is very much needed in that area as well. Due to an interesting boundary configuration, the building of Rocky River is in District 6 but none of the students live in District 6.

Every 10 years the school boundaries are redrawn. How should these boundaries change? Right now, District 6 School Board Member Tim Morgan represents as many people as the combined districts of District 3 representative Dr. Joyce Waddell and District 2 representative Richard McElrath. Current District 6 Representative Tim Morgan is in favor of new two year not four year terms for all school board members. The school board is currently using the county boundaries but can draw their own boundaries in the future. The school board has until 2013 to finish drawing new boundaries.

C.M.S. is a ‘non-partisan’ board, however, here is the breakdown from the voting last Tuesday. Those who voted for the staff recommendations are: three republicans, one democrat and one unaffiliated board members. For the election in 2011, as many as thirty might run for the three at-large seats. The schools that are closed can be sold. District 6 representative Morgan is not interested in selling these properties now, while land is selling for so little. He would prefer the board sell the properties later for more money. The far north and far south will have more growth in population later. Perhaps affordable and mixed income housing can use some of the closed school properties. By law, the schools must be offered for use to the county first. There needs to be checks done on the possibility of ‘reverter clauses’ attached to one or more of these school properties. Some of these schools were built by the original ‘Charlotte School System’ and might revert back to someone other than the county. Currently Myers Park High has around 2,700 students, some of these students are in old trailers. Councilman Dulin’s son is one of these students. The school board can fix these trailers if there is a safety issue. Myers Park also is still using an old gymnasium. C.M.S. is NOT issuing bonds at this time.

Now that the decision has been made to close schools, what is the next step? Teachers who are currently at the schools that will be closed can apply for the teaching positions needed to fully staff the new Pre-K-8 and K-12 schools. Operations and transportation will increased at these Pre-K-8 and K-12 schools as well. The teachers at Davidson I.B. who are certified will mostly likely transfer to the I.B. program Alexander Middle School starting in the Fall of 2011. The majority of students currently at Smith Language Academy will be at Waddell High starting in the Fall of 2011.

Four schools are slated to be torn down: Part of Smith, Davidson I.B., Wilson and Pawtuckett. The town of Davidson might opt to use the Davidson I.B. Building. Possibly four of the ten schools to be closed will be ‘moth-balled’ until they are needed again. C.M.S. will work with the community to insure that vagrants do not break into the schools. C.M.S. will provide limited maintenance and security at these school properties.

In Ballantyne, Community House Boundaries will be changing. The new boundary for Community House is 485. Those north of 485 will start to go to South Charlotte and South Meck in the Fall of 2011. Those south of 485 will feed into Ardrey Kell High School. The $3.5 million saved by the school closings is not much compared to the $100 million that must be soon cut from the budget. In the scope of the $100 million dollar budget shortfall for the next school year, this really has only been a beginning step.

N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame Events Upcoming: Sunday, November 21st: Panthers Home Game: $2.00 off Saturday/Sunday with game ticket; $5.00 parking on Sunday. Friday, November 26th: Black Friday: Radio remote with W.R.F.X.; Free simulator rides when racing the D.J., prizes.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
www.BallantyneScoop.com

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Ballantyne, NC – What surprises occurred in this weeks election? The election was the subject of the November 5th breakfast meeting. Councilman Warren Cooksey was happy to help with Representative Bill Brawley’s campaign on election day. One polling judge was upset with the layout of the ‘Meck G.O.P’ voter guide. Michael Dickerson [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – What surprises occurred in this weeks election? The election was the subject of the November 5th breakfast meeting. Councilman Warren Cooksey was happy to help with Representative Bill Brawley’s campaign on election day. One polling judge was upset with the layout of the ‘Meck G.O.P’ voter guide. Michael Dickerson is the head of the Mecklenburg Board of Elections. Things were finally resolved in the discussion over the voter guide. One of the surprises is how well Chairperson Jennifer Roberts did on Tuesday. There is much to be said for name recognition. Jennifer Roberts was also the only woman on the ballot for the ‘at-large’ seats.

There were some irregularities at Precinct 11. Approximately 129 people voted in person at Precinct 11 by about 6:30 pm. Somehow Precinct 11 had a total of 1,600 people voting. Early voting could have played a role in this irregularity. Old Providence and Precinct 11 were late in reporting their numbers to the Mecklenburg Board of Elections. The pattern for Charlotte elections shows the Republicans leading early but in the end the Democrats showed well and won.

Newly elected North Carolina Representative Bill Brawley was present at this breakfast meeting. Representative Brawley is tired of the corruption in Raleigh that has gone on for too many years. He is not happy with the phrase of many in the state house saying: ‘The end justifies the means’. Representative Brawley’s main focus is jobs and the economy. Other priorities are: temporary taxes expiring, revamping the tax code, remaining revenue neutral, a budget reduction, fair district boundaries and photo I.D.’s for voting. The ‘alleged’ reason some do not want photo I.D.’s for voting is voter intimidation. The real reason is that it is more difficult to ‘steal’ an election. Other surprises include the loss by Feingold and the loss by Angle. The Republicans now have 64 more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 243 seats. McConnell would like to now replace The President. The Tea Party did much to help the Republicans win this election.

Representative Brawley is now reading a good book by Jonah Goldberg called ‘Liberal Fascism’. One way to ‘get rid’ of the new healthcare bill is to not fund this bill. Rush Limbaugh has been criticized for stating that he wanted President Obama to fail. This is just the way that parliamentary politics work. The opposition party to the president always wants the presidents policies to fail. Representative Brawley and Larry Huelsman both worked in 2004 on a Park Bond Committee. The committee recommended a $55 million dollar park bond. After this same bond had gone to the manager’s office the bond then was costing $69 million. At that point, Ramirez and Puckett decided not to vote for this bond. This bond was designed to fund a park in the uptown of Charlotte. There was a stipulation in the bill that these funds not be used to build a professional baseball stadium. Right after this, Jennifer Roberts was elected chairperson of the board of commissioners of the county. One of her first ideas was to use this same bond money for the building of a professional baseball stadium. The idea was to move the education center and the tax payers would pay $38 million dollars to support a business not paying any taxes. There is a culture of corruption in Charlotte and other places in North Carolina.

Governor Perdue is under investigation for misuse of campaign dollars. The former speaker of the North Carolina House was just convicted for stealing $500,000. In the U.K., they have a European Parliamentary vote of a vote of confidence and the loss of confidence. When John Major became the Prime Minister of the U.K he was picked by the majority party and was not voted into office. What changes will be seen by the newly elected Tea Party and Republicans now in office?

Gary Spellman was able to attend the latest public meeting to discuss the Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities Department (C.M.U.D.). Twenty-two were in attendance with eleven presenting. There were a few lawyers present among the twenty-two. Each member of the public was allowed to speak for three minutes. There are five new proposals. C.M.U.D. is still having a few unique problems with billing. A few in the northern and southern parts of Mecklenburg County have had ‘spiked’ readings. Not all of the causes have been located at this time. Several housing communities sent their H.O.A. Representatives. The calls to 311 are also part of this unique problem. C.M.U.D. usually handles 700 water bill complaints per month. Lately they have had about 1300 per month. This constitutes less than 1% of the people served by City Water. Unfortunately, under Doug Bean, C.M.U.D. customer service had ‘slipped’. Mr. Smith is now in customer service and was present at this meeting. An average of 31 of 32 times that there is a ‘spike’ in the water usage there is a leak on the customer’s side of the property. At this time, the C.M.U.D. meeting held earlier in the south part of the county has been the best attended of these public meetings. C.M.U.D. will have a new Continuous Improvement Officer. Larry Huelsman had a broken water meter and it took 6 months for C.M.U.D. to fix the meter and another few months to fix the bill. Most of the water meters in Charlotte are now computer read not ‘hand’ read. All of the ‘hand ‘reading of the meters is now done in regions. The ‘old’ way of ‘hand’ reading the meters was organized by location. Unfortunately, it can still take about six weeks to fix a small leak. Councilman Warren Cooksey reminded all that the city is in the middle of restructuring the way the city government works.

Larry Huelsman brought information on the Charlotte Region Visitor’s Authority (C.R.V.A.). Here is a partial schedule of the events at the N.A.S.C.A.R. Museum/Hall of Fame: Monday November 8th – Sunday, November 14th is Military Appreciation Week: Half off for retired or active military PLUS a free 60 minute international calling card from ‘Cell Phones For Soldiers’. Also Thursday, November 11th is Educator’s Day: Educators get in FREE when they pre-register and listen to a field trip sales presentation. The C.R.V.A. would like to encourage all to visit the N.A.S.C.A.R. Museum/Hall of Fame soon.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
Ballantyne Scoop

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By Aimee Burns Local Editorial Contributor

Have you ever walked, run or ridden you’re bike along the Greenway? Now that the Four Mile Creek Greenway connects to the McMullen and Lower McAlpine Greenway everyone wants to include an outdoor activity as part of a healthy lifestyle…and they should! It’s exhilarating, [...]]]>

By Aimee Burns
Local Editorial Contributor

Have you ever walked, run or ridden you’re bike along the Greenway? Now that the Four Mile Creek Greenway connects to the McMullen and Lower McAlpine Greenway everyone wants to include an outdoor activity as part of a healthy lifestyle…and they should! It’s exhilarating, healthy, but a bit of a chore to access, if you live outside the I-485 corridor. Living south of I-485 means you have to drive to access any part of the McMullen Creek/Lower McAlpine Creek and Four Mile Creek Greenways. There is absolutely NO SAFE pedestrian or bike route along Lancaster Highway, Johnston Road, Elm Lane, Rea Road, or Providence Road from outside the I-485 corridor to the inside where all the greenway access points are located. To compound the frustration, parking is always an issue during peak times.

We have to load up our bikes on a rack, drive our cars, find a parking spot, and then get the bikes down just to enjoy a nice ride along the greenway. When we’re done, we get to load them back onto our rack, and drive home. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we could just skip the car portion, and just ride our bikes to the Greenway?

Actually, the McMullen Creek and Lower McAlpine Creek cross underneath the I-485 right behind the Ballantyne Corporate Office Park. A solution to creating connectivity and increasing customers in the Ballantyne Village area is as simple as installing a pedestrian bridge. Not to mention, the ease of access for local schools, YMCA’s, walking, running, and bike clubs!

In recent years, Charlotte has recognized that we need to improve the connectivity in and amongst our communities. A pedestrian bridge would alleviate parking congestion, improve business activity in the Ballantyne Village area, allow alternative commuting options, reduce the dependence on vehicles, and increase greenway usage among residents south of the I-485 and thereby increase the health and well-being of our community.

If a pedestrian bridge was installed just south of I-485, next to Ballantyne Corporate Park, then all the residents living in this area could access the greenway without having to get in their vehicle. If they choose to drive, then there is ample parking in the back of Ballantyne Corporate Park. In addition to connectivity and parking availability, this would also increase customer flow to the many shops and restaurants in the Ballantyne Village area…it seems like a win-win to me. I believe the county and city should give this small project with so much potential, much more consideration.

Please feel free to post your comments here or email them to Caroline@BallantyneScoop.com.

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Ballantyne, NC – This week has been a study in tragedies of police families. Demeatrius Montgomery was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder this week. Also this week was the capture and arrest of Michael Harvey. He was with Valerie Hamilton just before her death. Valerie Hamilton is the [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – This week has been a study in tragedies of police families. Demeatrius Montgomery was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder this week. Also this week was the capture and arrest of Michael Harvey. He was with Valerie Hamilton just before her death. Valerie Hamilton is the daughter of the Concord City Police Chief.

The October 1st breakfast meeting opened with local news and talk of the city council workshop schedule this coming Monday. The economic development committee will also be in a closed door meeting this Monday. The city utilities office has a new person in charge named Mr. Gullett. He has vowed to help make customer service more of a priority than in the past. Right now there is a 2% error in utility rate bills but this does add up in a large city like Charlotte. The city is paying for a rate study in the utility department. This group is studying the business side of utility rates. The rate increases are caused by debit in the capitol program payments.

The city is again talking about Eastland Mall and the best way to handle this project. Boxer purchased part of Eastland Mall in June but did not purchase any of the vacant department stores. Boxer might be purchasing more of Eastland. Boxer also might ask the city to help with this purchase. The city originally offered to buy Eastland for $22 million and later offered $7.4 million. Will Boxer want to do a facade improvement to Eastland? If Boxer does want to do more than a 10% facade improvement, the city’s new tree ordinance will dictate much of how this improvement is handled. Any facade improvement of 10% or more on an area facing a street will ‘trigger’ the city’s new tree ordinance. A facade improvement will most likely equal a parking retrofit and this will cost more money. The new ordinance requires that all parking spaces are located forty feet from a tree. Parking decks are far more money than plain parking lots. City staff will be make a presentation on Boxer and Eastland Mall to about the 31 acres of parking lot on the property. City councilman Andy Dulin has said that it will cost money to leave trees alone but it will cost money to cut down trees. The city’s new tree ordinance can be expensive. The payment ‘in lieu’ is according to the average tax value of a property. Councilman Edwin Peacock recently commented that he wants Councilman Warren Cooksey to ‘just go along’ with the will of the rest of the city council. Councilman Peacock does not see the value of the council voting. Is a ‘green’ roof a better choice than saving trees?

Tim Morgan, C.M.S. District 6, had a reminder for everyone: when more schools are built in the future, this new tree ordinance will equal greater costs to all taxpayers. The American Forest Group has stated that cities east of the Mississippi should have a 40% tree canopy. The City of Charlotte has a 44% tree canopy. After the city started looking at tree canopy numbers, the American Forest Group modified this number. This group has now stated that this percentage should be 50% for Charlotte. Councilmen Andy Dulin and Warren Cooksey along with one democrat, Councilman Warren Turner did vote to exempt affordable housing from the new tree ordinance. Many others on the city council did say that it was important to exempt affordable housing but did not vote for this exemption. Councilman Patrick Cannon did bring ‘up’ the vote but later withdrew this. This technique raises the cost of development in the ‘wedges’. It is a micromanaging technique at the property level. The new tree ordinance is a development control technique and controls where development should occur.

The District 6 C.M.S. Representative, Tim Morgan was present again to answer school related questions. C.M.S. Officials anticipate that District 6 Schools Mint Hill Middle and Ballantyne Elementary will be removed from the ‘list of school changes’. Mint Hill Middle will see some administrative moves along with Title 1 changes. Officials are looking to change 150 Title 1 children. Right now there are 100 Title 1 children from Albemarle Road being sent to Mint Hill Middle. There are also another 50 children in the Title 1 program being sent to Mint Hill Middle. These children soon might not be sent to Mint Hill Middle and this will help relieve some of the overcrowding at this school. Ballantyne Elementary most likely will see more mobile classrooms to help alleviate overcrowding there.

Community House Middle is the most overcrowded school in Charlotte. C.M.S. Officials anticipate moving children from Community House to South Charlotte Middle School and J.M. Robinson Middle to alleviate some of the overcrowding. C.M.S. is seriously looking at seven middle schools and elementary schools that will be part of a new ‘K through 8’ or ‘Pre-K through 8’ program. Seven new elementary/middle school campus sites will be part of this program. School officials look forward to smaller classes and more time to have the children at one campus. School officials are also looking forward to one K-12 ‘Upper/Lower’ Campus with more separation of the different age children.

If C.M.S. closes schools this will ‘trigger’ some ‘reverter clauses’ to be in effect. Some of these closed schools might be used for ‘Parks and Recreation’ or affordable housing. Officials anticipate closing up to twelve schools and this will save money on administrative costs. Some are under the mistaken idea that once a school is opened that it can never be closed. C.M.S. is not shutting programs but might shut some schools. Right now the cost per student at Davison I.B is $8,500. This program might be expanded to Alexander. The cost per student at Community House is only $4,300 per student. This will save money to move this program.

The city is looking to ‘get out’ of the S.R.O./Crossing Guard Programs. There also was some worry about changes to magnet school transportation. Actually, there are more students at magnet schools at this time. John Grooms, from ‘Creative Loafing’, is upset with school officials over the reinstatement of Butler High School Football Player Sombo. Following C.M.S.Policy, Osvaldo Sombo was removed from Butler until all of the rape charges against him were cleared. The father of the teenaged girl involved in this ‘incident’ is also upset that Sombo is again playing football for Butler. C.M.S is facing some difficult decisions with all of these changes. School officials anticipate a final vote for November 9th on changes to the ‘student assignment policy’.

Today, October 1st, C.M.P.D. is opening a new police substation on Wendover Road in the Providence Division. This substation is near the ‘Cotswold’ area of Charlotte. Councilman Dulin is happy to attend this opening.

Saturday October 9th will be a day for two local events. The first event is the Ballantyne Breakfast Club Chili Cookoff. This will be on October 9th at the corner of Ballantyne Commons Parkway and North Community House Road. Candidates running for office from the Charlotte Area will be in attendance. Also representatives from: the S.W.A.T. Team, the ‘K9’ Unit, the Y.M.C.A., police, sheriff and fire fighters will be present. There will be face painting and a multitude of fun games for children. This event will be from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm. The second is a free event at South Park Mall to shed ‘sensitive’ documents. This will be from 9:00 am until 12:00 noon. You can call Council Member Andy Dulin at 704-968-8776 or you can also contact Kim Pearson-Brown with any questions at 704-336-2180 or kpearson@charlottenc.gov

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
Ballantyne Scoop

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Ballantyne, NC – Will the new tree ordinance impact the carbon footprint of the city? The September 24th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming Monday night dinner meeting for the city council. First on the agenda is the design/build concept for the ‘McAlpine Water Treatment Plant Filter Upgrade Project’. This [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Will the new tree ordinance impact the carbon footprint of the city? The September 24th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming Monday night dinner meeting for the city council. First on the agenda is the design/build concept for the ‘McAlpine Water Treatment Plant Filter Upgrade Project’. This is a ‘standard pattern’ upgrade. The running ‘gag’ among council members is that members can spend huge amounts of money with just a short amount of ‘publicly’ heard discussion. This is accomplished with a large amount of discussion among council ahead of time in closed door meetings.

A few years ago, Councilman Warren Cooksey wanted to re-name a small section of South Brevard Street as ‘Victory Lane’ but this measure did not get the votes needed to pass. Another ‘Victory Lane’ does already exist in Charlotte. The Duke Energy Fund is receiving a large gift from the Levine Foundation in the amount of $15 million. Ironically, the new housing bond is another item that is $15 million. This housing bond will be on the ballot this November. The new idea is to re-name the small section of First Street between Church Street and South Tryon Street. The proposed street name is the ‘Levine Avenue of the Arts’. On September 27th, the council will vote on the new Levine Arts Center.

Will the new tree ordinance change the design and the cost of renovating local schools? The tree ordinance can have a big impact on the city’s carbon footprint. The new ‘tree save’ calls for all business properties to have 15% trees on each lot. The mitigation provisions of zoning for the industrial tree ordinance is part of what will be talked about at the city council meeting this coming Monday. Tim Morgan, C.M.S. board member for District 6, stated that once C.M.S. re-activates its capitol program the new tree ordinance will impact the cost of future school construction and renovation projects. No new construction is planned for C.M.S. due to the county not selling bonds for capitol projects. Some properties will not be impacted by this new ordinance.

Here is a partial list of those not affected: single family homes, anything inside the 277 loop, T.O.D.D., M.U.D., U.M.U.D., mixed use in the uptown and the transit station. If businesses have a ‘green’ roof this is ‘in’ lieu’ of the 15% ‘tree save’. The old tree ordinance calls for parking lots to have all parking spots 60 feet from a tree, the new ‘tree save’ calls for each parking spot to be 40 feet from a tree. Parking lots with tractor trailers and/or buses are exempt from this change. Trees and lighting compete for the priority in parking lots. As the trees grow, it is increasingly unsafe to light the parking lots. If any property has a ‘green trail’ this also is ‘in lieu’ of the 15% ‘tree save’.

Industrial properties have other options when it comes to the ‘tree save’ as do those who plant small trees to avoid power lines. The utility easement also counts towards the 15% ‘tree save’. The most recent committee vote was unanimously in favor of moving forward with the entire tree ordinance. The ‘Johnson and Mills Property’ continues to be a ‘white elephant’ for the city. The new owners will be required to only repair the property for ten years. This mill property is in the area of ‘NoDa’. In 1990, a $1 million dollar loan was given for the mill, followed by $2.5 million and later another $2.4 million. Then in 2004, the city gave another $800,000 for the mortgage. In 2008, the city tried to sell this property for $475,000. Will the city be able to sell this ‘troublesome’ property?

The ‘Box Man Studio’s’ Project is on hold again. This has been deferred for another three months. It is a now a code enforcement issue. This is a state matter at this point. Currently, the city spends $198,000 for federal lobby service. More than half of this money is spent on transit issues. Holland and Knight will continue to be the federal lobbyist group for the city. The ‘Paw Creek Water Main Repair Project’ will cost $6.4 million. This project is near Charlotte-Douglas Airport. New 36” pipes will be put in the ground for sewer water. The small business goal (S.B.E. Goal) is 6% but for this project the bid was only 2.45%. Councilmen Cannon and Mitchell both wanted to give extra time for more small business opportunities on this project. Some wanted a Minority/ Women’s Business Group to bid on this project. The Economic Development Committee has two choices at this point: 1. A Disparity Study- this can be done by the ‘M.G.T’ Group. 2. A Disparity Study Committee-a group of citizens was suggested, like an Asian Group, an African-American Group and/or a Latino Group. The city has chosen to have the study done by the ‘M.G.T.’ Group.

The ‘Penguin’ Restaurant has gone through a serious of changes since it’s origin in 1954 in Charlotte. Jim Ballantine was the original owner. His ‘Ballantine Family Trust‘ still owns the property and the ‘intellectual property’ rights. In 1999, Greg Autton, Jim King and Brian Row opened the ‘Penguin’ again and twice obtained five year leases from the ‘Ballantine Family Trust’. Recently, the ‘lease terms’ were deemed unacceptable for the current ‘Penguin’ Restaurant. Soon Brian Row and Jim King will be opening the ‘Diamond’ restaurant again. Greg Autton will be opening a ‘Penguin West’ Restaurant and also owns ‘Pinkies’ Restaurant. Will there be a ‘Penguin Char-Grill’ in Raleigh soon?

Will there be crossing guards or School Resource Officers (S.R.O.’s)? C.M.P.D.‘s Chief Monroe is in favor of using money from the ‘Resource Recovery Act’ for his officers but not C.M.S. The City of Charlotte recently sent a letter to Dr. Gorman about S.R.O.’s and crossing guards. The city plans to phase out both S.R.O.’s and crossing guards over a three year period. The city is managing their money well but has made a clear choice for the street car and NOT for the children. Tim Morgan, C.M.S. District 6, is concerned about the impact this decision will have on ‘community policing’ efforts. Some of the options for the schools are: outsourcing, contracting with C.M.P.D., or hiring retired police officers.

Lately, no one values the connections between the city, county and the schools. All governmental decisions have a ‘ripple’ effect. By 2013, C.M.S. probably will take $3 million in ‘hits’ due to this choice. C.M.S. Officials anticipate that Davidson, Matthews and Mint Hill are just a few towns that will ask for same deal as the city is requesting. Over the next three years the city will not pay for any crossing guards or S.R.O’s in the schools. In the short term, C.M.S. is trying to find another $1 million to pay for these safety features for the children. This week, C.M.S. Board Member Trent Merchant sent a letter to the city. He wants to begin a dialog about the consequences of these safety choices. The county cut employees, the schools cut employees but the city is giving all of it’s employees raises.

City officials viewed these cuts as ‘low hanging fruit’ when it removed these projects. It sounds like a simple shift in dollars for the city. A recent study revealed that the biggest partnership in the recent past between the city and the schools was the S.R.O.’s. All of the other current partnerships are small. Does the city value partnerships? Is education a priority?
Saturday, October 9th will be a chili cookoff held by the Ballantyne Breakfast Club. This will be at the corner of Ballantyne Commons Parkway and North Community House Road. Candidates running for office from the Charlotte Area will be in attendance. Also representatives from: the S.W.A.T. Team, the K9 Unit, the Y.M.C.A., police, sheriff and fire fighters will be present. There will be face painting and a multitude of fun games for children. This family event will start at 11:00 am and end at 2:00 pm.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
Ballantyne Scoop

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Ballantyne, NC – On September 10th,the morning breakfast meeting opened with a hot topic: C.M.S. Current District 6 School Board member Tim Morgan and former board member Ken Gjertsen were both in attendance to help sort out some of the new changes to C.M.S. Tim Morgan explained that the new proposed changes [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – On September 10th,the morning breakfast meeting opened with a hot topic: C.M.S. Current District 6 School Board member Tim Morgan and former board member Ken Gjertsen were both in attendance to help sort out some of the new changes to C.M.S. Tim Morgan explained that the new proposed changes are all part of the new student assignment policy of the board. Some schools are overcrowded and others are underutilized. The ‘performance cost indicator’ looks at student academic growth. Does the indicator show that a student has gained one year’s worth of academic growth in one calendar year? Has a student grown more or less than the one year mark?

The term ‘proficient’ is used to equate a score of a 3 or a 4 on the E.O.G. or E.O.C.’s. Some of the proposed changes to schools might happen as soon as the Fall of 2011. C.M.S. is looking at the per pupil cost of schools, the staff, the utilities and transportation. South Charlotte, as a whole, uses less money per student than any of the other schools in Mecklenburg County. Olympic High School’s progress has been a good surprise. Olympic is structured as five small schools which means it has five principals. Recent C.M.S ranking has put Olympic as numbers one, three, six, eight and nine among local public schools. Olympic has good performance and cost per student.

Garinger High School is also structured as a “small” school like Olympic. C.M.S. is facing a “cliff” of money that will permanently go away and there also are no capital dollars. A clarification on the transportation issue, the shuttle stops are manned by C.M.S. buses not C.A.T.S. buses. C.M.S. approximates that during this school year, there will be a gain of 1,200 to 1,500 new students in the system. The school board is trying to deal with extended growth and a large loss of funds.

C.M.S. Staff presented proposed changes to the board this past Tuesday, September 7th, in a work session. C.M.S. Staff proposed changes to 32 schools. Dr. Gorman has added another five schools since then to the list. This brings the total on the list to 37 schools. Locally, there are a cluster of elementary schools that are low income, under utilized and low performing. Should C.M.S. create one large, low performing school? This is not a good option. The current school board will not consider busing children as an option. Another solution available is a ‘year-round’ program. The board is hand picking the best schools that might work for this ‘year-round’ option.

Already in place at several schools locally is ‘strategic staffing’. This program is a higher cost per pupil and uses ‘Title I’ dollars. Operational costs are normally higher with schools in this program. C.M.S. is adding more schools to this ‘strategic staffing’ program every year. Every three years there is a serious evaluation of each school on this program. Most of the schools that were chosen for this program are ‘older’ schools in this system. The exceptions to the higher cost are Devonshire Elementary and Villa Heights Elementary. Both of these schools have a low-cost per student and they are both on ‘strategic staffing’. Villa Heights has 304 students and 21% of the students come from economically challenged homes. Villa Heights has already experienced tremendous growth. There is a 94.4% proficiency level at this school. Also the academic growth at this school shows that the students are making more than one years growth in one calendar year.

Villa Heights is a magnet school with high parental involvement. Are full or partial magnet schools effective and worth the extra money? Already there are good signs of improvement with ‘strategic staffing’ schools.

What is the result of people who “choice out” of schools? There are at least three reasons to ‘choice out’ of a ‘home’ school:
1. Go to a magnet school.
2. Go to a ‘Title I’ school.
3. Go to the school ‘where a family member who is a teacher or staff member’ works.

Quail Hollow Elementary is struggling in part due to 261 students who have “choiced out” of this school. South Mecklenburg High School is still growing and had 1,900 students at the end of the school year in the spring of 2010. The change in the student population at C.M.S. could be due to children returning from private schools, people new to Mecklenburg County and hispanic workers. The hispanic construction workers’ children have decreased while at the same time children of hispanic service workers has increased. McClintock also has pretty good numbers. Rama Road Elementary has lower numbers than McClintock. What would schools look like if there was no “choice out” option?

The new idea is to create K-8 schools. Behind the scenes, staff at C.M.S. has starting looking at this idea. The school board has tentatively looked at three to five locations that would work for the K-8 idea. This whole concept provides a stable environment and keeps the student at the same school for eight years. The S.T.E.M. program would work well with this new idea. Two of the schools that would work for this are Quail Hollow and McClintock. Demographics have changed and there are no longer large numbers of school children in particular sections of Charlotte.

Several years ago, there were C.M.S. board members who were particularly determined NOT to build any schools in the Ballantyne Area. These school board members were happy to bus all of the students in Ballantyne to the far reaches of Mecklenburg County. Better utilization of schools will help to save more money. Several schools are over capacity but there is no money to build more schools. There are four solutions available to help schools that are over-capacity:
1. Change the ‘boundaries’ for a particular set of schools.
2. More mobile classes at a school: i.e. ‘mobile villages’.
3. ‘Year-round’ format: forced or magnet.
4. Busing children to other schools.

Right now C.M.S has 600 mobiles that are vacant and these can be utilized to help with over-crowded schools if necessary. Mobiles do help with over-crowded schools but NOT with cost savings. Mobile classrooms actually cost MORE money than ‘brick-and mortar’ schools. This is due to the number of ‘outside‘ walls in a mobile. The floor is also an ‘outside‘ wall thus H.V.A.C. costs are very high. Both Carmel and Hawthorne Elementary Schools are ‘permanent’ mobile schools. They only have mobile classrooms available at these schools.

Elementary schools might fare better the high schools or middle schools in adopting the new ‘year-round’ format. The current school board will not seriously consider the ‘busing’ option. The school system will ‘gain space’ if the ‘year-round’ option is realized. The ‘year-round’ school would operate in 12-week segments. Each group of children would go to school for nine weeks and then immediately have three weeks off from school. The students schedule would be staggered and the school would always be utilized. Parents at Mint Hill Middle School are upset because there are large numbers of students at the school. This is an ‘ugly’ situation. There are also unhappy parents at Mint Hill High School due to increased numbers of students at this school. There is a potential for 2,000 students at Mint Hill Middle School.

In the Ballantyne Area, the three schools affected are: Mint Hill High School, Community House Middle School and Ballantyne Elementary. Some who live in the ‘Pineville Boot’ would like to have the boundary changed for Ballantyne Elementary to include the people living in this ‘boot’. Low-income students can greatly benefit from the ‘year-round’ school option. If a student is having trouble with a specific subject the student can spend one of the three weeks off working with a tutor or a teacher to improve said subject. Currently in Wake County, there are several ‘optional year-round’ schools that have been ‘year-round’ for a few years. Are there enough votes on the current school board to make ‘year-round‘ school mandatory rather than an option? Tim Morgan thinks that there are not enough votes for the mandatory option.

Ken Gjertsen talked about a church that has adopted a school and helps tutor the children and the parents. Ken stressed that consistency is the key to ‘community measures’ being helpful. Two new ‘broad residents’ will be joining C.M.S to help manage education reform. Here is the link to the article: http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/News/Pages/TwonewBroadresidentsjoinCMStomanageeducationreforminCharlotte.aspx
The goal is to have all of the decisions made on the ‘school changes list’ by the end of November.

Larry Huelsman, member of the board of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (C.R.V.A.), was also present for the breakfast meeting. Last Tuesday, September 7th, the city council met at the airport. The hot topic was the new taxi ordinance. The C.R.V.A frequently takes surveys and has many volunteers at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The Visitor’s Authority has received much negative feedback about the taxis in Charlotte. The business lease rate at the airport in Charlotte is especially low. The taxi drivers and owners do not want the fees and rates on taxis to go up soon. There is also a city ordinance that states that all taxi companies in Charlotte must own a minimum of 30 taxi cabs.

The new taxi ordinance that is now proposed would require all taxis have a G.P.S. in the vehicle as well as a credit card unit in the back of each vehicle. Charlotte-Douglas is the eighth busiest airport in the U.S.A. Former Mayor Harris was the one who got airport bonds passed in 1979 and made major improvements to the airport.

The new N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame is looking to get more corporate sponsorships and bring in more money in a variety of ways. The Hall of Fame is also looking to cut costs. Wray Ward is the advertising firm for the Hall of Fame. The Wild Wings near the Hall of Fame has been attracting many good customers lately. The new convention center has a Bojangles and a Starbucks. Both of these businesses are doing well and bringing in good customers as well. The two-percent hotel/motel tax is what pays for the Hall of Fame. The Wingate Hotel is in need of more N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame brochures. Hopefully this indicator and other positive indicators will equal a ‘turn around’ of the economy. There are no public funds used for the N.A.S.C.A.R. Tower. Charlotte is hearing good things so far about the Queen City’s chances of hosting the D.N.C. The C.R.V.A is very much about the ‘green’ movement. At the corner of Trade and Tryon, this coming Tuesday, September 14th at 3:30 pm there will be a green movement meeting. This will be held in the auditorium of the ‘60-Story’ Bank of America Tower.

Susan J Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
Ballantyne Scoop

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Ballantyne, NC – The hot topics for the September 3rd breakfast meeting were the Charlotte Housing Authority, the salary for the city manager and the taxi controversy. Charlotte City Council’s meeting date has been altered due to Labor Day. The next city meeting will not be on a Monday, per usual, but [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – The hot topics for the September 3rd breakfast meeting were the Charlotte Housing Authority, the salary for the city manager and the taxi controversy. Charlotte City Council’s meeting date has been altered due to Labor Day. The next city meeting will not be on a Monday, per usual, but on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010. This particular meeting is an airport themed meeting and therefore will be at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. All city council member’s did receive a large binder that includes directions to this airport. The city council will soon hold eight public meetings to discuss water and sewer studies. The two public meetings in the Ballantyne Area are both at the South County Public Library. The first meeting is September 16th at 6:00 pm and the next is November 3rd also at 6:00 pm. The city will be also holding more public meetings on the street car soon. These will be concerning the $5.5 million spent on the engineering study for the first phase of the new street car. The first two public meetings will be held at Johnson C. Smith University. These will be on September 28th and 30th. The third meeting will be at the government center on October 5th.

The Charlotte Housing Authority (C.H.A.) is an independent agency of the State of North Carolina. The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority is a division of the federal government. The C.H.A. has seven board members. The C.H.A. has chosen to put a resident of public housing on the board of C.H.A. One senior staff member wanted to chose which resident would be on the board. Some council members are not comfortable with senior staff choosing this resident. Lucille Pucket was chosen to be this member of the Charlotte Housing Authority Board. She recently was evicted due to drug trade charges. This week, Tara Servatius interviewed Ms. Pucket on her radio show. Ms. Pucket has thirteen children. Ms. Pucket is originally from South Carolina and she has been living in Charlotte for four years. There is some controversy surrounding Ms. Pucket and whether or not she should continue on this board.

Will the prosecution choose to appeal the verdict in the Montgomery trial? The City of Charlotte has been chosen as a “Walk Friendly Community” and is a test community for pedestrian safety. Does City Manager Curt Walton make enough money? His current salary is $210,000. Harry Jones, the county manager, makes $283,000 plus his generous benefits. Are these salaries comparable to C.E.O. packages? Should they be comparable?

The taxi drivers are upset with the city on two levels They are upset with how taxi’s are regulated at the Charlotte Airport. Also they are upset because the City of Charlotte gives the taxi license to the taxi company but not the driver. This city does not have a ‘medallion’ system to license drivers. Several taxi drivers have equated this last ordinance to ‘slavery’. Taxi‘s must not be any older than five years old according to a city ordinance. All taxi companies must own a minimum of 30 taxi cabs.

Right now D.S.S. does pay taxi cabs to linger in order to provide transportation for them. The city does not allow limousines to linger currently. This “loophole” in the lingering law allows hotels the option to contract with one or more limousine companies. Another city ordinance is concerning taxi companies that are located outside of the city. One destination by just such a taxi is allowed but not two or more destinations. Also an out of town taxi is not allowed, once inside Charlotte, to pick up another fare. The original goal of these ordinances by the city were to improve the taxi cab industry.

Currently the ordinances for taxi’s are very complex. The locational policy was discussed recently. City Council Members Michael Barnes and Patrick Cannon were talking about this policy. Michael Barnes is the district 4 representative. District 4 has the second lowest number of subsidized housing of any district in Charlotte. Other concerns are about group homes and design standards. The Chamber of Commerce President, Bob Morgan, was recently talking to the city council about the D.N.C. coming to Charlotte. Four cities are finalists. These are the cities:

St. Louis, Missouri.
2. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cleveland, Ohio.
Charlotte, North Carolina.

Will the D.N.C. fail to chose St. Louis since they said no to “Obamacare”? Will the D.N.C. chose a city with a large union presence?

Tim Morgan, C.M.S. Board, also answered a few questions. A five year old kindergarten student recently was ‘lost’ for a short period of time on the way home from the first day of class. This student is at Ballantyne Elementary. The child was on the bus and when the driver was finished the route he called the child’s name but the child did not answer. The bus driver failed to ‘walk the bus’ and did not thoroughly look for the child. Later, another staff member did check the bus for students and found the five year old laying down in the back of the bus. No harm came to the child as a result of this incident.

Another incident involves Osvaldo Sombo. Sombo was a star football player at Butler High School. He has been charged with raping another Butler student. He was allowed to play the first football game of the season which happened after his arrest. C.M.S. has a computer system to check arrests but since this arrest of Sombo was during the summer there was a delay. The letter was sent ‘snail mail’ to Butler High. C.M.S. now has a new system to respond in a timely fashion to student arrests. The new policy dictates that a special person will check police records of arrests everyday. The new policy now states that if arrested then the student would be ‘pulled’ immediately and sent to Bank Street School as a ‘triage’ method. Then C.M.S. will make a final decision about what is best for the student after the student is at Bank Street School.

A third incident involves South Mecklenburg High School. An A.P. Teacher at South Mecklenburg High School was recently arrested. He was taking pictures ‘up the skirts of women’ at a local grocery store. The ‘already in place’ policy is to remove the teacher from the classroom immediately. This teacher was immediately removed from the classroom and another teacher will be instructing the A.P. Students.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
Ballantyne Scoop

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