Ballantyne, NC – Councilman Warren Cooksey started off his weekly meeting by addressing the recent media attention on the Charlotte City Council’s upcoming Planning retreat in Tryon, NC. The retreat is held every other year (non-election years) and offers the City Council members an opportunity to escape work and personal distractions. The controversy [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Councilman Warren Cooksey started off his weekly meeting by addressing the recent media attention on the Charlotte City Council’s upcoming Planning retreat in Tryon, NC. The retreat is held every other year (non-election years) and offers the City Council members an opportunity to escape work and personal distractions. The controversy over this years retreat has to do with the $30,000 price tag that comes along with the trip to the Pinecrest Inn.

The cost includes the 10 council members as well as 10 to 15 other staff members. Cooksey opened up the floor for comment from constituents regarding their feeling on the retreat and its cost. Only one question was raised from the floor and it was “is the retreat beneficial?” The Councilman said yes it was since that was when they set most of their planning for the upcoming year. Councilman Andy Dulin was in charge of planning this year’s retreat.

Former Police Officer Marcus Jackson of the CMPD continued to be a topic of discussion. Chief Rodney Monroe addressed the council regarding this issue and has taken responsibility for the background check oversights and reported that new safe guards have been put in place to help avoid this in the future. The CMPD in the past has only done criminal background checks and not civil ones due to the complexity of their nature. The restraining orders against Jackson were missed. It was also indicated that when Jackson went through his interview process he did not disclose his 2005 event, only the one that occurred in 2003.

The Council was set to vote on adding an agenda item regarding the review of Jackson’s personnel files, but discovered that they were not allowed to request this due to statutes. The only person that can request this would be the City Manager and this has very rarely been done.

Warren Cooksey stated that while the Chief has taken ownership of this debacle, he does feel that a stern message should be sent to the CMPD that this type of thing will not be taken lightly by council members.

Next up was some discussion on the rezoning request from York Development Group regarding the Ballantyne Corners development. It is set to go before the council on January 19th. The request is over some modifications to the site plan and is expected to pass. Another rezoning request is set for March regarding the “affordable housing” request at the intersection of Providence Road West and Johnston Road. This request will most likely create some controversy in the area from both residents and adjacent land owners.

County Commissioner Neil Cooksey reported that the main thing on the commissioner’s agenda was the new state mandate that counties must now take over child support enforcement. The mandate comes with no supporting funds and the county will need to figure out how to fund it as well as run it. There are several options on the table including doing it in house as well as outsourcing it to a private agency. Neil Cooksey stated that the option of going with a private company appeared to have the lower cost associated with it and that the companies responding to the RFP’s had agreed to hire the current employees from the state to administer the program. Commissioner Cooksey also stated that he worked in the private sector for a company that handled this type of business.

Lastly it was announced that Vision 2020 was planning on having a series of community meetings to address the public about Charlotte’s Center City future. The scheduling of 2 of the town hall style meetings come during the city council’s retreat and therefore prohibiting 2 district council members from attending. The Ballantyne Scoop will have more coverage on this next week so check back with us.

caroline@ballantynescoop.com