Notice of Public Hearing Offers Little Information

Incentive Information Released One Day Before Hearing

The subject of tax incentives to businesses is a controversial one, but the commissioners have no policy that provides for meaningful public input on it. On May 19, the commissioners called a "public hearing" on incentives of $40,463 for June 1. A notice with the minimum information required by law was published May 22. How is a citizen supposed to determine if he wants to take off work at 9 am on a Monday morning to express his views if there is no information to help him form an opinion?

No detailed information on the proposal was furnished to the public until today. It was sent in response to two separate formal requests for public information. The documents totaled 36 pages. The documents are in electronic format so they could easily be made available on the web. But they aren't. The public at large still has no idea about the details and no basis for making a decision if they favor or oppose this particular incentive.

The commissioners need to get serious about public participation and learn to listen. The should adopt a policy that requires that the documents be open for public inspection at the county office building and available on the web at the time the notice of the public hearing is printed in the paper. Then the public will know if the public hearing is something that merits the commitment it takes to participate in the process by attending the public hearing and have the option of calling commissioners to express their views. That is what a board would do if it really had an attitude of wanting to know what the public thinks.

Unfortunately, the Lee County Board of Commissioners does not have the reputation of really "listening" to citizens.' For example, almost every speaker in favor of the failed sales tax tied their comments to the renovation of Lee County High School. Commissioner Jerry Lemmond kept a tally of for and against. Somehow the message got lost because the commissioners steadfastly refused to take action to assure the voters that the revenue would go to the renovations. As they were warned, without that specific commitment the tax failed.

Let's hope they learned something from the sales tax and listen to public instead of following wherever Robert Reives leads them.

Stop Gap Measures Start At LCHS

Science Building Coming Down-Trailers Coming In

With the failure of the one-quarter cent sales tax and the muddling around with plans for renovation of Lee County High School by the county commissioners, the Board of Education is beginning to take measures to correct some of the worst conditions at the school.

Once school dismisses for the year, the old science building will be demolished and the debris removed from the campus. With this construction activity going on, many summer activities will be moved to the Southern Lee High School Campus.

Eight "portable classrooms" will replace the classrooms lost when the science building comes down. The money to fund the demolition and classrooms was appropriated to the Board of Education in this current school year's budget. It is clearly less than an ideal situation, but it will be better than the current environment. Perhaps the area could be called "Commissioner's Commons."

Annexation Moratorium Coming to Vote

As a development in a neighborhood to the south, Pinehurst, found out the hard way, property owners have absolutely no protection against forced annexation--even if they get no substantial services as a result. Instead, they just get another layer of government and more taxes. (read about it here)

This ought to worry all Lee County residents as we could be gobbled up by Sanford and things like their business privilege tax at practically any time. Thanks to the hard work of the folks from Moore County and the work of Americans For Prosperity, a vote has been scheduled in the state house. (Lloyd Jennings work on this ought to be appreciated because the time may come when Carolina Trace faces the issue.)

Last week, a House Select Committee on Municipal Annexation voted to move forward with a bill that would impose a statewide moratorium on involuntary annexation through June 30, 2009. The bill now goes to the full House. If passed by the House, the bill would then move to the Senate for consideration. This will give the next session of the legislature the opportunity to more carefully exam the issue. Naturally the League of Municipalities is gearing up a strong lobbying effort against it. Folks from Moore County have a rally planned June 4. American's For Prosperity has set up a web page (visit the page here) to make it very easy to contact legislators by email to urge support of this moratorium.

CCCC Selection Process Should Become Model

Getting Public Involvement Good Lesson For Other Leadership Positions

Central Caro­lina Community College has narrowed the search for its next president to six finalists and is now beginning a process of getting stakeholder input. Getting this kind of public input ought to be the model for the County Manager, City Manager, and School Superintendent as well. It is a much better model than keeping the matter secret, as was done with these selections last time.

CCCC has provided the media the names, current positions, and background information on the finalists. Visits to the community have been arranged where faculty, students, and the public can meet the candidates and give their input into the process. Each finalist will visit the college between June 3 and June 11 to be interviewed by the Board of Trustees; tour the college’s facilities in Lee, Harnett and Chatham counties; and take part in a meet-and-greet event for college personnel, stu­dents, and the community. All of the meet-and-greet sessions will take place between 3 and 4 p.m. in the Dennis A.Wicker Civic Center, located across from the college.

I have seen this process applied to county managers and school superintendents in other areas and it allows the individuals in this important leadership roles to begin work as if they were already part of the community. There is no information here that any of these other positions might opening up soon, but perhaps we can remember this process for when the time comes.

Privilege Tax Gives Token Tax Relief

Some political ploys are just so transparent. The former city council passed the business privilege tax over the strong objections of the business community. These objections were based both on the unfairness of the tax, the paperwork associated with the tax, and the cost of the tax. As noted in an earlier post (click here to read), a change in only six votes in the election would have led to repeal of the business privilege tax.

The city manager is trying to pass off of a one cent decrease in property tax as the fruits of the business privilege tax. With more council members who supported the tax coming up for re-election in 2009, he hardly had any choice. The AFP crowd will likely be rolling in from Raleigh and they have a pretty good track record.

From a financial point of view, most businesses may actually get net "tax relief" from the one cent reduction. They would have gotten the same amount from the reduction of the fund balance. Others businesses, especially those having to deal with multiple business licenses, would be better off not having the privilege tax.

So here is a proposal: print the tax bills so that businesses have a choice--kinda of a check-off.
Let them choose to be exempt from the privilege tax and pay last year's tax rate or remain covered by the business privilege tax and take the 1 cent tax reduction. That will give a real hard-nosed look at the situation. This idea may sound a little goofy and would certainly create more work for the city tax department, but it makes about as much sense as the business privilege tax... doesn't it.

Study--Political Desperation?

Last night the Lee County Board of Education tabled the question of having yet a third consultant look at the needs of Lee County High School, this one by a consultant working for the commissioners. In one respect, that is pretty quick action since the formal request had not been received. The action does signal that the board has some specific questions. The questions are legitimate:

• Who is the consultant and what are the qualifications?
• What is the scope of work?
• What is to be done with the study once it is completed?

The motion to table was made by outgoing school board member John Bonardi, chairman of the facilities committee. That committee met prior to the full board meeting where Mr. Bonardi, an astute political observer, called the motion for the study by Mr. Reives "an act of political desperation." He said that the foot dragging by the commissioners may have caused the sales tax to fail and the commissioner chair to lose in the primary. "He is trying to save Jerry Lemmond now in the fall." (Lemmond seems to always vote with Reives .)

Bonardi noted the past indifference of Reives, whom he called "the leader of the commissioners," shown toward the Hite plan in particular and Lee County Senior High's facility problems. (Perhaps that is his own observation because many of those people who have worked with the commission have apparently observed it or perhaps he is just picking up on this blog's view of the situation.) Bonardi reviewed a list of fruitless efforts that had been ignored in seeking to provide the commissioners with more information on the Hite plan.

Bonardi noted that both consultants that had looked at the campus had agreed that the most effective solution included taking down the same two buildings and questioned the wisdom of spending more of the county's tax money for what would likely be the same conclusion again.

Having seen the commissioner's meeting, there was indeed a marked contrast in the urgency with which Mr. Reives approached the high school needs at the last meeting. It was a lot different than a statement he once made following a lengthy list of speakers on behalf of the high school. "Now you people know how we people felt about W.B. Wicker. " (emphasis added)

Would Some Communication Be Worth $75,000?

One could not observe yesterday's commissioners' meeting without having the distinct impression that at least most of them were still in shock at the defeat of the quarter cent sales tax. The public has been rather docile about the increases in property taxes in recent years and perhaps the commissioners thought since this was a much better deal (it was) that the public would go along.

Perhaps that is why the commissioners ignored warning after warning that they needed to be very specific about where the money was going. Maybe those who survive the fall election will remember the lesson.

From time to time some program has a cost overrun like having more juveniles in detention than budgeted or the state changes some rule and the commissioners have to do a budget amendment for say $10-20,000. This seems to bring up an obligatory, if mild, howl about these unexpected, budgeted expenses. This was not the case when the idea of bringing in what will be the third paid consultant to look at the situation at Lee County High School. Some costs in the range of $75K to $100K were brought up.

The need for this consultant was based on the recognition that it could be a long time before the renovation plan done by Hite and Consultants could be funded without the sales tax. Give the commissioners credit for hearing the many public speakers and public out cry about the basic health and safety concern. Now the question seems to be "we have to do something and what is the least we can do.". So the solution is to get their own consultant--something they can't do, however, without the permission of the schools and community college. You see, the law makes it clear that ". . . the repairing of all old school buildings shall be under the control and direction of, and by contract with, the board of education for which the building and repairing is done." The commissioners, however, have to make the decision how much money is appropriate to operate the schools.

There is an old saying that if you have two clocks you never know what time it really is. (This may no longer be true with the proliferation of radio signal clocks controlled by the nation's atomic clock.) But absolutely true or not, the saying still has merit. Why is the first idea here for the commissioners to go out and get yet another consultant's opinion? Why is it being set up in a way in which the schools will still have their plan and the commissioners end up with theirs?

The commissioners take time off in the summer having only one meeting in July, August, September. Why not take the time to set up a joint working group with the school board? Start by calling Hite and Associates in and asking for their reasoning on all the questions at issue? Perhaps they could, for a minimum fee, come up with a stop gap measure plan instead of having to get some other firm that would have to come in and start from scratch. Why should the taxpayers have to pick up the tab for much of the same work to be done again just because the commissioners want to be in charge of something that they can't even really control?

If we are going to have another study, lets make it a joint one and let's include some private citizens too and perhaps we can reach a consensus we can live with.

Final Totals Show Something of An Upset

Hayes Edges Lemmond by 5

An earlier post (click here) discussed Jerry Lemmond's legendary one-on- one campaigning. Based on that he was expected to lead the vote getters in the democrat primary for commissioners. Well, final vote totals showed that Richard Hayes beat him out by 5 votes--4637-4632. That is an impressive feat. Since we know that Hayes could not have outworked Lemmond, is there some other meaning. Hayes ran a very effective set of banner type ads that stood out--an explanation that might appeal to my friend Bill Horner. Since the incumbent chairman lost and Hayes is not an incumbent, maybe Lemmond's legendary campaigning just allowed him to overcome an anti-incumbent tsunami. Whatever, it merits noticing.

Perhaps there should be special recognition for Ed Paschal who perhaps campaigned least because of an untimely bout with sciatica. He still managed to finish in the top three--again.

Of course, Lynn Smith got the most votes but since Republicans could vote in the school board race, you can't compare his totals to the commissioner's race. What really matters now is how well the Republican candidates can fair in November.

Speculation Already Under Way on Gavels

Commissioner Robert T. Reives' term doesn't expire until 2010, so unless the Democrats lose hold on the board this fall, he will likely remain the leader, but with the primary defeat of Bob Brown, the largely ceremonial title of chairman will be wide open. Reports from a number of reliable sources suggest that Commissioner Jamie Kelly expects to succeed Brown in November. Among Commissioner Kelly's genuinely good qualities is a general optimistic outlook, but he tends to forget that there is an election in November. Only he knows what kind of commitments he has lined up, but it is doubtful he has lined up any GOP support and unlikely that even all the democrats have committed. Herb Hincks, a Republican, who is seeking re-election to the board has served as a chair of the commission for eight years without ever having a majority Republican board.

The board of education is another story. Chairman Bill Tatum won re-election. GOP Chair Richard Litiken has sent out a mailing anticipating that Dr. Lynn Smith will be the new Board of Education Chair because Smith got more votes than any other Board of Education candidate. Since Smith is a registered Republican, Litiken's argument is understandable. It is not, however, the precedent the Board of Education has followed in the past. Tatum, unlike Kelly, is mum on his plans. Since the new Board of Education will be organized in July, the mystery will be the first one cleared up.

TV Version Of Drug Bust Paints Different Story

Drug Case Ruling Delayed

Wow. Now all those years of watching Law and Order shows and their reruns is going to pay off.

For two days stories about a YouTube video secretly taken and posted by a Sanford police officer has made the front page of the Sanford Herald. The significance of the video can be best understood by watching the WRAL coverage of the story because a small excerpt of the actual video can be seen in television. (Click here)

The video as evidence plays two potential roles in the case. First, and here comes all my Law and Order expertise, is the requirement that prosecutors turn over all evidence in a case to the defense.

The sheriff's office, state, and federal agencies had not involved the Sanford Police Department in the processing of the crime scene. The sheriff's office was aware that two Sanford Police officers had come out to the scene. It seems obvious that the Sanford Police did not consider itself to be a part of the investigation or it would have turned the the video over to the Sheriff's Office or the District Attorney.

It was the inquiries of the defense attorney that alerted the Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney to the existence of the video. Naturally, the defense attorney is going to move that the case should be dismissed on procedural grounds--that is, not all evidence was turned over to the prosecution. If you can get a case dismissed on procedural grounds, the issue of guilt or innocence of the client doesn't come up--it just goes away.

The hearing on the motion to dismiss was scheduled for this morning but was postponed.

Second, if the defense losses its motion, it can still use the video as evidence. It is here that seeing the snippet of video helps to understand what is going on. The defendants claim that they did not know that the packages they were handling contained marijuana. The video on YouTube showed agents removing the marijuana from some sort of packaging. The video doesn't necessarily prove what the defendants knew but it does show how is was packaged. It is clearly relevant and could influence the outcome. To the extent that the video actually adds to a proper determination of guilt or innocence, it ought to be looked upon as a good thing. That some law enforcement officer would make an unauthorized video and post it on the Internet suggests that some training is needed somewhere.

Both Bill Horner (Click here) and Gordon Anderson (Click here) have written blogs about the story that shed further light on the story and its significance. There is little to add here.

What is worth adding, however, is how the media found out. It was the Sheriff's Office that alerted the media and that alert brought WRAL-TV to town (and sent Gordon scrambling). As an elected official, Sheriff Carter feels that he is accountable to the public and has an obligation to keep the citizens informed. That he and/or the Sanford police may be embarrassed by the story was not a relevant consideration. About that, the Sheriff was prepared to let the public draw its own conclusion.

The Chief of Police reports to the City Manager. That perhaps explains what looks like another attitude toward volunteering information to the public in this case.

Tatum Survives Provisional Ballots

The story is the same as two years ago in the sheriff's race; the drama of counting provisional ballots didn't change the outcome. No more drama for me from provisional recounts unless the votes between candidates are more than a handful of votes.

One can make general assumption that the provisional ballots will be a rough sample of the much larger universe of votes that counted the first time around. Provisional ballots may "nibble" at the final outcome but not more than a few votes and Tatum's lead was too much to overcome. This is even more true in a 'one of the multiple' choice race than in a head to head race. (See my previous post on these kind of races.) In fact, it can be argued that Cameron Sharpe, or any of the winners, beat Kim Lilley. Tatum was just the last one to finish before her.

Had Lilley been able to file against Tatum, she might have beat him. It can be argued that even though there was a lot of common support for Sharpe and Lilley, they were both running against Tatum. The anti-Tatum money gravitated to Sharpe and that gave him a big advantage and a bigger slice of the pie in the multi-vote system. Regrets to Lilley--better luck next time.

I Pick 3 out of 4

The Sanford Herald ran a poll starting Sunday on why the tax proposal failed. The four choices are getting about equal votes.

	Public should have been told about possible property tax increase
	Government should have promised money to local schools
	There should have been better overall information available
	Nothing. The tax had no chance of passing.

I would vote for all of the first three.

A summary of county votes on additional taxes prepared by WRAL-TV paints a pretty bleak picture for any changes in the sources of revenue available to counties. (Click here to see story)

But only eight of the 55 separate votes on the tax increases have been successful. Opponents of the land-transfer tax are a perfect 20-for-20 in defeating the idea, including four times last week.

That the land transfer tax has failed so consistently is somewhat easy to understand although there is a certain logic behind it especially in rapidly growing counties. That logic is that the development of new homes creates demands on infrastructure. First of all, it has serious local predators among home builders and realtors that have given them a significant financial advantage in the campaigns. But since the tax applies to all home sales including existing ones, it has been portrayed as a "home tax" that unfairly singles out home owners for the burden of new schools and other infrastructure. Given its track record, it looks like a dead source of local revenue especially now that the sales price of homes in many markets are failing.

The .25 sales tax looked like an easier sale. First of all, changes in state tax laws have reduced the sales tax from 7% to 6.75%. Adding back the .25% doesn't sound like a horrendous sacrifice; in fact, many people think the tax is still 7%. In the sense that everyone who shops in a county pays it, it is a "fair tax." In fact, in a county like Lee which is a retail hub, at least a third of the revenue would have come from people outside the county. But only eight of the 55 separate votes on the tax increases have been successful.

There is a consistent rationale as to why these counties passed the tax. The voters knew that a specific project was going to paid for by the tax--a project that would likely be funded with property taxes if the sales tax failed. The choice then was which tax do you want to have - not do you want a new tax. This is where Lee's tax failed.

First of all, there was never a commitment to a specific plan for the renovation of Lee County High School. On November 20, 2007 the Lee County Board of Education sent a revised plan for the renovation of the high school to the Board of Commissioners along with additional information requested by the commissioners. The County Commissioners never spent any significant time discussing this plan jointly with the BOE or among themselves. There were questions about why it was even necessary to renovate rather than repair the school. This lack of clarity left tax opponents with the chance to argue that the money was not needed for the school--the old "a couple of buckets of tar and a few rakes will fix the problem." And to taxpayers, the project surely didn't look imminent. The message was if the sales tax doesn't pass we will not be able to do the school. So all the arguments that are the strongest arguments were forfeited by the commissioners handling of the matter.

This gave rise to the famous "trust us" comment. The voters answered 'no' two ways--the defeat of the sales tax and the defeat of the chairman Bob Brown.

Rushing back to another vote is a waste of time. Until the commissioners endorse the Hite plan, there is no point even discussing it.

Note: Comments are open. Your comments on this issue would be really welcomed.

Reives Is Crying Crocodile Tears

No single person in Lee County is as responsible for the defeat of the sales tax at the polls as Robert Rieves. It was on February 14 that Commissioner Rieves insisted that the resolution on the uses of the sales tax proceeds be stripped from mentioning Lee County High School. He commented that we don't want to get into specific projects now. Well, according to all the experience of successful campaigns, it was exactly the time to get into very specific projects. That was based on the the first round of votes - and the second round of votes confirmed the same thing.

Now remember, this was February. The commissioners, if they had questions about the plan for Lee County High School, could have started addressing them immediately. If fell to the Board of Education to request a joint meeting with the commissioners and it was only after that joint meeting that the Chamber of Commerce was asked to become involved and started its effort on April 2. The county commission leadership was, therefore, asleep at the wheel when it came to the need to launch an educational campaign from February14 until April. That leadership let the matter stand on paper in very general terms with no specific mention of projects.

The suspicion is that Commissioner Rieves--who Bill Horner3's blog now also recognizes as the defacto leader of the board--has never been in favor of the renovations at the high school.

The failure of the tax was a failure of the Board of Commissioners. It's chairman was taken out in the primary. The question is when will this or another board remove Mr. Rieves as it defacto chair.

Provisional Ballots Leave Us Waiting For Results

We have been here in other races although the margin of 132 votes with 436 ballots to be counted is close enough to make it interesting between incumbent school board chairman Bill Tatum,who is ahead now and newcomer Kim Lilley.

Tatum, unlike some of the other incumbent winners, spent significant time and energy campaigning for the sales tax--an association that probably hurt him at the polls. But Tatum has always had something of an unconventional style.

As chairman of the school board, he has no problem looking ahead to the needs of the schools of which the renovations at Lee are foremost. So from his leadership paradigm, he was out working on the solution just as hard as being re-elected. Being re-elected with the tax failing just made the school board's task harder.

It looks like it will be next Tuesday before we will know for sure how his style played out in this election.

Sales Tax Turning Out to Be A Hard Sell

The defeat of the sales tax here in Lee County followed the trend all over the state. Lee County was one of twenty counties to have the quarter-cent sales tax hike on the ballot with Cumberland and Haywood the only counties approving. That is 1 in 10 contrasted, with five out of 11 counties approving the sales tax last year. Interestingly, Cumberland approved the tax this time after seeing it narrowly fail last time. The Cumberland situation had two interesting features. First the commissioners committed to a $ .02 property tax decrease if the sales tax passed. Secondly, it had funded three local projects that would be stopped if the sales tax failed. Taxpayers could see a real win-loss in their votes. Note that the favorable situation was set up by the commissioners.

The axiom still has not changed--giving the voters definite uses for the money is necessary for one of these taxes to pass. In fairness, a tax can still fail in counties that appear to have done this.

We had something vague with no community consensus on what renovation of Lee Senior High School should mean and no firm commitment from our commissioners. Our Fair Tax committee got a late start and faced a statewide organization that had already sharpened its teeth fighting this tax across the state. Those who worked can find some comfort in that we got larger margins for the tax than some other counties--but closer only counts in horse shoes.

Real facility problems remain at Lee County High School that will need to be addressed, and real leadership is going to be required to find a solution for funding them--a level of leadership we have not yet seen from our commissioners.

Awaiting Election Returns

The polls aren't closed yet, but I am getting notices of victory parties. Results could be a little slower coming in tonight because of the strong write-in campaigns in the race for board of elections. Both local elections--commissioners and board of education-- are what I call multiple choice elections. Four candidates are running for three seats on the commissioners--all against each other--so it is the order of finish among the candidates that determine the winners. I like old fashioned elections where there is a seat and two or more candidates run for that one seat. You can learn a lot more from those type elections about what the electorate is thinking by the pattern of finish in three separate races than the order of finish in a race with four. The board of education is the same kind of race with more seats and more candidates, but it is all order of finish. There are two write-ins, one an incumbent.

Of course there is the vote on the sales tax which is a simple yes or no--a winning crowd and a losing crowd. The outcome may have more impact on local politics than the particular outcome of any of the multiple choice elections.

We will have analysis tomorrow--how much depends on what can be learned from the results.

Jennings Letter Triggers Chain Reaction

The combination of B3's report on the American's For Prosperity "distress call" and Lloyd Jennings anti-sales tax letter in Saturday's paper fired off a couple of email letters with the request to pass them on to others.

School Board Chair Bill, and sales tax proponent, made specific answers to most of Jennings charges:

• “Failure of Lee County School System to maintain facilities has led to the conditions at Lee Senior High School”. The current conditions have not just occurred. In the past four years, the school board’s maintenance and repairs budgetary request have never been fully funded. In fact over the past 15 years the school system has averaged only 65% of every dollar requested.

• Since the hiring of Jerry Pittman, as Director of Facilities, a detailed scheduled maintenance program has been established that is now resulting in the proper care of all facilities. Jerry and his staff of 14 employees now has the awesome task of maintaining and repairing 1.5 million square feet under roof with an average annual budget of only $0.50 per square foot.

• The very specific allegation that Lee County Schools is “sitting on $800,000” is blatantly false. Our unrestricted fund balance is $192,000, the equivalence of a household with a net income of $30,000 having a checking/savings account balance of $82.28 for any unforeseen expenses. For clarification, this fund balance is for the operating budget; there is no fund balance for maintenance and repairs.

• While the JLF report of inflation-adjusted spending of 16% is correct the full story states the state average placed on local governments in funding public schools have risen by 17.63%. Again, quoting from the same JLF’s report the state average per pupil expenditures is $1934 as compared to Lee County’s PPE of $1368, a bargain for Lee County tax payers.

• Contrary to another of Mr. Jennings misleading statements, many classroom teachers have indeed been hired while only two administrators have been added in order to assist our teachers in providing our children with a quality education this community expects.

Tatum distributed his letter in Carolina Trace, Lloyd Jennings stomping ground. Apparently Tatum's letter had little impact on GOP activist Mike McDonald who was sending out emails against the tax on Sunday.

So the tax debate has really heated up. Perhaps no one's mind has been changed but some widespread misinformation has been cleared up.

Don't Miss Bill Horner's Two Blogs

Bill posted two excellent blogs on the sales tax issue this weekend and they got some good comments. It is worth reading.

AFP's Distress Call

Fair to Compare “FairTax” vs. “Fair Tax”?

School Board Adopts Budget Format

The Board of Education has put forward its budget request to the commissioners in sections--probably to cushion the shock of what looks like a 19% increase. The continuation budget-what is required to keep going as we are - has an increase of $1,078,604--mostly for an increase in salary for local positions.

$838,000 will be need to open the new SanLee Middle School in annually recurring cost for personnel and $353,607 for other costs at the new school. As usual, there is $300,000 in unfunded state mandates.

The the board laid out three priority programs for consideration ranging from $561,000 to $140,000.

On Monday we will find out how much the county manager has recommended of this amount.