Loading...
2001-06-19 Special Meeting NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSBOOK 26 JOINT MEETING WITH WILMINGTON CITY COUNCIL PAGE 665 JUNE 19, 2001 ASSEMBLY The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners held a Special Meeting with the Wilmington City Council on Tuesday, June 19, 2001, at 4:30 P. M. in the Assembly Room of the New Hanover County Courthouse, 24 North Third Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. Commissioners present were: Chairman Ted Davis, Jr.; Vice-Chairman Robert G. Greer; Commissioner Julia Boseman; Commissioner William A. Caster; Commissioner Nancy H. Pritchett; County Manager, Allen O’Neal; County Attorney, Wanda M. Copley; and Clerk to the Board, Lucie F. Harrell. Councilmembers present were: Mayor David Jones; Mayor Pro-Tem Katherine B. Moore; Councilmembers J.C. Hearne; Sandra Spaulding Hughes; Laura Padgett; and Charlie Rivenbark. Councilmember Frank S. Conlon was absent. Chairman Davis and Mayor Jones called their respective boards to order. Chairman Davis welcomed everyone present and advised that the purpose of the meeting was to hear a preliminary report on Phase I of the Feasibility Study of the City-County Consolidation and Functional Mergers for the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County. He also stated that hopefully this meeting would encourage the City and County to proceed toward the ultimate goal of consolidation. Mayor Jones welcomed everyone present and requested the Commissioners and Councilmembers to keep Councilmember Conlon and his wife Ginny in their prayers. He asked City Manager Gornto to give the invocation. Chairman Davis requested City Manager Gornto to begin the presentation. City Manager Gornto reported that the City Council and Board of County Commissioners entered into a contract with Dr. Suzanne Leland in May, 2001to undertake a study of governmental structure for the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County. A contract has been executed and the study began May 15, 2001 with a 90-day completion date which will be in mid-August. When the scope for the project was developed jointly by both governing bodies, one focal point was to have information conveyed not only to the elected officials but to the citizens during the course of the study. The purpose of the meeting is to hear a brief report on the first phase of the study to be presented by Dr. Suzanne M. Leland and Project Consultant Gary Johnson as well as hear an outline of the next two phases of the study followed by a question and answer period. No decisions are needed or expected at this time from the governing bodies. REPORT ON PHASE I OF THE FEASIBILITY STUDY OF CITY-COUNTY CONSOLIDATION AND FUNCTIONAL MERGERS FOR THE CITY OF WILMINGTON AND NEW HANOVER COUNTY Dr. Suzanne Leland reported that the scope of work in the feasibility study was to study and review three options: (1) City-County consolidation; (2) Functional mergers of departments that would not require structural changes; and (3) no change with the two governing bodies remaining the same. The Information Gathering Phase I started May 15, 2001 and continued through June 15, 2001. The second phase began June 15, 2001 and will be completed by July 15, 2001. Interviews will be conducted with the elected officials and staff to explore the challenges and opportunities for the three options. A team has been established comprised of the Principal Investigator, Dr. Suzanne M. Leland; Project Consultant, Gary Johnson; Project Consultant, Dr. Kurt Thurmaier; and Project Intern, Curtis Wood. The members of the team will be assigned to five different areas for study and analysis of the three options as follows: NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSBOOK 26 JOINT MEETING WITH WILMINGTON CITY COUNCIL PAGE 666 JUNE 19, 2001 Representation Analysis: • Dr. Suzanne Leland will speak to each member of the governing bodies individually, looking at types of elections, boundaries, the number and types of elected officials, selection and succession for elected officials, citizens boards and commissions, and the impact on the minority community. It will also involve looking at the future, the demographics and changes coming down the line for the City and County as well as considering the aging population. Service DeliveryAnalysis: • Project Intern Curtis Wood has been working on identifying what the City does, what the County does, where there is overlap, and the duties of the employees. A review will be made of interlocal government agreements now in place and how these agreements function for each type of service delivery. Start up costs and long term cost savings will be studied on functional mergers of a department versus governmental consolidation. Public Personnel Analysis: • Project Consultant Gary Johnson will conduct the personnel analysis along with Andrea Mosher, a MPA student at UNC-Charlotte. A review will be made of the differences between the City and County in terms of benefits, sick leave, medical insurance, and pensions looking at the different potential costs involved in governmental consolidation or functional mergers, and identifying if there are some long-term savings from consolidation or functional mergers. Budget and Finance: • Project Consultant Dr. Kurt Thurmaier will compare the City and County budgets to review priorities and where money is spent. A review will be made of the last five years to identify overlap or duplication, cost savings, and taxpayer equity issues. Community and Economic Growth Analysis: • Project Intern Curtis Wood will review annexation policies and growth trends for the region and how this will be affected by governmental consolidation, functional mergers or no change. Upon completion of the assigned areas, analyses will be interchanged among the members of the team and a four-day meeting will be held where the five areas will be discussed and a final recommendation will be prepared on the three options. The next meeting of the two governing bodies will not be held until August so the analysis and recommendations can be presented together. The actual definition of City-County consolidation means unifying the City and County governments into one structure. This means there is no longer a City Council or Board of County Commissioners but one unified governing body. There are only 33 consolidated governments in the United States with the first being New Orleans in 1805. Many cities and counties have discussed consolidation which has led to functional consolidation or merging of departments. The passage rate for consolidation referenda is only 15%; however, the voter percentage increases each time a referendum is held. Four referenda have been held for consolidating the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County with the voter percentage increasing each time. Functional mergers are much more common, and it does not necessarily mean that departments have to be combined. It can mean some form of an interlocal government agreement. The City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County over a period of time have slowly merged departments and still have not consolidated into one government. Discussion was held on the driving force behind consolidation across the country. Dr. Leland explained that devolution or passing services from the state to local level is occurring across the nation which has placed pressure on cities and counties to secure funding to provide services. Unfunded mandates continue to be passed to the local level and at the same time, there is a trend toward a nationwide property tax revolt. The property tax is now the most hated tax instead of the federal income tax. NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSBOOK 26 JOINT MEETING WITH WILMINGTON CITY COUNCIL PAGE 667 JUNE 19, 2001 Project Consultant Gary Johnson presented charts and background information on consolidation attempts for Charlotte- Mecklenburg County in1971, Durham-Durham County in 1961 and 1974, and Wilmington-New Hanover County in 1927, 1973, 1987, and 1995. The reasons for failure of consolidation attempts in North Carolina are as follows: Charlotte-Mecklenburg County: • Political turf, small town affects, minority representation, vote of the citizenry, lack of a crisis, and lack of public awareness. Durham-Durham County: • Lack of a crisis, lack of trust in local government, illegal charter, and limited time to present a well-developed plan. Wilmington-New Hanover County: • Lack of a crisis, limited time to present a well- developed plan, public awareness, City-County control issues, fear of a tax increase, little cost savings, annexation not taken seriously by the public, unanswered questions, and no independent feasibility study. The following question and answer period followed: Mayor Jones referenced studies that he had read where “turf” was listed as the number one obstacle to consolidation and he requested Dr. Leland to comment on this issue. Dr. Leland responded that turf was a major issue in consolidation attempts throughout the nation. Residents of the city want to maintain their political voice under a new consolidated government, and residents of the county want to retain their voice. This results in a great deal of public concern for how the power will be balanced. In cities and counties that closely match geographically, consolidation has a better chance of being successful. Mayor Pro-Tem Moore noted that a major issue of the last consolidation effort was continuous talk about the dissolution of the City. She asked if any consolidated government had dissolved a city. Dr. Leland responded that no city had been dissolved with the formation of a consolidated government; however, the 1973 Wilmington-New Hanover County charter did not provide details on what would happen to the City of Wilmington. Since no precedent was established, this issue must be addressed in a future consolidation plan. Commissioner Caster asked if there were cases where the citizens voted to consolidate city and county governments and the state legislature did not approve the consolidation. Dr. Leland responded that she was not aware of any case where the voters approved a unified government and the state legislature did not approve the consolidation. Project Consultant Johnson stated that theoretically this could happen because all local governmental entities are creations of state legislatures. Chairman Davis asked what impact the lack of participation by the three beach municipalities could have on the consolidation effort. Dr. Leland responded that it was not uncommon for municipalities to be excluded from the consolidation process. In cases where this has occurred, the municipalities begin to contract more with the unified government over a period of time. The municipalities and its residents must be represented because they are county residents. In Wyandotte County, three municipalities were excluded, and the mayor of one of the municipalities was elected to one of the ten unified government seats. NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSBOOK 26 JOINT MEETING WITH WILMINGTON CITY COUNCIL PAGE 668 JUNE 19, 2001 Mayor Pro-Tem Moore spoke on the concern of the beach communities during the last consolidation and asked if a charter could be placed before the voters with language clearly stating that the beach communities were excluded. Dr. Leland responded that she had seen charters explicitly excluding a municipality from the consolidation process; however, the municipality is usually excluded by the state enabling legislation. Chairman Davis requested a brief synopsis of what will occur in the study from this point forward. Dr. Leland advised that after Phase II is completed, Part III, Conclusions and Recommendations, will begin on July 15 to August 15 so the information received can be reviewed and compiled. A final report will be prepared, and no magic numbers will be presented on the amount of money saved by consolidating or merging departments, but sufficient data will be presented to determine the likely cost for functionally merging or becoming one unified government. After noting that the City Council has another meeting, Chairman Davis asked if there were any other questions from the members of the Board. Mayor Jones asked if there were any other questions from members of the City Council. After hearing no questions, Chairman Davis and Mayor Jones expressed appreciation to Dr. Suzanne Leland and Project Consultant Gary Johnson for an informative report and adjourned the respective boards at 5:30 P.M. A copy of the Phase I Feasibility Preliminary Report is here by incorporated as a part of the minutes and is contained in Exhibit Book XXVII, Page 2. Respectfully submitted, Lucie F. Harrell Clerk to the Board