Politically Empowered

Notes from 2/13/2012 Concerned Citizens gathering: (These are my best recollections of what was discussed and some added comments that I felt compelled to make)

Well it was quite a meeting with lots of issues and things to talk about plus some special guests.

Joining us last night were some out of town property owners, some new folks and several distinguished guests who have registered for the County Commissioner race. In addition, we had Oak Island resident Frank Iler, our current and running to be re-elected State Representative, spending time with us. It’s always interesting to get Franks perspective on what’s happening in Raleigh and what’s on the agenda for this coming year.

The folks running for Brunswick County Commissioner were Frank Williams who would be representing the Leland area, as well as Pat Sykes and Joe Agovino who would be representing our area of the county. While they will represent different areas of the county, the entire county elects them, so it is a county wide election for each commissioner position. All provided some brief comments regarding their position and ask for our vote in the upcoming elections. They all welcomed the possibility to come back at a future meeting where we could notify folks in advance of their attendance as to give us time and have more people there.

Issues Discussed:

The contract for our former town manager came up for discussion, the town officials were not able to provide any information due to the personnel nature of the issue, but the group was not in favor of paying anything until all the facts were on the table. As more and more facts come out, the evidence seems to build as to just how poor of a job he did in providing leadership to town employees and his neglect of open communications with citizens.

Also discussed was the continuing saga of escalating sewer expenses, the town officials will be discussing this in detail at council meeting February 14th. Based on what we know at present, we will be incurring some extra additions to our sewer cost in the millions of dollars. I won’t begin to try to explain this issue, so I encourage you to attend town council tonight (2/14) or view the video to get the best explanation possible. This is the legacy that was left to us by the past town council and town manager. There will also be a special meeting of council on Thursday the 16th to deal with this very important issue. Please check the town website for more details about this meeting.
I would encourage our current council to get all these issues on the table and deal with them in as open and professional manners as possible. They need to stop the bleeding and begin the process of correcting the problems they have inherited. At some point they will need to take responsibility for getting these issues resolved and moving on to healing the financial condition of our town.

The sewer lines to the Baptist Assembly on Caswell will cost the town $155,000 which was a issue that came to the surface in the last few weeks. It represents an agreement signed some years ago with Caswell Beach and will need to be paid based on our obligation to our sister town.

Carol Painter and Danny Kiser gave us some comments about what they have experienced since assuming their new positions on council. Both have gotten deeply involved in town business and are deeply concerned about what they found. It has taken a considerable amount of time to begin to get a handle on the many issues that need resolution. They were complementary of the town employees who were willing to work with them in allowing them to get a handle on the issues in their areas of responsibility. Both had high hopes that if things could be put on a solid footing in the coming months their time spent on town business could be substantially reduced. The group felt they had done a great job to-date and wish them continued success in their efforts. While we don’t always agree on every issue, nor do we expect to, we have considerable faith that our concerns and issues will be given consideration.

The employee benefit issue that was on the councils’ agenda last month and again on this month was discussed in some detail. While the group acknowledged the need to be a good employer, we must refrain from doing things that increase costs to the town during these challenging financial times. We discussed some of the reasons for the change being on the agenda and thought there might be other ways of dealing with the issue that doesn’t add to the towns cost and obligations. While there might be reasons for making changes to the employee benefit program, those changes should be made as part of an overall review rather than one benefit issue at a time.

One of the more challenging things coming up for council and town management in the coming months will be the construction of the 2012-2013 budget. All departments are looking at savings opportunities within their departments and citizens are encouraged to provide input as to how they feel the budget should be constructed. The Mayor asked that citizens and interested parties provide input to her and to council. It comes down to what are they willing to pay for and what they are willing to give up to reach the outcome they desire. All contact information for the town is located at the towns website.

We discussed the current paving projects that are underway and the randomness of which streets are paved. There was no answer as to how those decisions were reached since the people who made them are no longer employed with the town.

The group was open to inviting local politicians to come to our meetings as well as local town employees to give us some insight into what their responsibilities are. I would caution anyone accepting our invitation to be open to comments from the group, as we definitely have opinions.

One issue that came up briefly was that we have many committees working on lots of issues and they have open meetings where citizens can attend to get more information on decisions at a basic level, such as road paving. While there may be a few people that can attend all the meetings, most of us have lives to live and families who want us at home once in a while. It would be interesting if we could find a way to get greater information out to the public without the time spent in meetings. While there might be one or two issues on the agenda of interest, you often have to sit through a nap inducing meeting to be there for your item of interest. It’s like a lot of things in politics, the people making decisions only hear from those who have something to gain from the outcome and hear nothing from those where the impact is minimal. We would challenge the town and citizens to come up with recommendations to improve that situation.

You can read here that our town has many problems that were delivered to us by some bad decisions and some bad luck. I don’t think we can go much beyond that until the SBI investigation is complete. In the mean time we need to continue to work together as citizens to make our town the best it can be. We must remember, even with all the financial issues council has to deal with, we live in the best place on earth. I believe this is a the most special place on earth to be given the opportunity to live. We have some of the best weather, the best scenery, the best neighbors and the best friends. We have a community that is special and if we work together we will continue to have the extraordinary place we have where all responsible citizens and visitors are welcome and freedom reigns. It certainly has been a great winter and spring is right around the corner.

A good time was had by all, or at least most, and we went home.

Any comments regarding this summary are always welcome.