Maybe I should have seen this coming when over 100 people showed up in late October at Town Hall for a candidate forum about the future of town government. I have been living here for almost 20 years and have been to several of these forums and normally you could not scare up 10 people. The interest shown at the forum via audience response to questions was just as interesting. I distinctly remember when one candidate mentioned that if they were to put together a citizens panel for help in hiring the new town manager the panel needed to include "qualified" citizens. Many citizens at the forum made groan noises that let me to believe they were listening to every word that evening and did not like that particular wording or answer. In the end almost 1000 citizens in Smithfield turned out to vote, which is a low turnout for the eligible voters, but almost 50% higher than normal for a municipal election.
I think it is of note that the three candidates, for whatever reason, who were not at the forum finished as the bottom three in the eight candidate field. Also take this as you will but two candidates that had prior ties to town employment did not win either. I believe and others do too that past associations by town board members with town departments has lead to some problems and obviously voters considered that as well.
So we now have two new members of the Smithfield Town Council. Mr. Ashley during the forum and campaigning displayed a sense of understanding that something had to changed about town government and I believe his ideas and his responsible take on the situation rewarded him with the highest vote count. Mr. Williams is another newcomer and voiced a concern about the priorities of town government going astray and likely got help in being elected due to the closing of a pool in town. Certainly town priorities need to be reconsidered. Current town council member Andy Moore had the second highest vote total and was the only one returned to council. Mr. Moore campaigned vigorously as a reformer and assured citizens he saw the problems with town government and wanted to be a part of a solution.
One of the first tasks the new council will have is hiring a new town manager. Kudos to the council for holding off on this hire until a new council comes aboard. This single hire will likely be the most important item on the agenda for the next two years and needs to be made wisely. When the town council solicited suggestions for the hiring of the new town manager the few public comments from citizens began and ended with we need a town manager who is not a government professional. The comment from one town management person was we do not need to run the town like a business so we need to be careful about NOT hiring a government professional.
The problem in my opinion for town management lies in the fact the town HAS been run like a business, a shortsighted one, for too long. I think has been a belief in town management circles that tax money is to be acquired by whatever means and purposed for town government interests with little concern about taxpayer interests. Former town manager Pete Connet and I got into it one day in his office over this very concept. I was pointing out that Booker Dairy Plantation building requirements needed to be improved and he pointed out the town planners had done their required duty. I responded with their duty was to make the developer pay for needed improvements to infrastructure. Those included better drainage on the main road, Booker Dairy, and the roads actually in the subdivision. Applying already existing building codes so as to make future home owners and most importantly town taxpayers not have to pay for problems later on.
The real point of contention was that I had opined that town management was only interested in additional tax receipts from the additional tax base from the new homes to be built in the subdivision with no consideration of future expenses or problems. Now that my readers is the way business, short sighted business, does things. Not to blame Mr.Connet, I expect the town council at that time was pushing him for additional revenue and yes, he was a government professional. If you have doubts in this approach take a drive down Venture Drive or how about a ride into the roads in Booker Dairy Plantation. We the taxpayer already are and will be paying for doing business like a short sighted business on these roads.
Town management should be to GOVERN the town by applying good regulations, good planning, and good employee management for the citizens of the town who elected a town council and gave them authority to hire a town manager. The town government should not be hunting down tax revenue for the implied purpose of continuation of government as is at current levels. They should be making good policy that makes Smithfield a desirable place to live and do business. The past approach has not been that and is showing such with the problems we observed in the last few years. Town employees deserve no less than solid fair management of employees and backup of good rule enforcement. Good government IS business friendly which means lower tax rates and quality government services when needed. I do mean NEEDED not desired by town government interests. Believe it or not good government can and should decide something they have funded in the past is no longer appropriate going forward no matter how much town bureaucracy believes it must do so.
Good management is not waiting until the traffic mess we now have at Industrial Park Drive gets that way. Frankly I have my doubts that the current plans there will help, but we will see. Good management is not allowing the few dictate not straightening out Third Street in preparation of the old Market Street bridge demolition and taking the freeNCDOT offer to make traffic flow better for all citizens in town. Good management is saying no to departmental interests involving the building of SRAC, when the voters turned down the bond for the building in the first place. Good management is the town council stepping up and taking responsibility for the salary and vacation mess and saying so publicly.
Good management is also when Police Chief Mike Scott did not extend blame to the former city manager for his gasoline budget problems, which frankly would have been correctly placed if he had done so. Instead he said give me some budget authority and I will fix the problem. Good management is hiring the best you can find assigning them authority and letting them do the job.
Here are some ideas for the new council.
1. Everyone knows that the electric rates in Smithfield and other Electricities towns are much higher than Progress Energy. ( Do not waste my time comparing our rates with Clayton or other towns. ) If you were on the board in the past why did you decline to join with the New Bern and Rocky Mount mayors and others wanting to force a solution via the Duke Energy and Progress Energy merger? Why not join the New Bern and Rocky Mount mayors now? Everyone at the forum agreed the movement of funds from electric revenues to the general budget needs to be ended. All also agreed that it needs to be orderly. How about taking a vote on the timeframe of doing this and sticking to it? Make us believe you really mean to stop the transfer.
2. Smithfield is not growing, population growth and home building is stagnant to non existent. Most realtors avoid showing homes in the town limits due to the high cost of electricity, property tax load, and perceived problems in town government among other reasons. How about appointing a select committee to address this issue and come up with some solutions and have them report back to the council? Maybe include some town employees and local board heads on any committee. I expect some of the issue could be resolved with figuring out how to get young families and retirees to move to Smithfield. Anyone notice many town employees prefer to live outside town limits? Even new employee professionals we do draw tend to find other places to live.
3. Contrary to what some said at the recent forum outsourcing or privatizing town work is not about ending employment. It is about making tax revenues work efficiently and looking after taxpayers. Surely some town work can be done more efficiently than currently being done and if offered to be outsourced the private company would have to do it less expensive and with the same quality to get the contract and the current employees would likely get jobs with the company. However there is another way to accomplish the same goal. How about getting input from current town employees about how to do things more efficiently long term and rewarding such with 10% of the first year savings up to a certain limit. Management needs to be tasked with how to manage their departments better and not just assume that last year budgets and expenditures was ok. Again a one time reward to managers would give incentive and pay for itself. Even rewarding managers and employees who do work more efficiently by not filling vacant positions with a pay raise that is part of the cost savings pays off for everyone involved. If there are policies like this now how about putting some emphasis on them.
Through many years of being a manager I learned employees want to be part of making things better and frankly better paid employees who work smarter tend to stick around longer. Here is where not hiring a government professional would be helpful in having someone who can ask questions regarding how things are done and not that "we have always done them that way". If I was on the town board I would suggest that the new town manager contract would come with some incentives attached regarding making town government operate more efficiently. They would pay for themselves.
4. Let's all accept the SRAC debt service is an issue. Yes, it is a nice place, but still expensive. But it is here so let's deal with it by asking more of the Recreation Dept. that pushed to have it built. Again tasking the recreation dept. for efficiencies as noted above would be a plus. Plus the Johnston County Tourism Bureau is currently assembling a sports council to help with bringing more sports related tourism to our county and cooperation with that new council will be a step forward in helping with paying for SRAC. (Full disclosure I am the VP on the Tourism Bureau.)
5. Maybe current reelected Mayor Evans can consider putting together 5 point or so plan of action that the council desires to get done in the next two years. That could be accomplished by a public letter signed by the town council. That would give all, town council,. town employees, and citizens, a yardstick to measure progress come the next election. Mayor Evans did note that he and others on the current council saw the light on more town debt by noting they have begun a savings account for future needs and that is an excellent start in my opinion. There is no way to get all the projects started and problems solved in the two years before the next election but targeting 5 or so would be a good start.
If something does not change Smithfield will become another of those small eastern North Carolina towns that just stagnates and becomes old. We now have two new council members and one returned one who said they did not want this to happen and I believe voters will hold them to their promise. The other four members left need to join the new members in making changes because if not they might be off the council in two years. I have lived in many of those towns and trust me dealing with growth problems is much preferable to stagnation problems. Yes, I do know there are people who live in Smithfield and the area who prefer we do not grow, but I hope they are a minority.
Now those of you who live in Smithfield there is no way the town council can do their job without your involvement. You need to decide to be a part of the solution as well. That includes such things as offering to join town or county appointed boards and most importantly attending the town council meetings so as to have your voice heard. We all live here and most of us want this town to grow and citizens prosper. Many people have expertise that might be of service. Town Council candidate Mr. Ragland noted something similar in his remarks at the town forum. I can not speak for Mr. Ragland, but he seems to have interest and maybe could be a source of expertise somewhere in the town. We are all in this together let's make it work.
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