NEW HANOVER COUNTY — County commissioners did not decide the fate of Port City United, the county’s violence intervention program, on Monday, despite two commissioners’ distaste for it. The program is in the spotlight after a PCU supervisor was arrested in connection to a Houston Moore shooting that took place March 21.
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New Hanover County manager Chris Coudriet suspended the outreach and mediation division of the program after Stephen Barnett’s arrest. Monday, Coudriet updated commissioners, stating the division will remain suspended until county leadership completes a thorough review of the program or commissioners offer some direction on PCU’s future. Its other two components — the PCU Connect call center and the school-based resource coordinators — remain active.
Ultimately, commissioners decided to discuss PCU at a future date, most likely a budget workshop.
The outreach division has remained inactive, with its 10 employees on paid leave, since March 27. Coudriet revealed the county is spending $18,218 per biweekly pay period.
Barnett is being charged with accessory to attempted murder. According to the Wilmington Police Department, Barnett — who has also admitted to being a Bloods gang member and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter years ago — drove the 17-year-old charged with attempted first-degree murder away from the scene in a county van.
Coudriet reported the victim of the shooting still remains in serious condition at the hospital. He did not address whether the county could be held liable in the case.
“I needed to know more about why things happened the way they did at the time of the event,” Coudriet said in defense of the suspension. “And even today, I cannot explain why this tragic event happened and unfolded.”
Commissioner Jonathan Barfield said he thought the decision to fire Barnett was premature.
“I’ve talked to enough people that are close enough to the conversation to believe that this man will probably be exonerated down the road,” Barfield said.
The commissioner pointed to another Port City United employee that was fired by the county, stating the charges were dropped. Though Barfield didn’t name anyone, only one other PCU employee has been let go in connection to a crime. Rone’Quia Harris faced two felony accessory charges in connection to a shooting that killed 45-year-old Tammy Hayes on Feb. 26, 2022. The event took place before Harris was hired as a PCU Connect specialist on April 19, 2022; she was let go a little more than a week later.
Last year, PCU’s founding executive director Cedric Harrison was also terminated due to poor performance, insubordination and misuse of county property.
Barfield added the violence interrupters — who are hired as part of the mediation and outreach division, such as Barnett — are supposed to de-escalate situations to prevent gunfire. The commissioner believed the county should reassess its human resources policies, give people due process and “stand by them until proven guilty.”
“That is dangerous work,” Barfield said. “In January of ‘22, in Baltimore, Maryland, an individual doing the same work — violence interrupter, the same model — was killed. But it’s the work. And in that work, you’re going to encounter situations like what happened to us a few weeks ago because that is the work and either we’re going to be in to work or we’re not going to be in work.”
Commissioner Dane Scalise pushed back on Barfield’s views, pointing out the county is distinguished from the guidelines of the judicial system, but also focused on whether PCU is a good return on investment for county taxpayers.
“I do not think that it is doing what it was intended to do,” Scalise said. “I do not think that it is, at present, making the community safer.”
Scalise added the county has to take the allegations available at present and act accordingly.
“Our employee, using a county vehicle, drove an individual to a site. That individual shot another individual — attempted to murder him — and then [the county employee] drove the person who attempted to murder another person away from the site, and apparently lied to law enforcement about it afterward,” he said. “I will leave it to the court system to make a determination about whether or not those allegations are in fact what occurred and whether or not there should be a conviction. But I think that we have more than sufficient information to make the determinations that we’ve made at this stage. It is our first obligation to ensure the safety of this community. And I do not feel good about the safety that we are providing with the policy in place that we currently have.”
In Coudriet’s presentation, he said PCU Connect and the resource coordinators have “proven beneficial.” PCU Connect’s call intake has more than doubled since last fiscal year and the coordinators, now working in 10 of the county’s schools, have seen monthly interactions with students double this school year.
“I can offer no specific assurances regarding the mediation and outreach functions at this time,” Coudriet said.
Commissioner Rob Zapple offered some data points provided by staff. He said over the past eight months, the mediation and outreach team has had 52 team interventions, all conflicts that were at immediate risk of violent actions. Over the same time period, the team has opened up 1,741 cases, up from 1,125 they did during the 12 months of last year.
“Clearly, there is some good happening here within our community,” Zapple said. “And we have one very unfortunate and miserable tragedy that has happened here, but I think it is worth repeating some of these statistics because Port City United and the mediation and outreach team is doing a lot of good that is documented within our community.”
Still, Scalise posed the question on whether PCU should remain a priority. He reiterated what he told Port City Daily last week — the county should divest from PCU and use that funding to help ease New Hanover County Schools’ $20 million budget shortfall.
He was joined in that opinion by Vice Chair LeAnn Pierce. On Monday, she said the violence interrupters have done good things, but questioned proper support.
“I think of police people who’ve undergone certification and training and a lot of psychological evaluations for how to address different situations,” she said. “We asked a county employee to put themselves in between that violence.”
Pierce also questioned PCU’s funding, a good chunk paid by American Rescue Plan Act funding, according to Coudriet. He told commissioners it would expire by the end of the year, leaving the county to pick up the tab in the general fund.
The county pledged almost $40 million to PCU in 2022, to be paid out over four years; to date it has funded roughly $10 million. It’s been bankrolled by multiple county revenue sources, including from the hospital sale and the revenue stabilization fund.
The unconventional approach of Port City United was born from the Cure Violence Global initiative that started in Chicago and is used in other cities, such as Durham and Greensboro. Coudriet added it’s endorsed by Medicaid.
“I should note for reference, New Hanover County does not bill Medicaid for its program, but it is an eligible expense as part of capitated managed care,” he said.
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