NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Two New Hanover County commissioners resisted the county manager’s move to bring advisory committees in line with recent policy changes, with a final vote to come at Monday’s meeting.
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At Thursday’s agenda review meeting, commissioners Rob Zapple and Stephanie Walker pushed back on the elimination of the county’s Workforce Housing Advisory and Community Relations committees. The dissolution was recommended by the county manager, who pointed to the commissioners’ recent budget decision — a $30.6 million reduction that cuts more than 100 positions — as justification for the move.
Zapple said the committee eliminations would send the wrong message to the public and remove community member platforms and make policy recommendations.
“We’ve also gotten all-volunteer appointments on that committee who have literally put in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours over the past six years to try and bring forward suggestions, initiatives to try and first define the issue, as well as try and come up with some solutions,” Zapple said, referring the WHAC. “I think they’re doing a good job.”
Coudriet explained the committee’s job was to leverage funding as part of the county’s workforce housing strategy, though before that, it was convened in 2019 to present a bond, which the commissioners ultimately rejected. In 2022, the commissioners passed a $15-million strategy to distribute $3 million to housing projects each year. In this year’s budget, however, the county’s Republican majority — LeAnn Pierce, Dane Scalise and Bill Rivenbark — voted against allocating this year’s $3 million.
“My interpretation of the board’s action was that it was a permanent removal from the policy,” Coudriet said, noting commissioners could decide otherwise. The commissioners didn’t make a motion to do so.
Pierce, as affirmed by Coudriet, described the matter as “cleaning house.”
Rivenbark pointed out the City of Wilmington is still involved in the committee, which has six members appointed by the city and six by the county. Though, it was county staff that supported the committee and thus, city staff would need to take over if the committee dissolved.
Emails obtained by Port City Daily showed Assistant County Manager Jessica Loeper notified the city of the potential dissolution on Tuesday. She also noted the committee’s chair, Tom Gale, would be notified for distribution to the other members. Assistant City Manager Thom Moton responded he would wait and see the county’s vote on Monday.
Walker said Thursday the county should still be involved in the conversation, as the lack of affordable housing wasn’t confined to the city but existed elsewhere and was getting worse.
Pierce said she didn’t want the narrative to be that the county had “pulled out” of workforce housing solutions.
“That’s just not the case,” Pierce said. “The county is still at the table to encourage people and have suggestions on affordable housing. We’re not taking that off the table.”
She noted the commissioners still make decisions on developments that come through the planning board to their dais. Still, Walker and Zapple said approving rezonings or site plans was different than proactive development of strategy.
“How do we create new units … that’s where a lot of the $3 million was,” Zapple said. “After that we’ve now progressed in our thinking and our understanding of the problem that really the most effective workforce housing is that it’s already there on the ground.”
As for Scalise, he said he would make more comments at Monday’s meeting, but he intended to vote for the county manager’s recommendation.
The conversation then turned to the community relations advisory committee. Coudriet explained there have been several similarly minded committees established since the creation of the CRAC in 2016. This includes the Commission for Women, Commission on African-American History, Heritage and Culture and the Hispanic-Latino Commission. All are overseen by the county’s Office of Civic Engagement staff.
Coudriet said the establishment of these other committees made the CRAC “redundant” and urged the commissioners to consider the time and resources needed to support each committee in light of budget reductions.
Still, Walker and Zapple defended the committee, saying it cost the county virtually nothing but allowed community members a county-sanctioned platform to influence commissioner decisions.
“I can’t see how doing away with the CRAC doesn’t send a clear message to these other committees: ‘Watch out, we’re coming after you,’” Zapple said.
In the same line of thinking, Walker questioned the fate of the other three committees, asking Coudriet about an email he sent on Sunday, July 13. In it, Coudriet said: “As a matter of full disclosure, we are conducting an analysis internally to determine if all these committees can be better served with a Civic Engagement Committee.”
Walker said the suggestion made her upset and questioned if the committees were being reorganized; on Thursday, Coudriet didn’t say the plan was to wrap up all the committees into one, but said staff commitment was under review.
“There certainly has to be reconsideration of how to use our staff when we have eliminated three positions that actually had incumbents in them and still do the work of the county, to include staffing at least three other committees,” Coudriet said.
A decision on the committees will be made on Monday at the commissioner’s 4 p.m. meeting.
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