NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The county shaved off its Workforce Housing Advisory Committee from its roster Monday after some commissioners found it to be a moot point. The committee chair will push for reconsideration, hoping to gain back the support of at least one commissioner, despite the vote to move past the issue.
READ MORE: NHC commissioners push back on workforce housing, community relations committee dissolutions
The New Hanover County Commissioners voted 3-2 to dissolve both the Workforce Housing Advisory Committee and the Community Relations Advisory Committee, joint bodies with the City of Wilmington. Republican commissioners Bill Rivenbark, LeAnn Pierce and Dane Scalise voted in favor, while Democratic commissioners Rob Zapple and Stephanie Walker dissented.
“The purpose of our committees is to advise our commissioners and to work at the pleasure of the county commissioners, and we have a recommendation from our manager that he is ready to move past that,” Pierce said at the meeting.
Workforce Housing Advisory Committee Chair Tom Gale was notified of WHAC’s potential dissolution last Wednesday; commissioners first discussed it at Thursday’s agenda review.
“I was surprised to get that because I had, actually, had a meeting between the vice chair of the committee [Paul Stavovy] and myself and Bill Rivenbark just the week prior,” Gale said.
Gale wanted to discuss the future of the committee after the commissioners pulled their $3-million annual commitment to workforce housing projects in the 2025-2026 budget; commissioners have indicated this is a permanent policy change. The funding, approved in 2021, was part of the county’s five-year commitment to give $15 million to affordable housing needs and was overseen each year by the WHAC.
According to Gale, Rivenbark told him he would “love to sit down” with the committee every six months for a dialog between commissioners and committee members.
“I’m not sure if he knew that this was going to be on the docket at that point in time, but I was disappointed that we actually sat down and met with him and did not even have the courtesy of knowing that this might be on the radar,” Gale said.
Port City Daily reached out to Rivenbark to confirm Gale’s account of the meeting; he did not respond by press. A county spokesperson confirmed the commissioners were told of the county manager’s recommendation on July 13.
Gale said he went out of town in the days following the meeting, only to return to the notification the committees were up for discussion at the commissioners’ agenda review meeting. Gale said he didn’t have the chance to discuss the matter with the other commissioners and when he asked to speak in front of them at the meeting, he was told he’d have to do so during public comment on Monday, which was scheduled after the vote.
Gale still took the opportunity.
“You guys have posed some questions and made some comments that I think may not have been 100% accurate, so I’m hoping that you guys are willing to continue to sit down and meet with me and maybe reconsider your decision,” he said, noting the committee agreement requires a 60-day termination notice.
The debate started out with comments from Commissioner Scalise, who noted he he was “of course” concerned about the issue of housing affordability, but also had to consider the quality of life for residents.
The commissioner echoed a line from the New Hanover Community Endowment’s Terri Burhans saying the county could not build itself out of the housing affordability crisis, and asked how individuals concerned over the rate of growth could also expect the county to keep subsidizing apartment construction.
“New Hanover County cannot fit the entirety of the world inside of it…as there are projects or ideas that are worthy of pursuit or exploration, we will explore them, but to have an unfunded mandate in the form of this joint committee — one where perhaps the alignment of the city and the county are not the same — to utilize our staff time and tell them come up with projects that we’re ultimately not going to pay for or approve would be a mistake,” he said.
Pierce followed up, suggesting the committee no longer had a role without the $3-million to distribute and the county manager was suggesting the dissolution to preserve resources after budget cuts. The commissioner’s budget required the county to slash $30.6 million from continued funding, including more than 100 staff positions.
At the meeting, Gale pointed out the committee’s role extended beyond handling the $3 million, the chair saying it has held a developer roundtable, along with a builder and business leader summit, and was planning on connecting with Brunswick and Pender counties for regional strategies.
“I would think that I would want 12 experts coming in and spending loads of hours trying to help us solve this problem,” Gale told PCD. “It cost them nothing to get these passionate people on their behalf.”
The committee, with six county appointees and six city appointees, is made up of people with careers in the housing industry, including development, property management and real estate. While the city can continue with the committee if it chooses, it will need to take over staff support moving forward.
Gale also pushed back on Scalise and Pierce’s preference for the county to retreat from funding initiatives until it sees the success of the $9 million already spent.
“Those projects haven’t even been advanced in some meaningful way; there are no people living in the units that have been contemplated before,” Scalise said.
Port City Daily asked the county to confirm. A spokesperson said the county’s $9 million has been leveraged as rental assistance for 127 households, 40 repaired units and 497 new units. Of those units, 224 are complete and occupied — 84 at Estrella Landing, 68 at Covenant Senior Housing and 72 at Canopy Pointe.
Gale told Port City Daily questioning the activities and success of the committee was “frustrating” to hear considering the annual reports WHAC is required to make.
“They’re just not reading their material and not coming to ask staff or the committee any of these questions,” Gale said.
One of the questions Pierce had was the career demographics of the people living in the county’s subsidized units. Pierce questioned if the county was reaching jobs often targeted in workforce housing initiatives, such as with government employees and teachers; the county manager said he didn’t have that information.
However, the 2024 WHAC report — presented to commissioners in January — shows a breakdown for the county’s rental assistance receivers, of which 43% work office/administrative jobs, 26.6% in healthcare, 16.5% service and retail, and 13.9% local government.
“I would ask you to please consider the work that these [committee] volunteers are doing so that we can come up with solutions, so that our our good deputy sheriffs will have a place that they can call a home,” Zapple said during the meeting, gesturing to the four deputies in the back of the room.
Pierce responded that Zapple should not “drag” the officers into the conversation.
“I think you’ll hear a lot of folks in our community say that they don’t want their tax dollars funding gaps for the developers,” Pierce replied. “That’s what a lot of our focus has been going to, is giving developers more money so they make more profit. And I hear my constituents saying they don’t want that anymore.”
Zapple told Port City Daily he apologized to the deputies after the meeting for singling them out.
“And they all thanked me for what I was trying to do,” Zapple said. “Because all of them, the four of them that were there, mentioned their difficulties in finding housing.”
Eventually, Scalise motioned to accept the county manager’s recommendation, but was interrupted by Commissioner Walker, who said she still had comments to make.
“Respectfully, ma’am, perhaps you don’t know how this works,” Scalise said, noting discussion could be taken after a motion was made and seconded.
“That’s a very rude thing to say to me,” Walker replied and continued with her input later, though acknowledged nothing she said would change the Republican majority’s mind.
“Just because the budget decision was made doesn’t mean the problem does not still exist, and does not mean that we should not have community members giving us feedback, community members like I mentioned, that are immersed in this issue every day,” Walker said.
Despite the dissolution, each commissioner affirmed the importance of workforce housing.
“Doing away with that committee does not mean we’re not still in the game,” Pierce said. “It doesn’t mean that at all.”
Port City Daily followed up with each commissioner on Tuesday with questions on their vision for the county’s role in ensuring workforce housing exists in the community. Scalise and Rivenbark didn’t respond by press.
Walker said she didn’t have a clear solution at this point that would be accepted by all commissioners, noting Scalise made his position clear on government subsidies.
“I just have to take that to mean the majority because they’re kind of in lockstep now on a lot of things,” Walker said.
At the meeting, Scalise said he thought workforce housing should be left up to private developers. Without incentives, though, they might not be inclined to bring forth workforce housing projects due to their low profitability.
Pierce reminded the audience that commissioners have final say on development approvals, and in the case of conditional rezonings, could ask for a portion of the proposed units to be dedicated to workforce housing. Though, this couldn’t be imposed on the developer, who would have to agree to the offering.
On the phone with PCD, Zapple said the loss of the committee and dedicated funding stream would erode the trust built up with some developers and the county.
Pierce also told Port City Daily the careers in workforce housing’s target demographic should be paid higher salaries, an issue she echoed during Monday’s meeting as well. This includes law enforcement and teachers — both of which receive funding from the county.
Bringing back the WHAC was not off the table for Pierce, though she questioned if the affordable housing crisis was best served by a committee. Port City Daily asked if she would support other strategies, perhaps non-monetary ones like changing zoning laws or offering an abbreviated permitting process for developments fitting the county’s workforce housing mold.
“That’s something that our planning staff can do and our manager can bring before us, but I like that fast-tracking certain projects, that would help with affordable housing,” Pierce said.
Zapple agreed, noting work was already being done in that realm as part of the county’s comprehensive plan update.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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