CAROLINA BEACH — Mayor of Carolina Beach Joe Benson knows his town needs to come up with new ways to replenish its depleting general fund balance — but as someone who has mostly libertarian tendencies, raising taxes is not the route he wants to take.
Benson took over as mayor after the 2017 municipal election that saw him run against former mayor Dan Wilcox. When Benson won the election, the town’s fund balance was already trending downward.
Recently, the town was notified by the state of concerns about the depleting general fund and asked for an explanation from the town for plans to right its course.
Usually, there are two options that people think about when a government is told to increase its bank accounts — increasing taxes and cutting services.
But Benson hopes to take a different approach to increase the balance.
A new approach
When it comes to creating the annual budget, Benson said he believes the town has gone about things in the wrong way in the past.
Instead of starting with projected expenses and working backward, Benson wants the town to plan its budget with revenues in mind and worry about what it needs after.
“Instead of in the past years, when we build your expenditures first then come in and look at revenues — I want to do it in reverse look at revenues then tell me how the department heads propose their budget be spent,” Benson said.
He also wants town staff and department heads to not only look at items that could be potentially cut from the budget but to look for positions that could remain unfilled.
Of the $24 million budget, nearly half of that is going to pay personnel and benefits, something Benson said has to change.
For Benson, maintaining open channels of communication with the residents of Carolina Beach is paramount and he holds town-hall-style meetings several times a year; these aren’t official town council meetings, instead, Benson said they allow him to meet with residents and answer questions.
During a June town hall meeting, Benson spoke about the recurring cost for personnel and benefits calling it unsustainable.
“Very soon there’s going to be a meeting with the town manager, to come up with a plan, just so you know, to reduce personnel and benefits by somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-percent,” Benson said in June.
In 2018, the town had 117 full-time employees for a town of approximately 2.5-square-miles.
The search for a new town manager
In September, the Town Council made the decision to release Town Manager Michael Cramer from his position citing differences of vision for the town. Cramer has yet to be replaced, which impacts the budgeting process because it’s usually supervised by the town manager.
Related: Carolina Beach Town Council fires Town Manager after five years on the job
In the meantime, Assistant Town Manager Ed Parvin is serving as interim manager.
The town has about 45 applications for the position Benson said, and that number has been narrowed to about six applicants. Town Council will have several in-person interviews in December with six candidates, with the option to interview any of the other candidates who applied, Benson said.
When it comes to choosing a town manager, Benson said every council member will have their own ideas of what makes a good manager, but for him, leadership is key.
“I always refer to leadership –– I don’t care if a person knows the flow rates of wastewater from a 12 to 18-inch-pipe, that is not important to me. Their role is to empower their department heads and get them to do their jobs,” Benson said.
With a military background, Benson said the removal of Cramer was a move that is frequently seen with military commanders.
It is not a condemnation of their work, but leadership will inevitably have a different vision for the future than council does, and when that happens, Benson said the change has to happen.
“Town council guides the decisions, the town manager makes the vision happen — not the other way around,” he said.
The future of the town’s budget will be placed in the hands of whomever council ultimately hires.
“The biggest task that a town manager has is building a viable and dispensable budget –– giving the council something viable to mold. Once we sign it, we own it,” he said.
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