NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A proposed budget from New Hanover County manager last week brought differing opinions on how to move forward.
READ MORE: Local commissioner against funding Port City United claims suspended employee threatened him
ALSO: Fired PCU employee recounts commissioner discussion as ‘tense,’ not threatening
Chris Coudriet presented the $543 million budget on May 30 at the county commissioners’ agenda review meeting, in what commissioner Jonathan Barfield deemed the “ninth hour.” Per state law, commissioners are to be presented a budget by June to open a public hearing and vote on it before it’s slated to go into effect, July 1 annually.
“I’ve left every work session understanding a preference that we begin to reallocate resources from Port City United and we are recommending to do that,” Coudriet told commissioners, noting the county will not increase property taxes (45 cents per $100).
Last month, he suggested pulling $7 million from the $300 million revenue stabilization fund, created from the sale of the New Hanover County Regional Medical Center to Novant, to balance the budget. Tapping into RSF could result in loss in principal balance, which some commissioners, such as LeAnn Pierce, spoke out against.
Barfield supported dipping into the fund, according to remarks made at the May 13 budget workshop meeting.
New Hanover County local officials have been debating the budget for months, as the county faces a 21% increase in costs of doing business, due to inflation. There is also limited revenue, as property taxes will remain the same as home values assessed in 2021 — despite home value growth — and sales tax is flat with no projected growth in 2024. Coudriet said this year he did not look to increase the budget, down roughly $45 million from last fiscal year.
Of the cuts, much debate has centered around the controversial Port City United, started in 2022, with the intent to curb violence communitywide. However, as presented for next fiscal year, the $2.9 million allocated to the department will be no more.
“It’s partly how we get to use no revenue stabilization fund,” Coudriet said.
Coudriet told commissioners, though the county isn’t looking to sustain the department, it would work to “relocate” current employees to other departments whose skills align with open positions. Spokesperson Lauren McConville said those areas could include the Department of Health and Human Services, public safety communications, and other administrative functions.
“While perhaps the department is a policy debate, the men and the women that work in that department — they are folks that have been a part of our team for two years and are doing good work,” Coudriet said of Port City United.
McConville confirmed there are 43 total PCU employees:
- 7 from Mediation & Outreach
- 11 from 24/7 Connect Center
- 21 from Community Resource Coordinators (contracted and funded by nonprofits)
- 4 from administration
“Concrete information about these placements and salaries cannot be confirmed at this time,” she added of the 22 county-funded positions.
PCU has been on the chopping block since two people from the department — specifically from the mediation and outreach team — were arrested for varying crimes. One was mediation and outreach supervisor Stephen Barnett, charged with accessory to attempted murder.
The other was Courtney McNeil who faces 16 drug charges and a firearm charge.
Commissioners Dane Scalise and Pierce have spoken against the continuance of Port City United for some time. Scalise, particularly, has taken issue with the mediation and outreach team, which hires people who are gang member-adjacent, to intervene in volatile situations before they erupt into gunplay.
Other commissioners have spoken in favor of some of PCU’s programming, particularly offshoots outside of the mediation and outreach team. PCU’s 24/7 Connect hotline pairs up underserved community members with needs in housing, healthcare, food security and the like.
Barfield praised the community resource coordinators that help youth in seven schools. They’re outsourced through county partnerships with nonprofits, including LINC, Voyage and Communities in Schools. The commissioner questioned the community’s approach to stop this work.
“I think it speaks ill of the county to go out to nonprofits — who already stretched with their capacity to begin with — to ask them to help us achieve our goals, only to cut them off at the knees, so to speak, by asking they fire folks that they hired,” he said. “If anything, I think it should be us going in and having those conversations with those employees that these folks have, explain to them why they’re not going to have a job anymore.”
Barfield added he thought PCU hasn’t been given a fair enough shake in its two years of infancy to prove itself. He took issue with blaming the actions of a few to paint “broad brush strokes” on the whole, comparing it to a few bad apples often seen in other government departments.
“We just had a deputy in Pender County that got arrested or resigned from his job,” Barfield said. “I don’t see any police department getting rid of a whole department [when that happens.]”
Barfield indicated his disapproval of the cuts also meant he wouldn’t approve the recommended budget. He also criticized its last-minute proposal and said he thought there were going to be line items commissioners worked through and suggested to the county manager.
“This has been the most difficult budget that I have seen us put together,” Barfield said, noting he’s been a part of 16. “To have a county manager not have a recommended budget until the ninth hour has not happened before in my tenure.”
“I own these cuts and heard, sir, everything that you said,” Coudriet responded.
Commissioner Rob Zapple sided with Barfield in that PCU should be highlighted for what it got right. He particularly praised the Connect center.
“My fear is that if we dismantle that framework that we have spent over two years building, a lot in part to your leadership,” Zapple said to Coudriet, “we’ll never be able to put it back again.”
The county has paid $10 million out of $40 million it committed over four years to the department. PCU launched in August 2021 following a shooting at New Hanover High School, with the goal to help underserved areas of the population in an attempt to also bring down violence.
Money to fund PCU was at first pitched to come from the sale of the county-owned hospital to Novant, but it’s primarily been funded by American Rescue Plan funds, to expire this year.
Other items in the budget not renewed include the United Way Capacity Building, which helps support nonprofit organizations utilizing evidence-based programs to help combat violence and provide wrap-around services.
“It was my understanding that we had money already in the budget that was committed to carry them through at least the next 11 months,” Zapple said.
Coudriet confirmed anything appropriated in the current fiscal year will continue, but the program will not be funded next fiscal year — nor will the county’s technical certifications program.
The budget also cut economic development by 20%, to affect various organizations such as Chamber of Commerce and Wilmington Downtown Inc., and lessened Legal Aid and Second Chance funding by a third. Coudriet said county departments worked to trim fat in excess of $1.3 million as well.
Other budget highlights:
- Cape Fear Community College: $23.6 million
- Capital Improvement Plan: $16.95 million, including South College Road trail, $2 million for lagoon relining and new administrative building for recycling and solid waste
- Mental health services: $1.8 million from the $50 million Mental Health and Substance Use Stabilization fund, created by the sale of NHRMC to Novant, to go toward items like $2.1 million for schools nurses and therapists and the county and city’s joint Getting Home initiative
- Public safety: $1.8 million, including new detention center door ($1.6 million) and other upgrades
- Resurfacing tennis courts at Laney and Ogden Park: $225,000
- Schools: $5.5 million more in classroom education, $1.95 to sustain pre-K classrooms
- Sheriff’s office equipment replacement: $633,000
- Staff and pay: 3.8% cost-of-living adjustments for county employees, no merit-based increases; decreasing temporary overtime adjustment for county detention center employes from 2 times to 1.5; $321,000 for 9 new employees — 5 for Medicaid expansion, 1 for cooperative extension, 3 for parks and gardens
- Stormwater fee increase: $6.14/month
- County vehicle replacement: $3 million for 84 — 80 from sheriff’s department
- Wilmington International Airport: $250,000
- Wilmington Trade Center incentive agreement: $1.1 million
- Workforce Housing Program: $3 million for year three of five year plan with $15 million commitment
- Wave Transit (read more here): $750,000
See the full budget here. A public hearing will be presented June 17.
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