MUNICIPAL BUDGETING IS HARD WORK!

Back in the 70s when I was a graduate student at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, three of the most challenging courses for me in my politics, policy and administration curriculum were Public Budgeting, Managerial Economics For Public Administrators, And State And Local Government Finance. Not only did each have a lot of reading and homework, but I also learned that challenging courses are even more so when the professor is the author of the textbook.

Some of the lessons learned those many years ago come to mind as I observe our local budget process that we engage in at this time of year. Textbooks state that our budget is simply a plan that provides a mechanism to allocate resources for the pursuit of goals that are consistent with the community’s preferences and needs.

To complicate it, we the public want a lot, and these wants shouldn’t be confused with needs. We are willing to provide our government with our money so that the government can spend it to benefit us. I can still remember Professor Jesse Burkhead challenging us to remember to keep the theory and practice separated in our minds because financial wizards can propose a theoretically perfect budget, but the political process makes the plan a living one.

We in Chapel Hill are now at the proposal stage. Our Town Council normally holds three public forums and hearings before making decisions each spring on the annual budget, the 15-year capital improvements program, and applications for community development, housing, and transportation grants.

Tough questions have to be answered, like what services will the Town provide and at what levels, and where will the money come from. Our current Chapel Hill budget is $81.5 million. Know what’s in it? If we wanted to maintain only the items included in it, we would still have to find additional funds for next year to cover inflation. If we don’t want to raise more money, then we have to cut something just to keep pace with the prior year.

Municipal budgets are typically incremental, as we don’t start from scratch and build the budget from a zero base. Rarely do budgets decrease from year to year, so to hold steady we usually reduce spending or reduce some program or activity. Most families find themselves doing the same thing when they see that their available funds won’t cover all their needs and wants. It would be nice to be able to go to the boss and say, “Boss, I need a raise so that I can balance my budget.” I suspect most people are as successful with approach as cartoon character Dagwood Bumstead is when he repeatedly tries it with Mr. Dithers!

Governments can in fact do this to balance their budgets — the raise is called a tax increase. Local budgets must be balanced so you either spend less or get more money. I think we most often see a blend of the two but it still seems like tax increases come right regular. Since we have the occasion to participate in the process to set priorities and let decision makers know how we feel about the spending decisions and potential increases, we should take advantage of these opportunities.

For the budget that will go into effect beginning July 1, department work sessions were held in February and citizen boards and commissions also had the opportunity to provide their input. Then, the first public forum was held on January 31. The Manager will present a budget status report and hold another public forum on Wednesday, March 28. In addition to the annual budget, citizens also have the chance to comment on how we spend federal and state grant money and the components of our 15-year capital program that includes near-term priorities such as the expansion of the Chapel Hill Public Library, Parking Lot 5 redevelopment and the Southern Community Park near Southern Village.

The Manager plans to present his recommended budget on April 23. The last opportunity for public involvement will be a public hearing on May 16. The council then hopes to take its final vote on the budget on June 11.

Have you already participated in developing our plan? Do you plan to participate in the future? Do you think some of the priorities ought to be revised? Do you have some ideas on how to make our operations more efficient and effective? If you do, you should take advantage of these occasions to be heard. Having this significant opportunity to participate in the hard work of government budgeting in this manner is a good thing; translating budget theory into practice is an even better thing!



Previous columns are available at <www.columnsbyfredblack.blogspot.com>

PRIVATE vs. PUBLIC, WHERE’S THE LINE?

Not too long ago in the mail, we received a letter from one of those mortgage companies that wanted to save us money. They said that they could lower our monthly mortgage payments because they specialize in loans and are a leader in this area. This was not our first such mailing and I suspect that others have received similar ones.

The recent letter that we received stated that “public records indicated” the amount of our initial mortgage. I hadn’t given much thought to my mortgage being a public record until that letter arrived. Next came all of the media coverage on the home that the Edwards family built near Chapel Hill. Not only did reports indicate how much the Edwards’ home cost, but also there was information on the amount of their tax bill.

It is amazing what information is available to anyone who wants to spend the time to gather it. In days past, one had to go to some government office building to retrieve public documents. Today, the computer revolution and the digitization of public documents have made the task pretty easy. With a little finger work, you can not only obtain home sale and tax bills, but you can also determine voting records and other bits of data about your friends and neighbors without leaving your home.

Having such information available in the public domain means just about anyone can access the information, and some companies are cashing in by harvesting the information and selling it online to whoever is willing to pay for it. Nothing new about those with the entrepreneurial spirit finding a way to make money, but if you search the Internet, you might be surprised at how many firms out there are willing to sell whatever they can find in public documents about you to anyone interested.

To be honest about this, we must acknowledge that certain records are deemed public to ensure fair access to information. But with more and more identity theft in our nation, maybe it’s time for a change. What is essential for anyone to have access to? What information on each of us should be, in fact, confidential?

If this was easy to answer, I’m sure that the smart people who deal with this issue on a day-to-day basis would have solved it by now. A personal experience showed me how difficult the answers are. When I retired from the U.S. Army, it was recommended that I take my DD Form 214 (the release or discharge from active duty form) to my county clerk and get it certified and filed so I could get certified copies later. Then, as identify theft got more popular, the DD Form 214 became an easy target because it had all of the information on it that info thieves would ever want. In 2003, North Carolina changed its law to treat the DD Form 214 as confidential.

Another related problem is the fact that the military switched from the service number system that it had used previously to making the social security number the service number. A few years ago some enterprising thieves went to the library and used the Congressional Record to get the social security numbers of some newly promoted generals right off the document that showed that the Senate had confirmed them for their new rank. Armed with this information, they obtained credit cards and quickly ran up astronomical bills in the names of the unsuspecting victims. When the scheme was discovered, new rules required that only the last four digits of the service number/social security number be used.

Those who were caught in this scam were furious because not only their good name was compromised, but also their credit scores took a hit. After a good deal of time and more than a few dollars, things were sorted out. Sadly, those generals were not alone in having to deal with this crime. Our Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. These skilled thieves have all sorts of ways to take advantage of an unsuspecting public, but I think that readily available “public” information can only makes their job easier.

We can shred documents, protect critical data, not give out personal information indiscriminately, be extra careful on the Internet, and a host of other sound steps to protect ourselves, but how can we ensure that our information in the public domain is not used illegally? Fortunately, states like ours are aware of this problem and they are working to help our laws catch up with all of this technology. Let’s hope that our representatives do what’s necessary to ensure that we don’t become victims of technology or the valid need for public documents. Being a victim is not a good thing.

DO YOU BELIEVE OUR LOCAL LEADERS?

The other day I had reason to reflect on something that happened many years ago. It was late July 1969 and I was commanding a unit that was located near a place in Vietnam named Nui Ba Den, the “Black Virgin Mountain.”

A re-supply helicopter landed at first light and delivered a hot meal and other supplies but most importantly, mail. With the mail were our copies of the Pacific edition of the Stars and Stripes, the military’s newspaper. As the papers were distributed, I was walking around talking to soldiers about the front-page story with the huge headline, “MAN ON MOON.”

One of my privates when asked his reaction to this historic event said, “Heck sir, it’s just another government lie!” I was taken aback and stunned. “You think they can pull off something that big and involving that many people without a leak,” I probed. Well, to make a long conversation short, he did in fact believe it was possible and it turned out that he was not the only 19 or 20 year old cynic that I had.

In 37-year hindsight, it’s not surprising that my guys had reasons aplenty to not trust “the government” or anyone else they tended to label as “the man.” Their low levels of trust in “the system” and its representatives began long before they were drafted (and my non-believers were almost all draftees); they evaluated things based on their experiences.

So I wonder what in people’s experiences around here would cause them to not trust the people we elect to do our business. Is what we sometimes observe just the reflection of a good old fashion healthy dose of skepticism about all things political that Americans have historically had? We see this phenomenon directed at all levels of government, but I would think at the level that is closest to us, it would be somewhat reduced.

A quick Internet search reveals that my guys were not alone in believing that the moon headline was reporting a hoax. Do we have a similar situation here in that we don’t believe what our local leaders tell us? Someone told me the other day that he didn’t believe what any politician said, and then he repeated the old joke: How can you tell if a politician is lying? Their lips are moving!

I asked him was he joking or did he really believe that, and he assured me that he was not joking. He went on to explain to me that I was too trusting of what those in authority said. The problem as he saw it was far too many people were like me and this allowed officials to receive a pass and never get asked the right or really hard questions. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added that the members of the local “fourth estate” were worse than the average gullible citizen is; they would do nothing to disturb the status quo. They, in his opinion, were toothless watchdogs!

Wow! I was floored! I then had to know just what cliffs we mindless lemmings were about to go off. What were we being “fed” by those in authority? My “friend” ticked off his list: taxes, development in northern Chapel Hill, development in northern Carrboro, development in Orange County, tuition, school redistricting, trash dumps and transfer stations, Carolina North, Horace Williams Airport, Lot 5, and downtown Chapel Hill development.

So what about you? Do you distrust the leaders of our various local institutions? Do you sense that there is some sort of conspiracy afoot? Do you think that we are just told what we want to hear? Do you feel that our media is a “toothless watchdog” of the public interest?

I guess that I’m still not convinced that the state of things is as dire as my “friend” believes. Members of our community participate in public hearings, serve on advisory boards and commissions, and fill the local media and blogs with their take on things. I sense that there is very little that is done without others knowing about it but, most importantly, the leaders of our institutions have done nothing to cause me to not trust them.

Like my soldiers in that July heat those many years ago who were willing to believe that people were capable of and motivated to orchestrate the greatest hoax in history, I refuse to believe that anyone is that good. I also refuse to believe that we are “being played.” Whom do you believe?

PS: Trusting doesn't mean that you don't verify!

DISPUTES, HOW DO YOU SETTLE THEM?

When you’re the middle child with a brother 3 ½ years older and a sister 3 ½ years younger, you grow up learning a lot about disputes. You also learn that many things are not fair and you get to hear your parents remind you ad nauseaum that life isn’t fair, so get over it. Hit your big brother and he pounds you; hit your sister and parents punish you big time.

Since all three of us made it to adulthood, I guess we somehow learned to settle our disputes.


How do you settle disputes? Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to attend an orientation at the Dispute Settlement Center of Orange County, a non-profit mediation organization based in Carrboro. Their mission is "to promote and bring about the peaceful settlement of disputes and to prevent the escalation of conflict through mediation, conciliation, facilitation, and training."

Executive Director Frances Henderson and board member Pamela Gibson Senegal conducted our session and told us that they have been in existence here since 1978 and that they are considered a national leader in the use and availability of mediation. They explained their full range of services and of particular interest to me were the youth programs, where kids are taught skills that they can use to manage conflict.

We saw a videotape that featured staffer Will Dudenhausen teaching kids in a public housing neighborhood team-building games that develop conflict-resolution skills. The young people indicated that they had learned to handle the kinds of conflicts they experience each day, and they noted that they understood the value of using their heads instead of their hands.

In addition to the other youth programs such as training peer mediators in the schools, the Center conducts a restorative justice for youth program. Trying to build relationships between people after a criminal incident, first-time juvenile offenders and their victims meet in mediated sessions to discuss the crime and move toward conciliation through apologies and possible restitution.

There is a “Family Table” program to teach parents and teens in family conflict situations how to manage their conflict. The family mediation program helps separating couples have productive conversations and other couples build and strengthen their partnerships. Assistance is also available to help work through difficult family situations such as sibling relationships, care of aging parents and property disputes.

In the general mediation program, neutral mediators, many of whom are trained volunteers, assist parties with their issues. The participants might be self-referred, or referred by attorneys, magistrates, police, County Social Services, the Superior Court, or other such organizations. The mediation might focus on family, work, or neighborhood conflicts, but the goal is the same — finding options to resolve the conflict.

In addition, a public disputes program provides meeting facilitation, multi-party mediation, and conducts conflict assessments, designs dialogue, and decision-making processes, and provides training and education programs. You might know someone who has been a member of a board, committee, neighborhood group, or business that has benefited from this program.

To extend their reach and serve as many people as possible, the training program works with individuals, businesses, schools, non-profits, and governmental agencies to build their conflict management, mediation and meeting management skills. Some training programs are custom-tailored for organizations and others are open to the public free or for a small fee.

And if that’s not enough, the Center last year began a “Generation Peace Art Award,” where local high school students can win a cash award for creative expressions about conflict resolution and speech. Funded by an anonymous donor, awards were presented to students for their visual arts and literary arts submissions.

The Center funds their programs with fees for service, government allocations, the Triangle United Way, various foundations, and contributions from our community. Because of the generous support that they receive, they are able to offer their services on a sliding scale, depending on the client. I highly recommend contacting the Center to see how you or your group might benefit from their offerings. Contact them at (929-8800) or their website <www.disputesettlement.org>.

NEW TOWN ‘TOP COP’ WHERE ARE YOU?

Are you here? Are you there? Are you anywhere? I hope that you contacted Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil before the deadline. He asked for input on the qualities the new ‘top cop’ needed, and he’s heard a lot at forums, from emails, from Town Council members, and from other conversations. Problem is does someone with all of the suggested qualities really exist?

If the person who can come closest to possessing all of the suggested qualities isn’t already in our community, can an “outsider” be given the opportunity to learn and grow while on the job? After all, this is a pretty demanding place and if nothing else, we are “opinion-gifted” and more than willing to share.

What is impressive to me is that our new town manager, Roger Stancil, has asked for input from the community. This process has given our new town manager a unique opportunity to get to know us better, as well as get our take on things like a police chief.

The first two of the series of forums that sought citizen input were not well attended at all. Two people came to each of them. Tip of the hat to Dale Pratt-Wilson and Ron Bogle, who made suggestion after suggestion to the consultants who conducted the first forum.

Ms. Pratt-Wilson heads the Coalition for Alcohol & Drug Free Teenagers, and she wanted a chief who would work towards the goals of her organization. Mr. Bogle said that he wanted a chief who officers had confidence in and one who would give responsibility to others.

Much was made in the media about what was seen as an apparent lack of interest on the part of citizens. Why didn’t people show up to provide input, some wondered. I can now turn the question around: why didn’t the media show up at the January 23d forum at the Hargraves Center in Northside?

A couple dozen citizens were there and were more than willing to participate. Ms. Rebecca Veazey, president of The Management and Personnel Services Group
(MAPS) explained the process. She would use all of the input received to come up with a list of qualities that the new chief should have. After screening the candidates who apply, a small number will be asked to participate in an assessment center (a process, not a place, she pointed out). Candidates would participate in a series of assessments, including role playing, community presentations and other exercises that would measure a person's behavior.

Once she completed her presentation, she asked for questions about the process. What she got was an almost immediate response to what qualities the new chief should have. She and the town manager got an earful, no, make that two earfuls.

The first group of responders focused on fairness issues and they wanted a chief who would treat people right, respect them, and make sure his or her officers did the same thing. Like a rolling wave, the comments cam one after another, and many were punctuated with personal or second-hand anecdotes for support.

People talked about assumptions that they thought police made about people of color. Some focused on the need to crackdown on drug dealers, but not assuming that every young man was a drug dealers. Others talked about holding officers to a high standard of behavior and training them to work with the community.

One participant made a point that clearly got the manager’s attention. He offered that maybe the reason why the other forums weren’t as well attended as the one in Northside was because the residents of Northside have had a more contentious and hostile relationship with the police department than other parts of town.

Where was the media to report this perception? Of course, it’s not new, but it sure is germane to the task. Accurate or not, that perception is the reality for those who believe the police are not fair, right, and respectful. Of course, there’s always more than one side of the story, but the version presented in Northside that Tuesday night needed to be heard by the manager.

Another tip of the hat goes to Delores Bailey and the EmPOWERment staff for getting Northside neighbors to come out and share their views. Another tip of the hat goes to Roger Stancil for being the kind of town manager who is willing to invest the time to listen to what folks have to say, even when it might be painful to hear.

He listened, and I think he is using a great process. We want whomever he picks using of this process to be the best fit for our community, and lead our police department with distinction. If that’s the result, then that’s a good thing.

WHO HAS ENOUGH TIME TO SERVE?

On December 4th, the Chapel Hill Town Council received the report and voted 8-1 to move forward on the Lot 5 redevelopment project. If finally approved, it will be a 243,000 square-foot complex with 137 condominiums and 29,000 square feet of retail space. With this vote, Town Manager Roger Stancil has the green light to work out the details with Ram Development.

Throughout this process, a Town Council negotiating committee chaired by Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom has worked long and hard negotiating with Ram Development. The council members on the team have delved into the financial model, the look of the project and numerous other details during this period and brought a proposal to their colleagues that they thought was in the best interest of the Town.

Something that I haven’t heard discussed about this project and how it was negotiated is one particular message this process sends to our citizens. How many citizens can afford to spend the kind of time that council members invested in this process, let alone all of their other duties as a council member?

With the Carolina North process looming, it is fair to assume that our elected leaders will be called on to devote a lot of their time and energy to the UNC project. With more and more added to their plate and little or nothing coming off, I fear that we will be led by only those who can devote tremendous chunks of their time to governance. Is this what was envisioned with the council-manager form of government?

Let’s review a little history. Council-manager government was a response to the bad old one-party political machines that ran many city governments by the beginning of the 20th Century. Party politics and corruption prevailed and were barriers to fair and professional local government. Partisan elections, dominated by local political machines, limited candidates to only the party regulars and the patronage system prevented qualified people from serving in local government leadership positions.

The ceremonial mayor and the council members are the leaders and policy makers representing the community and concentrate on policy issues in response to citizen needs and wishes. The professionally trained manager is appointed by the council to carry out policy and ensure that the entire community is properly served. If the manager in question does not respond to the governing body’s wishes, the council has the authority to dismiss that manager at any time.

So in theory, citizens did not have to be subject matter experts in the wide range of things involved in running a town or city. Rather, the elected citizens were expected to employ their native intelligence and common sense to make policy decisions. The manager would bring the product of the staff’s efforts to the council for approval. The council would set the policy and evaluate the performance of the manager as the leader of the professional staffers. The council would not hire or fire anyone other than the manager, and in our case, the attorney also.

It’s easy to see why the majority of local governments have adopted this model. It just makes good common sense to have the experts responsive to citizens who were elected by their fellow citizens to make policy and oversee their government. This had to be better than the days of the power brokers who thumbed their nose at those who wanted to know how the money was spent or how decisions were made.

So is it just today’s complexity that requires that our elected policymakers have to invest the kind of time that we are witnessing? How can someone simultaneously serve on committees like the Lot 5 negotiating team, serve as liaison to the numerous boards and commissions, serve on regional and intergovernmental committees, spend time listening to constituents, and prepare for regular meetings and work sessions? And if you make the time to do all of this well, can you have a job? Can you spend any time with your family? Can you pursue any other outside interests?

Clearly these efforts of our hard working and committed council members are important, but is there a more efficient and effective way? Does the Council create some of their own time commitment issues? Can more responsibilities be placed on the professional staff? Can the council members determine how to change positively the culture of the council that drives this situation?

I think it’s worth taking a hard look at how to make serving on the council a possibility for citizens who can’t make it anywhere close to a fulltime job. Maybe when the council has their upcoming planning retreat, they will consider ways to do this. Investing their time discussing this will be a good thing for our community.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM A REAL WINNER

In the “BG” days — before grandparenthood, I never thought very much about the role of children’s museums, but with grandkids you get to see a whole lot of things that you don’t remember or didn’t experience when your kids were small.

My better awareness of these fantastic destinations for fun and learning was enhanced because of the convergence of three things. First, my roommate on the Madison trip was Jon Mills, the president of the board of directors of our Kidzu Children’s Museum.

Second, we had a fantastic presentation on the Madison Children’s Museum by their executive director, Ruth Shelly. She told us about the wide variety of exciting programs that they offered, including participating in a unique partnership to provide free dental care to local children through its Body Shop health exhibit. She also made a very convincing case for how the museum enhances their downtown, but more on that later.

The third thing that happened was to see the Madison children’s museum on their State Street. I saw families walking around. I also saw people having their picnic lunch on the state capitol grounds either before or after a museum visit. And I smelled the freshly popped popcorn being sold by a vendor from a decorated cart across from the museum. It looked like plenty of kids — and their parents were into corn.

Did you know that in 1975 there were approximately 38 children's museums in the United States? Eighty new children's museums opened between 1976 and 1990. Since 1990, more than 130 have opened, and there are approximately 80 in the planning phase. Are you surprised to learn that children’s museums are the fastest growing sector of the museum industry?
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Some local parents were tired of driving to Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, or other locations for their kids to experience a quality museum experience. Therefore, as we are wont to do in these parts, their conversations resulted in an organized effort to explore the possibility of starting a children’s museum in our community.

It’s not surprising to learn that they discovered all sorts of obstacles and heard plenty from the corps of naysayers, but they formed their 501-c(3) nonprofit and tackled the tough task of finding a location. With help from Dana McMahan, the owner of the East Franklin Street shop The Laughing Turtle, they had a generously donated space for the museum. They hired their two full-time employees, and all systems were “go” for being a kid magnet.

Open since March, the museum expected to host 20 thousand visitors per year; it has hosted 19 thousand already. The board raised the necessary funds from individual donors and foundations to get off the ground and is now trying to raise more so that they can move to a permanent home.

Where should that permanent home be? Based on what I heard and saw in Madison, their home should be in a downtown, or as close as one can get. And it’s just not a Madison spin. The Reader’s Digest has a blurb on children’s museums in its November issue, and they observed that “more and more parents want safe havens that offers tots extra stimulation. And civic leaders see the museums as urban renewal anchors.”

The Association of Children’s Museums says that sixty-three percent of children's museums are located in urban areas while twenty-three percent are located in suburban areas. Only fourteen percent of children's museums are located in rural areas. And to top it all off, the association reports that seventy-five children's museums are flagships in downtown revitalization projects.

Communities where the museums are helping to revitalize their downtowns are on to something. Our children’s museum brings people downtown that might not otherwise come. They come by bus and car and seem to be able to park just fine. Visitors also take advantage of the restaurants and stores downtown. Parents and their kids are visible on the street and create a powerful image that offsets negative perceptions of the downtown.

Another benefit of being downtown is the closeness to UNC-Chapel Hill students. Kidzu has been blessed with having student interns, work-study students, and volunteers like those from the DKE Fraternity who come out early in the morning to help unload and load exhibits. Kidzu also has relationships with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and the UNC School of Education.

We have in Kidzu a real winner for our community, and especially for our downtown. I suspect that its board will permanently locate where they can find 10 to 15 thousand square feet of donated space — they now have around three thousand. They need a space and we want a vibrant downtown. Kidzu is already making ours vibrant. Let’s hope we can help it continue to be part of the successful revitalization of our downtown.

That will be a good thing!