This week we have a special edition of NC SPIN featuring four Mayors from North Carolina. They include:
Mayor Nancy McFarlane, Raleigh
Mayor Bill Bell, Durham
Mayor Jill Swain, Huntersville
Mayor B.J. Murphy, Kinston
Public Services
Mayor Murphy appears on NCSPIN
KFP: City, county look toward 2013
Local leaders outline their priorities for New Year
With new faces in county government and the possibility of new faces in city government, local leaders are looking toward a busy 2013.
“I would say, in 2013 some of our priorities will be customer service, street resurfacing and continuing our redevelopment efforts,” Kinston Mayor B.J. Murphy said Monday, in the waning hours of 2012.
The 2012 elections left the Lenoir County Board of Commissioners with a new chairman and vice chairwoman in Commissioners Reuben Davis and Jackie Brown, respectively.
They also have a new face in freshman Commissioner Craig Hill and the still-to-be-determined replacement for long-serving Commissioners’ Chairman George Graham — the local Democratic Party has nominated Roland Best for the seat, but the commissioners will have the final say.
“I know both of those folks are committed to serving the citizens, and I think they’ll fit in very nicely and I think we’ll work together very well,” Commissioner Linda Rouse Sutton said of Best and Hill.
She said the commissioners would “miss George (Graham)’s leadership,” but bringing in new people can bring in new ideas and new perspectives.
Sutton expected the commissioners’ main priorities in 2013 would be balancing the budget and not raising taxes.
“We’re determined to come out with a good balanced budget and not raise taxes, and hang on to as many services as possible, as closely as we can,” she said.
City goals
On the city of Kinston’s side, the mayor’s and two City Council seats will be up for election this year.
In 2013, city elections will be nonpartisan, meaning candidates will run without a political party label.
“I am looking forward to the wishes of the people being carried out in the form of nonpartisan elections,” said Murphy, who was a strong supporter of nonpartisan voting.
The mayor said he hoped the council would continue to work toward building up $500,000 in the budget for street repairs and resurfacing.
Murphy acknowledged it was a challenging goal to meet in times of lean budgets, “but continuing to make that progress toward that goal is important.”
The mayor also expected the city’s policy of “proactive policing” would continue due to the success of removing major criminals from the streets in 2012.
He also saw as a priority continuing to follow the relationship between Duke Energy, which completed its merger with Progress Energy in 2012, and public power communities in North Carolina.
Kinston is among the 32 member communities of the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency, which owns power plants along with Duke Energy. The “generation assets” owned by the cities provide power to the member communities, which took on billions in debt 30 years ago to buy into those assets.
“Selling the generation assets, I think, should be part of our discussion in coordination with how to handle our debt load,” Murphy said.
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 orDavid.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
BREAKOUT BOX:
County priorities in 2013:
- Balance the budget
- No tax increase
- Maintain services
Source: Commissioner Linda Rouse Sutton
City priorities in 2013:
- Improved customer service
- Street resurfacing
- Continued redevelopment
- ‘Proactive policing’
- Monitor relationship between Duke Energy and NCEMPA/ElectriCities
Source: Mayor B.J. Murphy
KFP: City of Kinston commissions study to find ways to improve water service
By David Anderson / The Free Press
Kinston Public Services staffers have fielded calls for two years from residents of Kinston’s western outskirts, frustrated with low water pressure.
A solution — or array of solutions — could be presented in the coming months, though, as the city conducts an intensive study to determine the best methods of improving water service to residents in the Castle Oaks, Whitfield Acres and Falling Creek communities which have grown significantly during the past 20 years.
The improved water pressure would also ensure there are no hiccups in water service as more tenants come to the nearby U.S. 70 West Industrial Park.
“It will give us a better idea of what things we can do to improve pressures,” Assistant Public Services Director Steve Miller said Tuesday of the study.
The members of the Kinston City Council voted 4-0 Monday to spend $30,000 from the city’s water fund balance for the study.
It would be conducted by the Wooten Company, a Raleigh engineering firm which is also working with the city on ways to improve sewer capacity at the industrial park.
Mayor B.J. Murphy called the water pressure issue “a good problem to have,” as an indicator of residential and industrial growth around the city.
Public Services officials are looking at several factors in that issue, including water supply, water pipe capacity and water pipe design on systems built to support much smaller communities.
“Ideally, as a system, we keep enough water in our pipes to meet the daily needs of the customers, as well as in case there was a fire,” Miller explained.
Kinston obtained all of its water from wells until 2008, when the Neuse Regional Water and Sewer Authority (NRWASA) plant went online, delivering purified water drawn from the Neuse River to Kinston and its sister water providers in Lenoir and Pitt counties.
Miller said Kinston pays for a “daily allotment” of water from NRWASA, and augments it with water from select wells and its 750,000-gallon water tower in the U.S. 70 West Industrial Park.
The city gets NRWASA water from several connection points at different areas of Kinston, and the agency and city have agreed to keep one connection point near the Falling Creek area open 24 hours a day.
Miller said flows at other connection points have been reduced to ensure the city does not exceed its allotment.
“We’re not purchasing any additional water,” he said. “We’re just rebalancing and applying more water to that one spot.”
The adjustment from NRWASA is considered a temporary solution, though, and Public Services officials suggested opening two more wells earlier this year — No. 18 off Kelly Road in the Castle Oaks area, and No. 14 in the industrial park — at a cost of $100,000 for upgrades.
The City Council nixed the proposal, but it is still one solution to the water pressure issue, Miller said.
Joey Pittman, water production superintendent, said Well No. 14 — which sits in the shadow of the massive 750,000-gallon industrial park water tower — needs significant upgrades to be able to provide water treated with chloramines, which NRWASA uses to treat the river water.
He noted Castle Oaks and the surrounding communities are fed by a water system that dead-ends at Kelly Road. He said it would help if they were on a “loop” system.
“It’s not able to come from anywhere else,” he said of the water.
Miller said it would take several months to complete the study, which would include a computer model of Kinston’s entire water system to show supply and demand, what improvements can be made in the present, and what changes can be made to support future growth.
David Andersoncan be reached at 252-559-1077 orDavid.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
Tagged Public Services, WASA
KFP: City weighs sharing financial risk for Smithfield jobs
Kinston city officials have been asked to assume part of the cost of expanding Smithfield Packing Co.’s local workforce by reimbursing the company for any of the 330 positions it does not fill at its expanded Kinston plant.
The liability for unfilled jobs comes as part of the city’s efforts to obtain grants to fund an expansion of sewer capacity at the U.S. 70 West Industrial Park — the sewer capacity expansion would support Smithfield and future tenants.
Those grants come with requirements for job creation, and Smithfield would have to pay back grant funds for any jobs not created. Smithfield has asked the city to reimburse the company for any back payments it must make.
“Smithfield realizes the grant doesn’t solely benefit them,” City Manager Tony Sears said Wednesday. “There’s also a city of Kinston benefit and they’re asking the city of Kinston to share in the risk.”
Smithfield has operated its K2 plant in the industrial park since 2006. The company announced last November it would expand that facility and create an additional 330 jobs, as well as investing $85.5 million in its Kinston facilities.
The industrial park is currently near its capacity for sewer, with about 50,000 gallons per day available through the nearby Oliver Glass Lift Station.
Kinston officials estimate it would cost $4.3 million to create an additional 1.5 million gallons per day of capacity — the city has found potential grants from the N.C. Rural Center, the N.C. Department of Commerce Industrial Development Fund and the Golden LEAF Foundation worth a combined $2.75 million.
“It’s a great project for the city — in addition to providing sewer to Smithfield — and its something we’ve been talking about for a while,” Public Services Director Rhonda Barwick said Tuesday.
Barwick said the city and county would be responsible for funding the remaining $1.5 million, but Lenoir County Economic Development Director Mark Pope is working to find additional grants — the city had enlisted his support to find grants late last year.
Sears, along with Barwick and Pope, presented Smithfield’s request to the members of the city council during a work session Monday.
Pope expected Smithfield would honor its commitment to hire the full contingent of 330 new employees — the company is currently working with the JobLink center at Lenoir Community College to interview prospective workers.
“Their goal is to have that 330 on board by the first quarter of next year,” he told the council.
Council members were asked to vote on the agreement between the city and Smithfield Monday — the city would have to fund the full $4.3 million by itself if it could not get the grants, and all documentation must be submitted to the granting agencies by Aug. 30.
The city would have to pay up to $13,000 per job if all $4.3 million were covered by grants.
Mayor B.J. Murphy and several council members were reluctant to commit to the agreement Monday, especially without seeing a formal document.
“When government rushes decision making, it tends to lead to poor decision making,” Murphy said.
The council agreed to recess Monday’s meeting to 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 27, when they will hold a vote.
Sears said the city entered into a similar agreement with West Pharmaceuticals in 2008 when it was expanding its Kinston facility.
“This isn’t necessarily ground-breaking for the city,” he said Wednesday. “This the type of risk sharing the city has done with other big-name employers.”
David Harris, president of RSM Harris Associates in Goldsboro, is working with Pope to write grant applications.
He said it is typical for grant agreements with companies to stipulate a return of grant funds if job commitments are not fully met, but granting agencies often work with those companies.
“We’ve had extensions granted when market conditions change, that were totally unpredictable at the time of the award,” Harris said.
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or David.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
Tagged Economic Development, Public Services
Video: Reece Gardner Interview on July 24 2012
This week on the Reece Gardner Hour, Reece and I discuss recent headlines, Mayor’s internship program, 2013 Mayor’s race, street resurfacing funding increase, technology improvements at the City (kiosks, online applications and social media), future political office, Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act, endorsement of Pat McCrory (Gov), Dan Forest (Lt Gov), John Bell (NC House) and David Rouzer (US House), partnership with the Arts Council for a $100,000 grant, revitalization efforts, MLK corridor improvements, demolition by neglect.
You should see some significant improvements from City Hall on out over the next four or five years.
My interview begins at 29:15.
KFP: Kinston, ElectriCities leaders see positive impacts from Duke-Progress merger
Leaders of Kinston and ElectriCities expect municipal electric customers could see positive impacts from the merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy, which is expected to decrease their power purchasing costs.
Rhonda Barwick, Kinston Public Services director, said last Friday officials with the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency, the power agency for 32 Eastern North Carolina public power communities — including Kinston and La Grange — were reviewing the 182-page order from the N.C. Utilities Commission approving the merger.
The process had to be approved by multiple federal and state regulatory agencies.
“What we’re interested in is to make sure that no costs related to the merger will affect our public power customers,” Barwick said. “We feel confident that it will not have a negative impact.”
She added: “We’ll know more once they’ve completed their review.”
Fifty-one towns and cities in North Carolina provide power directly to their residents from power generating assets they jointly own with Progress and Duke.
The N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency represents 32 communities in the eastern part of the state, and the N.C. Municipal Power Agency 1 represents 19 cities in the western part of the state.
The power agencies also have contracts to purchase supplemental power from Duke and Progress to fully meet their customers’ power needs.
Officials with the power agencies and ElectriCities, the Raleigh-based nonprofit agency which manages their operations and represents them, have watched the merger closely since the process began in early 2011.
“To me the merger is good for the power agencies, and that’s what we said in our filings (with regulators),” ElectriCities CEO Graham Edwards said.
Duke and Progress officials had stated they would not take on any part of the several billion dollars in debt owed by both power agencies, which they took on in the early 1980s to buy into the power plants.
The debt is the primary reason why power bills of municipal customers are typically about 30 percent higher than the bills of private utility customers.
The eastern municipal utilities cannot save their customers any money through debt relief, but they can pass on savings thanks to currently-dropping fuel costs, and lower power purchasing costs negotiated with Progress, Edwards explained.
“It’ll have a very positive impact on the 32 cities in the eastern power agency,” he said.
Edwards said 25 to 30 percent of NCEMPA’s annual $700 million budget goes toward supplemental power purchasing.
Representatives of New Bern and Rocky Mount, members of NCEMPA, hired consultants and attorneys to intervene on the cities’ behalf last year when the merger was being approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — the FERC has since given conditional approval.
Kinston officials considered intervening as well, and put $12,500 toward the hiring of consultants and attorneys, but eventually decided not to take part.
“Our theory, and the one that I presented to (city) council was that we could spend the money to intervene, but if the federal or state utility commission sided with any city that intervened, then all the NCEMPA cities would actually benefit,” Mayor B.J. Murphy said. “Therefore, we would be financially wiser to pull out of the intervention process; that theory proved to be correct in the sense that the merger has now been approved.”
Little change for Progress customers
The state’s Utilities Commission approved the merger last week — Progress Energy Carolinas spokesman Mike Hughes said the South Carolina Public Service Commission is scheduled to meet today and give a final ruling.
“Assuming a favorable ruling there, we expect to close the merger Monday afternoon,” Hughes said last Friday.
If the members of the South Carolina commission approve, Duke’s purchase of Progress will create the largest private utility in the United States.
The combined utilities would serve 7.1 million customers in six states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
There are more than 15,000 Progress customers in Lenoir, Greene and Jones counties.
Hughes said the merger will not stop customers’ rates from increasing, but it is expected to “mitigate” the effect of future rate increases by increasing efficiency and decreasing fuel costs.
“Over time, as with just about everything else, prices are going up but we expect the merger to help to mitigate those future price impacts,” he said. “We expect to have significant efficiencies between the companies as we integrate our companies and we hope over time that will result in smaller increases for our customers.”
Hughes said Progress Energy customers do not currently have to do anything as the merger takes effect — they can still pay bills online through progress-energy.com, although they will be redirected to another site.
“Our customers will still call the same number for services,” Hughes said. “We will still have the same level of responsiveness to our customers and they don’t need to do anything differently.”
Rate changes
Progress rates are expected to change twice in the next year, although those changes are not related to the merger.
Officials have made their annual application to the N.C. Utilities Commission to adjust rates based on fuel costs, as well as the fluctuating costs of energy efficiency programs and renewable energy efforts mandated by the state.
Hughes said, if approved, the net savings will be 66 cents per 1,000 kwh of monthly use.
Progress officials also plan to apply to the NCUC later this year for the first “general rate increase” in 25 years to reflect the costs of “fleet modernization,” which includes converting coal-fired power plants to natural gas, and investing in transmission and distribution lines.
The Raleigh News and Observer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
Tagged Electric, Public Services
KFP: Kinston utilities bill sent back to committee
Mayor says city could lose $1 million in revenue if water and sewer rates equalized
Kinston officials breathed a brief sigh of relief this week as a bill, which city leaders feared could cause a major increase in municipal utility bills if passed, went back into committee.
Members of the N.C. House were scheduled to debate and vote on Senate Bill 472 on Monday evening, but Rep. Tim Moore, R-Cleveland — who co-chairs the House Rules Committee with SB472 supporter Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir — made a motion at the beginning of Monday’s session for the bill to “be removed from the calendar and referred to the committee on rules.”
LaRoque could not be reached for comment Tuesday, as the House was in session, but he has said in the past he was “trying to find a way to bring equality to the customers” by creating equal access to Kinston utilities for customers living inside and outside the city limits.
That would be accomplished through SB 472, a local bill. If passed, the changes would take effect in 2013
“They’re a monopoly,” LaRoque said of the city. “These people (outside the city) cannot drill wells for their consumption.”
Kinston Mayor B.J. Murphy has taken to local airwaves and Twitter in recent days to explain why the city and its water and sewer customers would be harmed if SB 472 were to be passed.
He noted on his Twitter feed that Smithfield Foods and Sanderson Farms, which operate facilities in the U.S. 70 West Industrial Park, could see their respective annual utility bills increase by $30,000 and $90,000.
Earlier this year, as Kinston officials discussed the budget for the 2013 fiscal year, City Manager Tony Sears told City Council members the water and wastewater rates could increase by more than 10 percent to make up the difference by no longer being able to charge outside customers a higher rate.
“Eighty-four percent of rate structures from cities across the state of North Carolina charge more for outside customers,” Murphy said Tuesday. “This is not unique to Kinston.”
The higher rate is necessary because of the need to maintain infrastructure outside the city, built decades ago because no other water or sewer infrastructure existed at the time.
“The city of Kinston does not actively pursue services outside the city limits,” Murphy said. “The outside services we have are because we were asked to provide, or purchase the infrastructure, which we have improved over the last 30 years.”
The mayor said the bill should either be killed, or legislators should seek a statewide solution to the issue of outside and inside utility rates.
“One thing I keep hearing is, ‘Let’s have fair rates; let’s have equal rates,’ ” he said. “There is an added cost for outside customers.”
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
Tagged Budget, Economic Development, NCGA, Public Services
WITN: Kinston Mayor-State Bill To Change Water Rates “Picks On” His City
by Brittany Creamer/April Davis
A state house vote has been postponed to decide if some City of Kinston water and sewer customers will pay more. Kinston Mayor B.J Murphy says the issue was pulled from the North Carolina House of Representatives agenda Monday night and placed back in the rules committee.
Mayor Murphy says he is not happy about the state picking on his city when it operates like 99 % of all other cities in the state. Murphy says if this bill passes, customers who live in the Kinston city limits will pay more because the bill requires equal rates for all customers instead of the usual billing practice to charge customers outside the city limits more.
Lenoir County republican representative Stephen Laroque drafted the bill. He told WITN the City of Kinston is discriminating against the consumer. Mayor Murphy says the proposed 12% increase for water and 7% increase for sewage would be a huge increase on local businesses and a deterrent for large companies. Murphy says Sanderson Farms’ yearly bill would increase by $90,000. The mayor says customers in the city should not be penalized for people outside city limits requesting to use its resources.
“The practice of extending water and sewage is not something we do unless it is requested from us and it does cost more to service from outside the city limits. It just does,” said Murphy.
Asheville is the only municipality in the state that charges equal rates for people inside and out of city limits.
Tagged Budget, Economic Development, NCGA, Public Services, Video
WNCT: S472 Water/Sewer Bill
Tonight state legislators will discuss whether some utility customers in the East will get a cheaper water bill.
Senate Bill 472 would require Kinston city officials to equalize water costs for people living inside and outside the city limits.
It’s essentially a face-off between city officials and N.C. House Rep. Stephen LaRoque, who is promoting the bill as a way to even the playing field for all utility customers.
But Kinston Mayor BJ Murphy argues it would actually hurt residents and local businesses in the long run.
Stewart Smith lives right outside Kinston’s city limits. He takes pride in his garden, but each time he waters his flowers, he’s paying more for his utility bill.
“Now, the overall average I found out here in the neighborhood is $42 to $45 or $46 dollars per month,” he says.
More than 20 years ago, Kinston city officials bought an existing water system in Smith’s neighborhood. He says that’s when he was forced to pay a utility rate higher than what people pay within the city, causing his monthly water bill to double.
“It makes you feel like you’re being taken advantage of in a raw product that God gave us all,” Smith says. “I don’t mind paying for water, and I know water’s not free like it used to be back in the day. However, I would like to think that my gallon of water should cost just the same as anyone else’s gallon of water.”
Rep. LaRoque says people like Smith should never have been charged more in the first place.
“Look at it this way,” LaRoque said in a phone interview. “What if the city said, ‘If you live in an older part of town, we’re going to charge you more than if you live in a newer part of town’? Or if they said, ‘Because you are poor and you live in a poor area, we’re going to charge you more than if you live in a more affluent area’? Do you think people would be okay with that? I don’t think they would be. I think it’s the same discriminatory practice that they’re currently practicing.”
Mayor Murphy is against the bill. He says it would create a shortfall that would force the city to raise rates on everyone in town, including businesses like the hospital and Sanderson Farms.
And he uses the same word – discriminatory – to describe his side of the debate.
“I think the only entity being discriminated against is the city of Kinston,” he says. “And I can promise you that almost all that provide water or sewer outside their city limits have a very similar structure in that it cost more to provide those services, so they charge more.”
Smith says he would settle on a compromise if it means getting a lower water bill.
“A happy medium between us and the residents of the city, that would be fine, but, equal should be the key word,” he says.
Mayor Murphy says distance and infrastructure maintenance outside the city causes the rates to go up.
If the bill passes, equalizing water rates for all customers would begin in June 2013 and would be adjusted over a three-year-period.
The House will review the bill tonight, and if passed, Rep. LaRoque says it could go to the Senate for approval as early as Wednesday.
Tagged Budget, Economic Development, NCGA, Public Services, Video
KFP: Senate Bill 472 could affect city utility rates
The members of the N.C. House of Representatives are scheduled to review a bill today that, if passed by the General Assembly, could have a dramatic impact on Kinston utility rates, according to city officials.
“The City of Kinston is united in its opposition to this bill and we would like for it to be defeated,” Mayor B.J. Murphy wrote in a recent letter to the General Assembly, plus Senate President pro tem Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg.
The local bill, promoted by local Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, is titled “Kinston Public Enterprises” and requires the city to give equal access to utility customers living inside and outside the city limits.
Water and sewer customers living outside Kinston are typically charged different — and higher — rates than inside customers. City officials defend this practice to cover the added cost of maintaining infrastructure outside the city, built when county residents had no other way to obtain water and sewer service.
LaRoque has said he is working to equalize utility rates for Kinston customers, but city officials have expressed concerns this could cause a dramatic rise in water and sewer rates to make up the difference.
If the NC General Assembly wants to engage in a public debate about municipalities who offer water and sewer services to outside customers, then a local bill is not the answer,” Murphy wrote in his letter. “This local bill would force the City to arbitrarily raise rates at a time of economic peril.”
The bill has been placed on the House’s calendar for its next session, which begins at 7 p.m. today.
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 ordanderson@freedomenc.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
Related Post: Video – City threatened with another water/sewer increase
Tagged Budget, Economic Development, NCGA, Public Services
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