Special Meeting of Oriental Town Board Aug 26

Oriental's Town Board met at 4:00 p.m. today, August 26, 2010 in special session. Commissioner Styron was unable to attend.

The main reason for calling the meeting - to appoint an interim Town Manager - was delayed until the end of the meeting. Items were discussed as follows:

1. Bay River Metropolitan Sewer District and the Town of Oriental continue to negotiate in an attempt to conclude an interlocal agreement. The main issue is the price the Town charges Bay River to provide billing services, including collecting payments and remitting them to the utility. About two years ago, at the recommendation of the Town's representative on Bay River's Board (Nancy Inger) the Town increased the monthly fee to $1.50 per household. Bay River proposed an agreement that would freeze this rate for five years. The previous board found that unacceptable and wanted to set a level that would not lose money. They also wanted to establish an automatic escalator clause in case Bay River were to increase their rates. Negotiations have been going on for more than a year. The absence of a contract was identified in last year's audit as a control deficiency.

2. South Water Street. The Board played "kick the can" with this issue as well. The Town retained a surveyor who had never surveyed in Oriental or perhaps even in Pamlico County, to determine where South Water Street's right of way lies in hopes of resolving a neighborhood dispute. The report, which arrived today, described how the R/W line was surveyed and marked. Now the contentious issue is "how wide is it?" The surveyor reports some maps show it 36' wide, some 40', some 45' and at least one shows the R/W as 60.' He marked the R/W with stakes at a width of 40'. The Board decided to table the issue until next week's agenda meeting, though it was unclear exactly what was tabled. Commissioners Bohmert and Roe advocated just setting the R/W width at 36' since this width was encompassed within all of the possible widths. This was rejected by Commissioners Johnson and Venturi. Mayor Sage broke the tie, voting with Johnson and Venturi.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that a surveyor familiar with Oriental and its history would have given far greater weight to the original survey of 1900, which shows the width as 36'. Another factor to consider is that if the Town tries to claim a wider R/W than 36', they may have difficulty defending it in court. The survey has already cost the Town $1200.

3. South Avenue Right of Way. Mayor Sage reported that he has met with Mr. Lacy Henry. Mr. Henry has "given the Town permission" to remove the fence. Why the Town needs Mr. Henry's permission to remove a fence in the Town's R/W was not explained. Heidi Artley reported she has received one bid from a contractor to remove the fence at a cost of $1200. Two more bids are expected. Some of the commissioners seemed unaware that a decision had been made to hire a contractor for this job. No mention was made of whether the Town would send the bill to Mr. Henry. Some mention was made of the contractor cleaning up debris and identifying items of historical interest. As I reported here three months ago, the items of greatest historical interest disappeared not long after the judge signed his order. Removed by a person or persons unknown.

Incidentally, one of the commissioners reported some time ago an interest in a grant application, which opened June 15. Well, that deadline (Boating Infrastructure Grant program) has passed and nothing was submitted. What will it take to get some action?

4. Amendment to Town Charter. It was Alice DeBaun who provided information that the Town had adopted an ordinance in 1997 amending the Town Charter to Council-Manager form of government. Apparently for some reason it wasn't filed with the Secretary of State and the Legislative Library. I informed the Board that a similar circumstance appears to exist concerning the amendment to have five commissioners instead of three.

It was the council-manager amendment to the charter that required the Board to appoint an interim manager. They went into closed session to discuss personnel, even though Commissioner Roe tried to make a nomination in open session.

Following the closed session, Commissioner Venturi moved to appoint Heidi Artley as interim manager, seconded by Commissioner Johnson. Commissioners Bohmert and Roe voted against the motion. Mayor Sage broke the tie by voting in favor.

In his closing remarks, Mayor Sage said this is a major step to "making right" what we did during a nearly three month interim, in the mistaken impression that the Town had a mayor-council form of government.

The meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Oriental Audit News

In case you missed it - the annual audit of the Town of Oriental started Tuesday, August 24. It should be completed by Thursday.

Instant Runoff Voting

Just got back from State Board of Elections training in Asheville.

The weather was lovely, though walking up those hills certainly challenged this flatlander's legs.

Yesterday while I was being trained, the State Board of Elections held a well-publicized meeting, packed with press and TV. The media wanted to learn what action the State Board would take concerning failure of the governor's campaign to report a number of private plane flights. As soon as they learned the outcome, most left.

They missed a very important story - the election of a replacement for Judge Jim Wynn of the NC Court of Appeals, recently appointed to the federal bench. Judge Wynn's appointment created a vacancy "less than 64 days before the date of the second primary." Under state law adopted in 2006, this mandates an election to fill the vacancy, on the same day as the election for members of the General Assembly, using "instant runoff voting."

This requires voters to rank their choices. If one candidate doesn't win a majority of votes on the first round of counting, then the second or possibly third choice votes will be counted. A very clever system to avoid calling a special election.

The filing period opened yesterday and will close August 31. We won't know how many candidates there are until then.

If there are more than two candidates, North Carolina will become the first state in the nation to hold an instant runoff for a statewide election.

Details to follow.

Oriental Form of Town Government New Info

I understand the ordinance amending the Town's charter to a council-manager system has been found. Good. The Town needs a manager.

Thursday's special meeting to appoint an interim Town manager is important. The interim manager has all of the statutory powers assigned by state law to a permanent manager.

Whoever is appointed will be responsible for taking the town through its annual independent audit.

Does Oriental Really Have Only Three Commissioners?

I found a record today suggesting that Oriental may only have three legal commissioners, though it has been operating with five since the election of November 2, 1993.

How can that be?

The Town Charter of 1899 provides for three commissioners and a mayor.

In 1992 the General Assembly authorized a referendum on possible changes in the electoral system for the Town of Oriental. In 1993 the General Assembly approved technical corrections to the first act. On November 2, 1993 Oriental voters held a referendum, selecting one of three choices; A: - three commissioners and a separately elected mayor who could vote only in case of a tie; B: - five commissioners, with the highest vote-getter serving as mayor and voting on any issue; C: - five commissioners and a mayor, with the mayor voting only in case of a tie.

The vote was held, and the voters selected option C.

Two problems.

First, the only surviving record of the vote, an abstract of canvassing on file at the County Board of Elections, describes it a a "Bond Ref" and gives no description of the meaning of A, B, or C.

Second, and this may be more significant, no one seems to have told the Secretary of State or the Legislative Library what option the voters chose. This is possibly significant because the ratified Bill includes the following language: "If a plurality of the votes cast are in favor of question 'A', then Section 1 of this act shall become effective beginning with the 1995 regular municipal election. Otherwise, Section 1 of this act shall have no effect." Identical language referred to questions 'B' and 'C' and the corresponding Sections 2 and 3.

So only one of the three Sections can be in effect, but we never told State officials which one. In other words, we never finished the amendment process.

How to fix it? Easy. State Law lets us amend our charter by ordinance. We should do it.

Notes on the Passage of Time

August of 1954 I raised my right hand and became a 17 year old midshipman, United States Naval Reserve. That was 56 years ago.

We began learning about US Navy history, traditions, customs and usage. We learned about the Battle of Manila Bay, when Commodore Dewey led his squadron into Manila Bay and destroyed the Spanish squadron stationed there. To a 17 year old midshipman, that day in May 56 years earlier seemed impossibly remote in time. So did the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the Great White Fleet (1907-1909), and the First World War (1917-1918).

To a midshipman serving in Dewey's squadron, 56 years earlier would have been 1842, before the War with Mexico.

How time flies.

Maritime Treasures

Today's New York Times reports on the sad state of some national maritime treasures.

The most urgent and saddest case is USS Olympia, Commodore Dewey's flagship at the battle of Manila Bay in 1898.

I toured Olympia almost thirty-five years ago when my ship was being overhauled at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The ship's guns had been removed (possibly during a WWII scrap metal drive) and had been replaced with hollow metal tubing. Still, it was possible to imagine the ship speeding through the warm waters of Manila Bay, evading Spanish mines, that long ago May night, closing at dawn on the Spanish Fleet, when Commodore Dewey turned to the ship's captain and said, "you may fire when ready, Gridley."

The most impressive part of the tour below decks was the engine room. Her massive reciprocating steam engines could propel the nearly 6,000 ton ship at a speed of 20 knots.

Olympia was ordered in 1888, only five years after the first four ships of the modern steel navy were authorized by Congress. Her design incorporates the lessons learned from building the first four ships (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Dolphin) of the new steel navy. It did not yet have the benefit of operational experience with the "ABCD" ships.

Olympia's paint job, with white hull and buff masts and stacks was the peacetime paint scheme of US Navy ships of the day. Before going into battle in 1898, she was repainted in haze gray.

USS Olympia is the only ship of her era still afloat. A true national treasure. We need to find a way to preserve her.

Oriental Form of Government Update

Mr. Hartwell Wright of the NC League of Municipalities conducted a workshop today with the Town Board. Mr. Wright, who is an expert on human resources matters, not an attorney, nevertheless provided some interesting observations.

1. If the Town has a council-manager form of government, the duties of the manager are spelled out in General Statutes. The Town Board may not take away any of those duties except by charter amendment.

2. In a council-manager system, a member of the Board may not serve as a department head.

3. In event of departure of the manager, the Board shall appoint an interim manager.

4. The relationship between the Board and the manager is pretty much what I described earlier:

"The Council/Manager plan of government promotes the separation of the Town Board's responsibility for political judgments and policy direction from the manager's responsibility for administration in accordance with the council's overall policy guidance and his or her own politically neutral expertise.

I think this is a fair description of how the Town has been governed for many years."
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5. When Mr. Wright assists towns in changing their form of government it is always from mayor-council to council-manager, not the other way around.

6. Towns in our size category with council-manager forms of government tend to be towns with more infrastructure whose population grows during the summer.

I have not been able to confirm that the Town adopted an ordinance amending the charter to council-manager. Still working on it. August 24 update. The Town has located the amendment to the Charter. The Ordinance amending the charter to provide for a Council-Manager form of government was adopted November 12th, 1997. It is signed by Mayor Sherrill Styron and Town Administrator William Crowe. It cites NCGS 160A-101(9)(b). David Lawrence's data specifically cites GS 160A-101 as basis for one of our charter amendments. A change to council-manager in other towns often cites that provision. Our only amendment on file not only doesn't cite that provision, it was done by petition to the General Assembly, not by ordinance. Curious. It also doesn't report the results of the town's referendum. Maybe we still really have a mayor and three member council?

No telling what you'll find when you start looking.

The search continues.