JonLowder.com

The Week That Was

This has been an interesting week.  I spent a couple of days in Raleigh for the day job and had my first opportunity to get a first hand look at the NC legislature in action.  Here's my takeaways from the experience:

• Compared to the US Capitol the state legislature is very casual.  It's nothing special to bump into a state rep or senator and give them your two cents while walking to a meeting or getting on an elevator.  Heck, it's expected.
• There's no security to speak of;  no line to go through a metal detector and no one standing at the door to wand you.  Of course there are security guards but I've seen tighter security at a day care center.
• With some exceptions their offices are tiny. I'm talking room for a desk and two chairs.
• The legislators, and their staffs, were very responsive.  When I contacted them last week to try and schedule appointments I heard back from most in a matter of hours, which I found pretty impressive given the amount of work they're doing right now.

The other thing that made this week interesting was the hometown drama known as the downtown baseball stadium.  While I could probably write dozens of pages of thoughts on the whole situation, I'd rather just ask the leaders of Winston-Salem some questions:

• What the heck were you thinking when you broke the multi-million dollar news on Friday and told the public they had a whole weekend to share their thoughts and give you their feedback before a probable vote at a special city council meeting on Monday night? 
• Were you trying to make it look like you were railroading the thing? 
• Were you trying to make people even more suspicious than they already were? 
• In short, were you trying to be obtuse?

Seriously, the city's leadership couldn't have tried to make this deal look any worse.  I'm really not sure what the motivation could have been to handle it this way, but whatever it was I can't imagine that it balances out the negative taste that this left in the public's mouth.  Put it this way: Mayor Joines and the city council spent a whole lot of their political capital to get this done and while they were going to take a hit no matter how they handled this, I think they at least doubled the damage by handling it in the manner that they did.  It will be interesting to see what happens with the next economic development deal that comes along.

Mayor Joines' Status on Facebook

Winston-Salem's mayor Allen Joines, or someone on his staff, just posted this status on Facebook:

Allen Joines Doing what is responsible for our future Sometimes doing what is right is not the easiest or most popular course to take. But the plan we have come up with to get our baseball stadium completed is responsible and will not cost our taxpayers any additional money. For more discussion please go to my blog page at AllenJoinesForMayor.com - Thanks

He's referring to the story that broke today that the city is going to have to pony up a BIG loan to Billy Prim to get the downtown baseball stadium finished.  They're giving citizens today and the weekend to share their comments with the mayor and the city council before a special meeting next Monday night.  More on that later.  Anyhoo, head on over to the mayor's site and give him an eareyeful.

BTW, props to the mayor for using Facebook.  I can tell you that there are LOTS of constituents there, no matter what the Luddites and old codgers say.  Not sure why he's only asking for comments on his website since Facebook is also an ideal environment for online discussion, but at this point let's just say that something's better than nothing.

City Academy

I just got an email announcing that registration is open for Greensboro's next City Academy class.  This looks like a very cool idea and I wonder if Winston-Salem has one.  If not I think it would be a very good idea.  Here's a description from the Greensboro city website:

The mission of Government Works is to develop future leaders and build a better community through the efforts of well informed and civically engaged residents.

Classes use engaging hands-on activities to show how City government affects the quality of life in Greensboro. Class  are held weekly from 5:45-9 pm from September 3 through November 12. Sessions include information on topics ranging from police to economic development to leadership. 

Program components include:

• Preparation for service on a City board or commission
• Experiential learning and hands-on activities
• Thursday evening classes for 11 consecutive weeks at various locations throughout the City
• Free meals at each session beginning at 5:30 pm
• Graduation will be held on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at the regularly scheduled City Council meeting at 5:30 pm

City Academy is free and open to any resident who lives within the corporate limits of City of Greensboro. Twenty-five people representing all council districts and various backgrounds will be selected for the academy. Other selection criteria include:

• 18 years of age or older 
• Must attend 80 percent of classes
• Written statement of desire to participate
• Preference given to those willing to serve on a board or commission

Have Your Say in the $3 Trillion Spending Spree

The Boston Globe has an interview with Elizabeth Warren, the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel that is overseeing the bailout of America's financial system (thanks to Lex for the pointer).  It's a pretty quick read and if you're at all interested in what's going on with your trillions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the financial muckety-mucks then I suggest you read it.  Here's the end of the interview, which I think gives you an idea of the stakes:

Q: Is there anything else that you would want people to understand?
A: I don't have a badge and a gun. The power of this panel is derived entirely from the voice of the American people. If they stay out of the policy debates, then Treasury can spend at will and reshape the American economy with no one in the room but insiders. If they are involved, the policies will look different.
It's the design of the rules going forward that will tell us or that will determine whether we are moving to a cyclical economy with high wealth, high risk, and crashes every 10 to 15 years. Or whether we will emerge, as we did following the new regulatory reforms in the Great Depression, with a more stable economic system that benefits people across the economic spectrum. It's an amazing moment in history.

Transparency When No One's Looking

Last night we had a public meeting for the Lewisville Planning Board so that we could explain the access management ordinance that we've been working on for the town the last couple of months.  One person from the public showed up and since she represents a coalition of realtors and developers she was essentially paid to be there.  Now I know this stuff can be dull as dirt, but this is where the rubber hits the road.

Let's put it this way.  If you plan on building in Lewisville in the future and you want to know where you can access a road from your property, i.e. build a driveway, and you want to know what kind of driveway you can build, how far away it has to be from your neighbors' driveways and other details then you might want to take a look at what we're doing.  Or if you want to redevelop your land, you might want to know how the new ordinance will affect you.  Whatever, this is the kind of stuff that directly affects people but even when we advertise the meetings, as we did this one, people generally don't show up in droves.

Access management is just one of the things we're working on right now.  Because our Town Council declared a six month moratorium on development until we can get some new ordinances in place we're meeting every week to work on an access management ordinance, a stormater/watershed ordinance and a multi-family housing ordinance.  All of these will affect propert owners in one way or another so I would recommend that people check in on our meetings to see what's going on. 

Now, we're by no means the final word on these ordinances.  We'll eventually send our recommendations to Town Council and they'll make the final decisions, but most citizens don't realize that by the time it gets to the Council a ton of work has already been done and they've missed some golden opportunities to influence the ordinance before it even gets to the powers that be.  Every one of our public meetings has a public comment segment and we really do welcome any feedback we can get.  In fact we've already incorporated changes to our early drafts of the ordinances thanks to the feedback we've gotten from people who attended earlier sessions.

If you're a resident of Lewisville or are a business owner in Lewisville you really should check out what we're doing so you can be part of the process.  Don't wait until everything's 99% done and you have to fight the inertia of a downhill train.  It's not too late.  We continued our deliberations until our next public meeting which is May 13 at 7:30 at the community center next door to the library.  Hopefully we'll see you there.  If you'd like to catch up on what we've been doing you can check out our minutes here.

Good Points and Historical Perspective About Revaluation

One of the things I love about this blog is that I often hear from people with different viewpoints and who really get me thinking with their comments or emails sent in response to something I've posted.  Dwight Defee sent me an email about my Revaluation post from March 29 and I liked it so much I asked his permission to post it here.  He graciously said yes so here it is:

This is response to your post of March 29, 2009.
 
Jon.
   I can’t say that I disagree with you about annual appraisals: However, if that happens you and I had better be prepared for higher tax valuations and higher taxes annually.  Even though annual valuations would reflect more accurate property values, who’s going to pay for the additional cost associated with such an accelerated project?  We will, of course, because we are property owners and we are asking for additional services provided by the County Tax Assessor. In North Carolina, Counties are considered a political subdivision of the State.  The State requires Counties to revalue Property every eight years but permits more frequent valuations. 
   Quite a number of years ago ( I was a county employee at the time) the Tax assessor, Harvey Pardue, recommended that the County move from an eight year valuation cycle to a four year valuation cycle.  He was hailed as a hero by the Utilities and Business communities and as a demon by residential property owners. The reason for this, as I understand, is that utility and business property was valued annually and residential property was valued every eight years. Since this was a period of growth for our County, Utilities and Businesses were clearly paying more than their “fair share” of the tax burden.  When Harvey retired, his assistant, Jack Sprinkle, continued the quadrennial valuation schedule but was able to reduce costs with technological advances.  After Jack’s retirement, Pete Roda took the reins as Tax Assessor/Collector and in my opinion has done a good job.  As a former associate of Harvey, Jack, and Pete, I say unequivocally that I have the utmost respect and admiration for the job that they performed for the County.
   Now if you can convince the County Commissioners to provide for annual valuations, I’m sure Pete can handle the job…BUT…you and I had better be ready to help foot the bill for more employees (think salary & benefits), more space and equipment (think office space, desk, computer, etc), Transportation (some of these people have to visit property sites across the County), and other employee expenses that I can’t enumerate at this time.
    Sorry to be so verbose but I needed to respond to a person quick to criticize professionals employed by public entities which are governed by officials elected by the likes of you and I.
 
Dwight Defee
Former Personnel Director
Forsyth County, NC

Here's part of my reply to Dwight that explained a little better (I hope) what I'm thinking when I say that annual revaluations would be better than every four years:

Dwight,
Thanks very much for the email.  I think you make very good points and I have to say that I agree with you. I thought about the extra staff too but I figure that it will be paid for by the extra revenue the county would see.

In retrospect one of my errors is that I came across as thinking that I blame Mr. Roda or the other folks doing the work. I don't. I always assumed that they were working within boindaries set by the
legislature. In other words if they calculate the property values using a formula it is one they've been given and they do the best they can. But that's not how I said it and that's my fault.

I actually think that if the revaluations were done annually it would work out best for everyone, just like I believe that a flat income tax of 10% on everyone without any deductions would be better for everyone and meet the country's needs (but that's a whole other topic).  I also agree with you that we'd have to be prepared to closely watch our commissioners and the tax rates they apply to us.

I want to emphasize what I wrote in that second paragraph: I absolutely agree with Dwight that the assessor is doing his job very well.  As far as I know he doesn't get to decide how or when revaluations are done, he simply makes sure his office carries out their mandate efficiently.  What I'd like to see is that the people who do decide how revaluations are done find a way to do revaluations that are more representative of a properties real current value.  Okay, I'm now off my soapbox.

Eminent Domain Change Imminent

Looks like the eminent domain legislation that Winston-Salem wants enacted to allow them to redevelop blighted properties is about to clear the NC House of Representatives and then move on to the Senate.  More background here. 

Revaluation

The Winston-Salem Journal did a big front page piece in today's paper about Forsyth County's property revaluation.  I've written before about my take on revaluation, but I want to re-emphasize my two main problems with how the county is handling the process:

• Revaluations should be done annually, not every four years.  One reason for this are that you are more likely to get an accurate reflection of a property's current value, and not a value skewed by a housing market that was hot three years earlier and is significantly cooler now.  Another is that you spread the tax gains (and pain) over time, which is better for both the government and the taxpayer.
• But given that the county is doing revaluations every four years they should at least come up with a formula that weighs the change in the marketplace.  My understanding is that they are taking the average home sales for a certain area over a set amount of time, which I believe is the five year assessment period.  If your neighborhood had 200 home sales in the first 3 years of the assesment period and home prices were rising, but then only had 50 home sales over the last year of the assessment period while home prices were falling then the average would skew to the higher prices of a rising housing market that no longer exists.  That means your home value will not accurately reflect its current value in the home valuation, but rather an average of its value over the five year period.  What makes that inherently unfair is that you will be stuck with that higher valuation for five years, even if the value continues to decline.

The potential saving grace of the process is that the county commissioners determine our tax rate so they can lower the tax rate in order to lower the tax burden of higher property valuations.  Still, since most people don't trust politicians this is small comfort to most.  

Another point: when the property valuations are low at the beginning of the valuation period and then there's a sharp increase in the property values the county actually misses an opportunity to capture that increase in terms of tax revenue.  If we moved to an annual revaluation they could capture those increases in real time and even if the commissioners lowered the tax rate they would most likely still see an increase in tax revenue, but they would probably have fewer complaints from homeowners because the revaluations would more accurately reflect current values and would thus seem more reasonable.  Also, instead of seeing large changes in value from one revaluation to the next we'd see gradual changes that are easier to swallow.  

Talking About Driveways

Last night we had a public meeting of the Lewisville Planning Board to show the public an early draft of the access management ordinance we're working on for the Lewisville business district.  In a nutshell we're trying to plan for what we think will be some pretty significant growth through the 2035-ish timeframe and trying to make sure our Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is up to the task of managing that growth.  A big part of the future plans are to build a parallel road to Shallowford Road (the main drag through town), turn make both roads one way with two lanes, to build some connector roads between the two and to put in a couple of new traffic circles at entry points on either end of town.  That's the big picture, but as with most things in life the real work is in the details. 

Until we started this process I didn't understand the impact of driveways on traffic design.  Simply put you have to make sure that driveways, or road cuts, are spaced far enough apart and far enough from intersections so that they don't create a hazard by having people exiting and entering the roadway in close proximity to each other.  It sounds mundane, but if you've ever tried to enter a busy roadway from a parking lot that happens to be too near an intersection with cars turning into your path then you'll know why we're spending so much time on this.

As you might expect we ended up with quite a few comments from the 20+ members of the public who attended the meeting.  There was some understandable concern about the increased traffic through town, about motorists speeding even more than they do if we go to two lanes in each direction and about the impact on commercial property.  All were valid concerns and I think Marty Myers, our town planner, did a good job answering them.  Since we're only at the draft stage of the process we'll be able to incorporate any changes that might need to be made based on the feedback we get, but based on last night's meeting I think we've made some really good progress. 

Followed by a Foxx

My Blackberry beeped.  I looked at it.  The message from Twitter: "Virginia Foxx (virginiafoxx) is now following your updates on Twitter."  As much as I've written about disagreeing with my Congresswoman I have to say that I'm flattered that she'd bother to follow me.  If I was in her shoes I'd have completely ignored me.  Welcome Congresswoman Foxx, and whether or not we agree on anything I'm glad to know you're listening. Now about that stimulus bill...