Budget would add 10 positions including victim advocate in WFPD
Wake Forest Town Manager Kip Padgett briefly reviewed his proposed 2021-2022 budget Tuesday evening at the board of commissioners’ work session, then answered questions and expanded on some topics during a Zoom meeting with reporters Wednesday morning.
Padgett said the town is “leaving the long night of COVID-19” and beginning to return to in-person programs and even large special events. Those include two Six Sundays in Spring, one this fall and one in the spring of 2022; a traditional Halloween; and the usual flurry of Christmas programs and events.
His proposed budget of $91,434,535 with no increase in the property tax rate of $0.495 includes 10 new positions and a total of $622,786 required for the Local Government Employees Retirement System, an amount increased from earlier years by state mandate along with the addition of the fire department last year. The $21 monthly charge for solid waste and recycling collection on the Raleigh water and sewer monthly bill will remain the same.
Those 10 new positions include transitioning to an in-house town attorney who will be selected this fall and hire a part-time paralegal; a new safety coordinator; and eight positions in the Wake Forest Police Department. One is for a new detective whose primary job will be background checks because those had begun to overwhelm the current staff. There will be two additional shift supervisors in the telecommunications division because there has been a more than 24 percent increase in calls since 2018; and there will be four community resource officers who will work to strengthen community relations. They will patrol parks and greenways, attend community meetings including functions and special events and engage with town residents with an emphasis on young people.
The final position will be a new one, a victim advocate. Padgett said he and Police Chief Jeff Leonard found that such a service is needed. The advocate will follow up on domestic disputes and incidents involving people with mental illness, checking on the welfare of those involved or their caretakers. The person can give victims the necessary contact information, help establish contact with agencies and resources with those in need. In some cases, the advocate will assist a victim through the judicial system.
The budget calls for $1,200,600 that is allocated from the town’s fund balance (its savings) for several one-time outlays or purchases. Those include the town’s share ($450,800) to replace Engine #1 at the Fire Department Station #1; improvements/office upfits/carpet replacement at town hall ($277,300); mobile lift for fleet ($82,000); equipment replacements for parks and recreation ($49,500); portable radios for fire department ($80,000); cameras for police department ($124,000); and document management/scanning ($137,000).
Other items included in the budget are: $24,500 to retire the 2010 town Christmas tree, send it to Joyner Park to be repurposed and purchase another tree for the Town Hall Plaza; $10,000 to begin turning the traffic island at the intersection of Front Street and North Avenue where the town logo deodar cedar stands into a small park; and a number items like chippers for the forestry division and public works, police cars for new officers, even perhaps for the underwater remotely operated vehicle the fire department could use for searches involving boats.
The anticipated $13.3 million (the amount may be more or less) from the American Recovery Act is not in the budget and not yet received, Padgett said Tuesday. The town has not received guidelines from the Local Government Commission (LGC) to date. Also, it is anticipated that the town will receive half the amount in the near future and the remainder a year from now. “We can use some of it for capital items that have been pushed back,” he said. Some of those capital items that were mentioned earlier are infrastructure improvements; broadband – the town’s fiber network; economic development initiatives such as the former SunTrust (CCB) bank building the town owns; and items deferred because of the pandemic.
Also the town will be issuing the remaining $4.9 million in GO bonds from the 2014 bond referendum later this month. These funds will be used for streets and sidewalks and greenway improvements. The additional $1.29 million in two-thirds bonds being issued will be used to close out the transportation projects (Ligon Mill and Stadium Drive).
With one bond issue exhausted, the town planners like Padgett and the town board members are thinking of another referendum, in November 2022. More on that later, or watch this space but some will go to infrastructure and part to parks and greenways. Still unanswered are the questions about when the town will build the eastern fire station now that Tryon and its associated subdivisions are filling up and when the town will tear down the 1909 town hall with its Wake Electric office added on (now the brown building in front of the Wake Forest Town that houses part of the police department) and build a new police station with additional offices for the town hall spillover.
Speaking of that and about the employee changes and additions, Padgett said about the 2010 town hall, “It’s getting a little tight but we’re managing.”
Padgett’s budget talks about economic development – the Loading Dock Wake Forest in a former cotton warehouse has sparked other investment in nearby buildings – and says both the SunTrust and the tech park on Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary land are projects that have been revived with the end of the pandemic in view. Expect to see proposals and even definite plans for SunTrust in late 2021 or early 2022. The tech park has been certified by both ElectriCities and the N.C. Department of Commerce and the land is for sale though because of its size it may not reach full development for 10 or 15 years.
The town will continue to contribute to local agencies and people. This year’s contributions will be $5,000 to Resources for Seniors which operates the Northern Wake Senior Center owned by the town and which will hopefully open sometime this year; $4,000 to the Wake Forest College Birthplace which owns and operates the Wake Forest Historical Museum; $7,500 to the Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club on Wingate Avenue; $12,000 to the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce for membership at the Community Investor level; $1,000 to Launch Wake Forest; $50,000 to provide housing repair and rehabilitation in the Northeast area; and $2,500 for non-profit donations which will be made after the application system is completed.
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In other action Tuesday evening, the mayor and four commissioners – Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon was absent – heard Planning Department Director Courtney Tanner briefly describe the town’s Title VI required policy which will be managed by Lisa Hayes, the Strategic Performance Manager. Tanner then turned to legislation being considered by the North Carolina General Assembly which would affect Wake Forest and other municipalities if enacted.
One bill prohibits jurisdictions from regulating the removal of trees from private property inside the town’s corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction without the express authorization of the General Assembly. That, Tanner said, means that the town’s current tree preservation standards would be stricken and we could no longer require trees to be saved as part of a development application.
Mayor Vivian Jones said she had been approached by the League of Municipalities and would be speaking against this legislation at the General Assembly.
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2 Responses
John, you’re off base in several areas here, even though I understand and agree with your overall sentiment. When the reassessments are done, the town is required by law to adjust the tax RATE to make it budget-neutral (meaning any individual homeowner will still pay the same TAXES before and after).
Your proposed 2 cent budget decrease – is this a serious proposal? If so, where’s the calculation of it. How much smaller would the budget be? What would you cut?
For me, the police budget is WAY, WAY out of line. I’d advocate to see the police budget cut by 50%. Not only will this cost taxpayers far less, but will go a long way towards improving the quality of life in town by not feeling like the police-state that it is currently.
Or perhaps the Manager can find himself a new police chief.
Of course, the real estate tax rate remains the same at 49.5 cents. That is nothing to be proud of. The budget presentation to the public contains a slight of hand. The new proposed budget is $91,434,535. However, there is no mention of the current year budget and/or spending. I bet this is a budget increase of several million dollars.
Still, the town hires more positions and spends more money. Of course, with all of the millions of dollars of new construction going on all over the town, the revenue to the town increases by a big amount.
It’s time that our commissioners work for the taxpayers a little bit. This will mean making some budget cuts in order to lower the tax rate. The taxpayers can not spend their dollars on every thing that seems like a good idea with their personal spending. Why does the town get to do that at the expense of the taxpayers? Remember, if future years, when a new real estate appraisal is made, our taxes will skyrocket.
It’s time to cut the tax rate from 49.5 cents to 47.5 cents along with appropriate budget cuts to keep the budget in balance. The town needs to get lean now, because this gravy train will not last for ever. Budget cuts in the future will be far more difficult than they are today. It looks like the commissioners will leave that task to future commissioners. It’s time for the Wake Forest taxpayers to speak up.
If any WF commissioner reads this and would like to discuss with me, I can be reached at 919-671-7684.