Board splits on director position
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 17, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday afternoon split 4-3 in an unofficial vote on a budget proposal to create a communications department just a year after eliminating the county's public information office as a cost-cutting measure.
County Manager George Wood is recommending in his 2016-17 budget proposal that the board approve $30,000 for a communications director that would be shared with the city of Goldsboro.
The director would oversee advertising, media relations, assist with speech writing and even provide training for making public presentations and that would promote and market the county.
Former county public information officer Barbara Arntsen was making $65,262.60 when she left county employment in 2015. She was also receiving a monthly travel allowance: $646.22 ($7,754.64 yearly) and a monthly cell phone stipend of $100 ($1,200 yearly).
Goldsboro officials decided in December not to fill the city's public and government affairs position, following the resignation of Kim Laverick, who was making close to $68,000 a year, Stevens said.
Instead, the Information Technology department added an employee to handle social media communications for the city, at a lower cost with pay and benefits under $60,000 a year, he said.
The proposal sparked a lengthy debate during the board's Tuesday budget workshop.
"I am sorry fellows, I just don't understand," said Chairman Joe Daughtery, who supports the new position. "There again if the will of this board does not want to do this, then please make a motion and move on.
"But I don't understand when every county, every entity, around us has someone that is advocating for their county. I mean everyone has some one except Wayne County. We are sitting here almost like a voice in the wilderness allowing anyone else to define what we do here in Wayne County."
No motion was made, but Commissioners Ray Mayo, Joe Gurley and Wayne Aycock raised their hands when Daughtery asked for a show of those in opposition.
Daughtery and Commissioners John Bell, Ed Cromartie and Bill Pate raised their hands in support of the position.
Bell said people move to a city. They do not move to a county unless it is being promoting and sold to the public, he said.
"That is what we are talking about doing," Bell said. "By itself, it (county) is going to be at a standstill."
Aycock said the county already has the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, Wayne County Development Alliance, Travel and Tourism and will hire a director for the new agricultural and convention center.
They already are marketing the county, he said.
"Just because other agencies have somebody in this position, I don't see why we need to," he said.
However, Daughtery said the Chamber and Development Alliance are marketing specific areas and not the entire county.
Wood said that the $30,000, that will be matched by the city, is a "ballpark figure," and that he and Daughtery had met with City Manager Scott Stevens and Mayor Chuck Allen who seemed "somewhat receptive" to the proposal.
"I think their attitude was they would get with their board, if this board indicated this is something that you want to look at is the way we left it," Wood said.
"I think it makes sense for the city and county to work together," said Stevens, who was not at the meeting.
The communication person would work for the city and county, he said.
Even though it's a county position, the employee would be available to the city and responsive to requests for city communication needs, he said.
The cost of the position was not included in the city's approved fiscal 2016-17 budget.
Stevens has mentioned the post to City Council members, but not as a group. He may talk about the shared position during the council's next meeting on June 27.
If the council favors the shared position, the city would likely draft an agreement detailing how the position will be shared, including the cost.
"I certainly think having an agreement makes it clearer," Stevens said.
Daughtery said that the position had scored four of seven votes following the board's planning sessions earlier in the year.
"I understand there was some concern with our overall cost," he said. "That is why we tried to partner with the city to explore this at half the cost where we would be sharing that cost with the city."
To get a better idea of how such a department would work, Wood visited Fayetteville's award-winning program.
Fayetteville has a much larger department, but that is not what is being suggested for Wayne County, Wood said.
"We do need to do more to get our message out and the branding of it, a consistent message with the new website and things like that," Wood said. "So that is basically what it is -- it is marketing, marketing the county. But it is marketing by having a consistent message, doing a better job of getting positive news stories out. There are a lot of positives going on, but we don't always have time to write press releases and those sort of things."
Cromartie asked if the person would work with the new agricultural and convention center.
A director will be hired to oversee the center, Wood said.
"Following up on the goals and the commissioners' meeting when you gave us a briefing on Fayetteville, at one of those meetings it got into a little bit of a heated exchange up here on the needs and not needs of a communications director," Gurley said. "I think I suggested at the end, and I think everybody agreed to come up with a compromise and come back with some different options."
The proposal is a compromise that instead of spending $100,000 the county is partnering with the city, and if it does not work, it can be defunded, Daughtery said.
The board is expected to adopt the budget when it meets on Tuesday.
Staff writer Rochelle Moore contributed to this article.