Board approves WATCH funding
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 17, 2016 1:46 PM
Three Wayne County commissioners who are ardent supporters of increased funding for WATCH Tuesday morning gagged on a condition-laden motion for more money for the free clinic.
But two of the board's most critical voices of the increase voted to bump the county appropriation from $110,000 to $165,000 saying they did so to move the board beyond gridlock over just $50,000.
The additional funding, that has plagued the board since its June budget discussions, was approved 4-3 during commissioners' Tuesday session.
Commissioners Ray Mayo, Joe Gurley and Wayne Aycock, voted no, but said they were glad WATCH, or Wayne Action Teams for Community Health, will get the extra money.
They said they cited the conditions attached to the motion as to why voted no.
Commissioners John Bell and Ed Cromartie were joined by Chairman Joe Daughtery and Vice Chairman Bill Pate, both vocal opponents of additional funding, in voting for the increase.
"My concern is that this issue, and that is the funding of WATCH, created such really a division on this board," Daughtery said. "The only matter over my four years of being here this funding on WATCH caused more contention than anything I have seen since I have been on the board.
"I felt like it was best that we put it to rest, and for that reason is why I voted for the motion."
Daughtery also denied assertions by Mayo of behind-the-scene maneuvering to completely eliminate county funding for all nonprofits.
WATCH has been bandied about by the board at its past three sessions. However, Tuesday's vote pretty much assures there will be no further attempts to increase funding this year since one of the conditions is that no additional motion will be allowed to increase the appropriation to WATCH this fiscal year.
WATCH was not on Tuesday's agenda, but was added by Bell whose attempt to increase the funding at the board's Aug. 2 meeting failed by a 3-3 vote.
Tuesday, Bell restated his motion from the previous meeting to increase the funding from $110,000 to $165,000 provided WATCH meets a series of conditions.
They include assurances that the WATCH van will go to "appropriate" neighborhoods in the county at least four days a week; that it provide the board within 60 days of funding approval with criteria for any individuals to be seen by services provided by WATCH from Wayne County including whether the individuals reside in the county; provide a list of the number of people seen by WATCH on a quarterly basis; and notify the county within 60 days of approval the manner in which anyone can donate to WATCH.
The motion further stipulates that the additional funding be appropriated from the budget's emergency fund.
One of the reasons there has been such a controversy with WATCH is because it has been tied into the negotiations of the indigent care contract between Wayne County and Wayne Memorial Hospital, Mayo said.
Mayo said he did not want to see WATCH caught up in the politics of the negotiations.
He then offered an amendment to separate the two issues.
"I still have grave reservations about voting for this," Pate said. "I have a fundamental disagreement with some of the other commissioners. For example, if you ask for the audit for WATCH, you get the budget for the hospital. How do you separate the two?
"Move past that. Of a $148 million (county) budget I am not going to allow this board to be paralyzed over $50,000. We have got to move forward. We have hashed this thing out over and over again. I have made clear where I stood all along, so why repeat myself over and over again? We have other things that we have got to do."
Cromartie said since the board was preparing to vote that it was separating the two in philosophical and factual ways.
"WATCH has obviously been targeted by some individuals who support defunding all nonprofit organizations," Mayo said. "I believe WATCH, if it remains a part of the indigent care contract with the hospital and the county, is vulnerable at some point and could be fully defunded.
"Such action, if it should happen, would greatly affect the WATCH van activities and other services to the citizens of Wayne County. The funding on nonprofits that directly affect citizens by one, providing job training for self-sufficiency, and two, providing health care and well-being services should not be targeted or scrutinized while funding of other nonprofits that provide no essential services are never mentioned."
Gurley asked if the points raised by Bell were also required of other external departments funded by the county.
WATCH already is submitting quarterly reports, County Manager George Wood said. He said he would have to go back and look at everything else.
Gurley said it was his understanding WATCH is already within the boundaries what Bell had asked for in his motion and that WATCH officials had explained the program "time after time."
Gurley said he did not see why it was necessary to include the final stipulation not allowing any further motions to increase funding this fiscal year. Things can change during the year, he said.
Also, the county was already "going against the grain" of that policy.
It is county policy that once the budget is adopted nothing extra will be added that same fiscal year, Bell said.
Wood said that Bell was correct, and the policy says nonprofits could not come back for more funding during the same fiscal year.
However, Aycock said, he and not WATCH, had sought the additional funding three meetings ago.
The amendment to separate the issue failed by a 4-3 vote. Gurley, Aycock and Mayo voted yes. Bell, Cromartie, Pate and Daughtery voted no. Bell's motion was then approved 4-3 along the same lines.
"The subject we voted on today is dear to my heart -- the WATCH program," Aycock said. "I want to make it very clear that I did not vote against the amendment or the motion for WATCH because of the amount of money.
"In fact I am pleased that it is more than I asked for. But with all of those attachments that were attached to it is the reason I did not vote for it. I just feel like at some point those attachments were politically motivated. I don't think this sitting board or any other future sitting board of commissioners need their hands handcuffed with amendments on something like that."
Aycock said the WATCH program should have been treated equally to all other nonprofits and that was the reason he voted against the motion -- not because of the amount of money.
Aycock said that he felt WATCH was being singled out by adding the attachments.
"I want to stress to the newspaper my vote against WATCH is not for the funding," Mayo said. "I know for a fact and have credible evidence that there is a push on to defund all nonprofits in the county."
Mayo said he had looked at the priority of what the nonprofits funded by the county do.
Essential services of nonprofits should not be bothered, Mayo said.
Mayo held up a spreadsheet showing all of the nonprofits in the county's 2016-17 budget and questioned why some of them had not been "picked on" like WATCH.
"These items are the reason I am saying WATCH is being targeted and is being used by some people to get what they want is because the ones that are really providing the services to Wayne County -- they are the ones that are being targeted," he said.
Gurley said he wanted to make it "crystal clear" that he fully supports the WATCH program.
"I am delighted today of the $165,000 appropriation," Gurley said. "I am delighted for the increase from $110,000 to $165,000, and like Commissioner Aycock I also disagree with the attachments to the motion today.
"I feel like they were unnecessary. I feel like they (WATCH) were performing like we asked them to in the past and will continue to do so, and the fact that it needs to be separated from any discussions related to Wayne Memorial Hospital."