Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Ocean Rescue/Lifeguard Contract Approved at Today's Council Meeting.....

The service contract for this coming summer was approved at today's council meeting with more modest changes than previously discussed. The approved service consists of the following:


May 1 through Memorial Day and again Labor Day to September 30 there will be a roving lifeguard on a four-wheeler on the beach.

Memorial Day through Labor Day there will be two stationary lifeguard stands, one at Hillcrest access and at the Chicahauk access. In addition, there will also be two roving guards and a shared supervisor.


So the contract price has been reduced from $140,000 to $126,000 for a 10% savings. To accomplish this, the period of October 1-15 and the shared roving guard between Hillcrest and Plover Drive have been eliminated.

Other aspects of the contract were discussed further before being approved, in particular the the 3 year term of the contract which includes a schedule of small incremental price increases for subsequent years. The concern seemed to be that we would be stuck with the contractor and price for that period of time. The town attorney explained that the contract was based on the town appropriating funds for the service, and that if the town did not appropriate those funds or a sum less than required per the agreement, the contract would become null and void. After that council agreed to accept the terms.

Monday, January 21, 2008

At Last! – Comments!............

So far, two comments have been received, actually one was in the form of a direct email. Both have brought up pertinent questions that deserve consideration.


1. Regarding Ocean Rescue: "My questions are for Liability to the town for reduced coverage? Are there liability issues we should be aware of and taken into consideration, especially if rental companies have already gone to print with local information provided about beach coverage for the upcoming season? The pre-season time-frame is more popular with families with young children, due to slightly lower rental fees".

2. Consolidation: Actually a statement you can review by selecting the comments key on this blog.

Ocean Rescue: Indeed, liability regarding this service has been much discussed. In fact, the only way the town's liability could have been eliminated is to never have provided the service. A lawsuit was actually filed once involving an incident on our beach about 300 yards North of Kitty Hawk Pier. At the time, Nags Head Ocean Rescue was the service provider and I believe they bore the brunt of the suit.

So, it would seem that no matter what the situation is, people can file suit if they can find an attorney willing to take the case. The concern here is, since the service has been provided in the past and performed between specific dates, should there be more concern for liability during a period where service has been reduced or eliminated?

I'm not an attorney, nor do I purport to practice law in any form. But I have attended classes and seminars in the past related to the laws and liability issues surrounding the Fire Service (served as Chief of the SSVFD from '90 – '97). In Dare County the general practice is for the Fire Departments to provide this service, as in Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, and Duck.

What I learned in those classes was,that the primary questions in the event of a lawsuit are: What is the standard practice of the area? What do neighboring districts do in such incidents? What are their procedures? If it could be said that an agency's coverage and procedures were out of step with, or severely departed from common practice, a lawsuit would not go well for that agency.

In this case, we would most likely be compared directly to the Duck and Kitty Hawk services. I believe the coverage schedule for both has been the same in all three districts (including TOSS): May 1 through October 15. I am not aware of the existing procedures in all three areas, but since Duck uses the same contractor as Southern Shores, I'm certain the procedures have been the same here, up to this point.

Another issue that comes into play is the concept of Mutual Aide. Whether by formal agreement or otherwise, neighboring emergency services generally will provide coverage or resources for special situations whenever available on a “like/kind basis”. Mutual Aide agreements assume similar resources such as equipment and personnel are available. Ocean Rescue service is seasonal be nature and usually employees non-residents.

If neighboring districts know that budgetary cuts were made to economize the service in Southern Shores, will they still be willing to commit their personnel or resources to help cover an incident when they know our town will not be able to reciprocate? If substantial changes are made to our service structure we'll have to wait and see.

When it comes to the effect on rental reservations, I'm not certain what the result could be, but the I'm sure the effect would not be immediate. Any discontent or reluctance to rent properties in our town would mostly be noticed in subsequent years. I don't know of any contractural obligation to provide lifeguard service in the area. But, with 22 years in the industry, I believe it would be a consideration, especially since the advertising for most of these properties specifically targets families.

Consolidation: A complex topic that recurs on a regular basis in Dare County. Interestingly, the taxpayers/voters in neighboring Currituck County had the perfect opportunity to resolve a lot of future issues in the recent referendum that would have allowed Currituck to incorporate as one governing entity. Why that referendum failed I will never truly understand. It would have eliminated the possibility of ever incorporating any towns.

Since I moved here in 1984, I believe there have been at least two serious attempts to bring this concept to reality. If my memory is correct, at one time there was an organization or committee formed to work out a plan. Nothing substantial has ever come from those efforts.

To some degree, local fire and rescue agencies will occasionally work out some group purchases of supplies and equipment. But nothing formal has ever developed out of that.

When given consideration in the past, it was assumed that consolidation would result in a substantial change in the tax structure in Southern Shores. Just in considering the SSVFD, ourservice cost is approximately half that of Duck and is all volunteer. Most likely a county wide system would not evenly cover all districts, specifically, in Southern Shores it would not make sense to man two separate stations. Depending on which existing station was eliminated about a third of Southern Shores or half of Martin's Point would be outside of the “four mile limit”. This could cause an increase in their insurance rate of up to 25%. In my case (though I believe I would be covered either way) that would be a $700 increase in my insurance premium, nearly double my town tax. Check with your own insurance agent for a more accurate estimate.

Where this problem really stands out for us, is that in the other municipalities, their ad velorum tax represents 50+% of their overall budgets. In Southern Shores it is currently only 37%. I can't see how our citizens would benefit from consolidation as it currently stands.

We've probably just had an opportunity for such an experiment slip by us. With the recent resignation of Duck's Police Chief. It would have made sense to explore the possibility of combining our two police agencies. I believe Chief Kole would have been both capable and acceptable to the Town of Duck, but given the perception of political turmoil here, such a concept might have been doomed from the start.

Have I been fair in this topic? Do I appear to biased? Certainly there are more aspects of consolidation to explore, I really don't think I can “do justice” to this topic in so few words. What do you think, should we be exploring this?


Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Why don't we unincorporate the Town?

I have been amazed the number of times I have been asked that question or heard that desire expressed the last few days. But, I have to admit that I have made that statement before, in both open and closed sessions of the council. At the time I was trying to make a point and was being facetious.

Seriously, though, what circumstances would lead a reasonable person to that conclusion or desire?

In my opinion, if the town's service levels are ever reduced to the same level as provided by the county, it might become a true consideration. If the services offered are no greater than the services that would be provided otherwise, why should the town government exist? The best thing to do at this point would be to explore the effects this would have:


Services.............................Town...........................................County

Zoning : .......................................Yes...............................................Yes

Code Enforcement:.................... Yes............................................. Yes

Building/Repair Permits:......... Yes.............................................. Yes

Fire Inspection ...........................Yes..............................................Yes

Law Enforcement .......................Yes .............................................Yes

Public Works/Beautification .....Yes ..............................................No

Road Maintenance .....................Yes ..............................................No

Emergency Medical Service .....No ...............................................Yes *

Fire/Rescue ................................Yes............................................. Yes

Ocean Rescue/Lifeguards......... Yes .............................................No **

Garbage Collection......................Yes .............................................Yes

Recycling......................................Yes ..............................................No

Chipping/Vegetation Disposal ..Yes.............................................. No

*EMS is provided to all residents of the county, the towns do not participate in this operation

**This service can be arranged but an additional tax would need to be levied.

Most often singled out during town budget discussions, whether for major cuts or outright elimination, are Ocean Rescue/Lifeguards, Recycling, and Chipping. Remove them and the case for dissolution begins to look a little more attractive. After all, beautification issues could be put in the hands of local associations and the individual subdivisions could either take responsibility for their streets or work out something with the county. For example: property owners in Seacrest Village subdivision would not be paying for street repairs through a tax for repairs to a street in Chicahauk. Is this looking like a possibility?


Let's look at the realities involved, such as the ad valorem taxes:


Currently collected in TOSS............................................................. If no TOSS


County: .26 .........................................................................................County: .26

Town: .0975....................................................................................... Sanitation: .0675*

..............................................................................................................Fire Tax: .02**



Total: .3575 ........................................................................................Total: .3475 (This is what Martin's Point pays)

*Charged in all unincorporated areas of Dare County primarily for garbage pickup.

**Current Fire Tax in Martin's Point for service from the Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Dept., Inc., at this time there is no Fire Tax in the town it is a contracted service.

So, judging from the above, if Southern Shores were to dissolve town government the savings to the taxpayer would only be .01 per $100 of value.

Now let's look at what we are getting for that penny of tax:

Code Enforcement – this actually would include Zoning, Planning, Permitting, and Fire Inspection. Our town ordinances are customized and enforced based on the desire of the local community. Under the county, these matters would be based on more broad considerations and would not necessarily match our desires. Would you want to see a couple of “big box” stores in our commercial district?

This is the main reason Duck incorporated

Law Enforcement - the town currently provides 24/7 service, with constant community patrols and overlapping shifts to assure constant coverage. Although the county would assign a deputy to our community on each shift, that deputy would most likely be assigned Colington Harbour and Martin's Point as well. Street patrols would be minimal, and dispatch times (to arrival) could take awhile if the officer happened to be in Colington.

Public Works – to include beautification. This department maintains road signs, sight lines at intersections, mowing, maintenance for town buildings and grounds, and has dealt with storm water problems. Of course, the county would provide none of this.

Roads – under the NC General Statutes, counties have no responsibilities in regard to streets or roads. The town was most likely first incorporated so that shared revenues that then became available could be used to finance the repair and replacement of our streets and bridges.

Fire/Rescue – whether under the county or town would actually remain the same. One minor exception, the Fire Tax levied in Martin's Point is .02, while in the town the budgeted amount is currently equivalent to .017. The county will only levy this tax in whole or half points. Another point of interest is that in NC law the town is not required to provide fire service, the county is though.

Ocean Rescue/Lifeguard – details of how this service is structured can be found in a previous post. It is not a required service, but one that has been provided by the town for a number of years and matches the services that are currently provided in both Duck and Kitty Hawk. The county would have to charge for a service like this, as in Duck before they incorporated they would probably boost the Fire Tax .01 to be used for this service.

Garbage – the county is currently our contract for trash pickup, so I wouldn't expect much change with this service. Although, in Martin's Point there is no curbside pickup, they pay a full .0675 for centralized dumpsters.

Recycling – I believe Southern Shores is still the only community with curbside recycling, the county would probably provide a central recycling center somewhere in the vicinity.

Chipping – it is true that no other town here has a program exactly like Southern Shores, but most of the other towns in the county do have a larger Public Works Department that has the resources to haul away and deal with vegetative debris. In the case of Southern Shores, we use a contractor to deal with it. I don't believe the county deals with this problem except possibly through burn permits.

Having completed this exercise, it appears that, for now, the best course of action “for the better good of the whole” would be to maintain our independence and identity as an incorporated town. If you really thoroughly reviewed and digested the above, isn't it a wonder that we can employ the number of people along with providing the equipment and materials necessary to conduct business as a town?

On top of that to also provide customized, unique services to our citizens for little more than what would be paid to the county.

So, what is the problem? Why would anyone even consider the possibility? Obviously, they must be frustrated about the haggling and hullabaloo surrounding the town's budget and services.


What do you think?






Friday, January 11, 2008

Ocean Rescue/ Life Guard Service ‘08

A hot topic of the last three Town Council meetings has been renewal of this contract. As submitted the service would remain the same as the last couple of years and cost $140,000. After the initial presentation the service representative Mirek Dabrowski was asked to cut the contract cost. Mirek agreed to return with a modified contract.


To better understand what impact a change might have let’s look at how the existing service is organized:

From May 1 to Memorial Day a roving patrol is provided with a Lifeguard on a 4-wheeler covering our four mile beach. From the Tuesday after Labor Day to October 15th there is again one roving Lifeguard.

Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend our beach is covered by stationary guards at stands (Hillcrest Access and Chicahauk), two roving guards patrolling the rest of the area, one roving guard shared by Duck and Southern Shores (Plover in Duck, Hillcrest in Southern Shores), and one Supervisor shared between the two towns.

In the past, the Town depended on the contractor to organize this service based on the need and his expertise. The company maintains a count of people using the beach through the summer months and uses those statistics to determine the level of protection required, based on density.
The only change to service in the last three seasons was the addition of a shared roving guard between Plover and Hillcrest accesses due to the increase in use at those two popular areas.

At the last regular council meeting a number of alternatives were proposed and discussed.
Mayor Smith suggested (as he has in the past) that swimming at our beaches should be at a persons’ own risk and is a matter of personal responsibility. Further, that at most, we should do as “we do in New Jersey” and only provide lifeguard service at the two stationary stands where the guarded areas would be marked by flags. Town Manager Charlie Read seemed to agree by indicating that Council should consider experimenting with that idea for one summer season to see how that would work out.

Mirek was asked by a council member if the contract could be reduced by changing the service period to just Memorial Day through Labor Day, he initially responded that it could be done that way if council wished... This caused an extensive discussion regarding coverage outside that period and what other agency would be dispatched to cover any incident that might occur. Ultimately, Mirek was asked, and he agreed, to return with a more balanced proposal to include a 10% reduction in cost.

Other than the above, the Town Manager stated that the contact should be placed on an annual renewal instead of the indicated three year contract.

The last contract proposal I have knowledge of was presented at Council Retreat and consisted of the following:

May 1 to Memorial Day weekend and from Labor Day through October 15th
one Lifeguard would be on-call to be dispatched to any incidents between the hours of 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend there would be two stationary guards, one roving patrol and one shared Supervisor.

It seemed that the Town Manager was not pleased with this version and told Mirek to meet with him later in the week to discuss changes. At this point the status of the contract is undetermined, I will report back on this when I am able to obtain more information. Other than that we may have to wait to see if this will be covered in the January 22nd Council Meeting Agenda.

This situation seems to beg the question: Should a service involving the safety of our citizens and visitors be based on the level of service needed or based on a dollar amount and designed to fit?

What do you think? I would love to see some other perspectives on this matter.


As an update: The Town Manager has assured me that he had a "fruitful meeting "with Mirek yesterday and they were "off and running on a positive note. Although no details regarding the service were provided. Guess we'll have to wait and see.


Annual Town Council Retreat ‘08…….

The new council has now had the opportunity to meet a few times, most importantly; the two day retreat has been completed. The agenda for this event can be found here . As you may see a lot of topics were covered, generating a considerable amount of discussion.

For the most part the meetings were orderly and informative. Presentations from both staff and the service contractor that spoke were well organized and thorough. This is especially important for the new council members so that they can “get up to speed” on the internal works of town operations and the issues being faced in the near future.

From these meetings both near and long term goals are established, and the Operations and Capital Improvement budgets are “roughed out” so that town staff can generate a first draft budget and project schedule. The first order of business was to establish the “theme “ of the next years’ budget. The Town Finance Officer sought guidance from council as to whether the budget draft should be service based or tax based. In other words, should she prepare a draft based on the cost of the services as provided in the past, or budget based on a set tax rate with services adjusted to match the rate?

Initial consensus seemed to be to produce a draft based on the tax rate. Comments from council members ranged from rolling the current ad-valorem tax rate (.0975 per $100) back to .08, to fully funding existing services as they had been. The prevailing compromise position was to produce two drafts, one at a .08 tax rate and the other at .085. As the matter was discussed further four of the council members modified their stance by indicating that they were seeking to produce a workable budget that reflected an effort to be fiscally responsible without eliminating any services, with the aim of producing a 10 % cut where possible. For his part, the Mayor has been quite consistent in his argument that the tax rate must be rolled back to at least .08, and that all services and department budgets must reflect that reduction.

Tax-wise, what would this mean to the property owners?

In round numbers, our current tax rate of .0975 produces $97.50 per year, per $100,000 of value. So, a .08 tax rate would produce a tax savings of $17.50 per year, per $100,000 of property value.

The math is simple if you want to calculate your own property tax liability. Go here to look up your property by address, determine the tax levy value, and do the math.

Example: My property:

Tax Levy Value: $355,500 divided by 100 = $3,550

Current Tax $3,550 X .0975 = $346.13 per year.

Reduction to a .08 rate would save me $62.13 a year. But what effect would that have on the services I receive? Refer to my previous post to see what the town structure is and what services you currently enjoy.

This brings me to a specific topic that I want to address next due to the immediacy of contract negotiations involved; the Ocean Rescue/ Lifeguard service.

Later I will report on other retreat discussions, further analysis and background on our ad-valorem taxes, and explore other matters that produce the unique issues that have to be dealt with in Southern Shores.

Friday, January 4, 2008

What is the Town of Southern Shores?

Geographically:

-Located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in Dare County.

-Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Currituck Sound on the East and West, and the incorporated towns of Duck and Kitty Hawk to the North and South.

-Approximately one by four miles in area.


Motto: “A Town of Volunteers”


Town Hall Staff:

-Town Manager

-Administrative Assistant

-Finance Officer

-Town Clerk


Services: Code Enforcement, Police Department, and Public Works

-Code Enforcement Staff:

-Code Enforcement Administrator

-Code Enforcement Officer

-Permit Officer

-Fire Inspector (Part-Time)

-Administrative Assistant


Police Department:

-Chief

-Lieutenant

-Sergeants – 2

-Patrol Officers – 6

-Administrative Assistant


Public Works:

-Supervisor

-Maintenance Technicians -2


Contracted Services:

-Fire/Rescue: Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Dept., Inc.

-Ocean Rescue/Lifeguards: Surf Rescue-Life Guard

-Garbage Collection: Dare County Public Works

-Recycling: Tidewater Fiber Inc.

-Chipping/Vegetation Disposal: Atlantic Tree


Infrastructure:

-Ocean Beach – 4 miles

-Paved Roads – 38 miles

-Canals – 7 Miles

-Bridges – 4

-Cemetery – 1


Civic Organizations:

-Southern Shores Civic Association

-Chicahuak Property Owners Association


Population:

-As of the US Census of 2000: 2,201 (currently estimated at around 2,800).

-Summer Population: Estimated at an additional 3,000 to 5,000.

-Additional Stats


Property Tax Rate:

-Currently .0975 per $100 value

-Example: $97.50 for every $100,000 of value, a property valued at $500,000 would have a total tax of $487.50 per year.