Concerns grow over salary disparities

By Ritchie E. Starnes

Chowan Herald

A candidate for the Chowan County Board of Commissioners used a forum last week to attack the sheriff’s annual salary, adding that his high pay remains the byproduct of a past good ol’ boy network.

Republican challenger Robert Hutchins singled out Sheriff Dwayne Goodwin’s annual salary as a residue of a county regime that contributed to the Chowan’s near financial collapse three years ago. Although Hutchins’ figures were incorrect, his remarks represent a growing bone of contention that some Chowan department heads are over paid, compared to surrounding counties.

Should you vote to increase the sales tax rate to 8% in November?

The following ballot question was adopted for inclusion on the November Ballot by the County Commissioners at their March 2010 meeting:
[ ] For [ ] Against Local Sales and Use Tax at the rate of 1/4 percent (.025%) in addition to all other state and local sales and use taxes

Edenton: 911 fee 'double taxation'
(from: http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/edenton-911-fee-double-taxation-25119)

By Rebecca Bunch
Chowan Herald
Sunday, June 20, 2010

At its June 28 meeting, the Edenton Town Council is expected to hear a finance committee recommendation that the town not pay the county for its use of the 911 central communications.
The finance committee — Sambo Dixon, chair, Bob Quinn and Steve Biggs — developed the recommendation at a June 1 meeting after a request by Chowan County that the town contribute funds for the service.

Commissioners Eddie Goodwin, Kenny Goodwin, and Keith Nixon met with County Manager Peter Rascoe and Finance Officer Lisa Jones this morning to review the latest Budget figures for FY 2010-11.Projected Expenses exceed Projected Revenues by around $189,000.

Troubling not to be “troubled”

from The Daily Advance

Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Issue: Edenton Town Manager Anne-Marie Knighton admits knowing but not telling her board about a lobbying firm working on local economic development projects.

Our position: The board should be looking at punitive actions as well as ways to ensure future accountability.

Read the entire Daily Advance editorial

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Attached here is the State Auditor's Preliminary Report on improprieties associated with the loss of $29 million dollars from Chowan County funds. This report was done with pubic money and should be available to the citizens of Chowan County who are paying (through higher taxes and loss of jobs) for the mistakes made by our public officials. It is up to the new Board of Commissioners to get the bottom of this by continuing legal action against those responsible.

A summary of the audit can be seen here: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/audit-no-apparent-criminal-acts-chowan-co

Other news accounts can be found here:
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/lobbyist-questions-findings-chowan-finance-audit
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/chowan-open-criminal-charges-over-fiscal-crisis
http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/chowan-to-mull-legal-action-738757.htm
http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/audit-no-wrong-doing-in-chowan-725379.html
A blog analysis can be found here (Saturday, July 25th) http://chowanriver.blogspot.com

The following information was presented during public comments at the Chowan County Commissioners Special Meeting, Thursday May 7, 2009, 6:00 pm.

The county budget (for 2009-2010) under which we are currently operating and approved by the NC Local Government Commission is $17,244,818 and is based on a 65 cent property tax. I believe it is fair to say that we are or will survive this year on this tax rate and budget. It seems all our bills were paid and our services were apparently acceptable.

The commissioners finally made some serious progress to address the FY 09/10 Budget, and I am hopeful that they will be able to balance it without a tax increase, and without Draconian cuts in services. The next meeting to continue this process will be Monday, May 11th, probably at 6 pm at the old courthouse.

Click below for a meeting synopsis.....

County Manager Rascoe provided a FY09/10 Budget to the County Commissioners tonight. It will be posted at http://www.chowancounty-nc.gov/ tomorrow morning.

To read more, click below....

This story is a copy of an email forwarded to all Chowan County Commissioners on April 15th. No response has been received from any of them so far. The research on this was done by a member of the Citizen Advisory Group who were appointed by the commissioners to assist them in formulating the FY09/10 Budget.

One member of the Citizens Advisory group submitted to the Commissioners a macro-salary study, comparing total compensation of Chowan employees to that of other NC Counties. He used data from http://www.nctreasurer.com/lgc/units/unitlistjs.htm. and www.sog.unc.edu/pubs/electronicversions/csalindex.htm.
The study can be seen at http://www.johnsams.org/countycompensationstudy.htm. On a per-capita basis it appears that Chowan is paying far more to its employees than surrounding counties pay. Average pay/benefits here is $52,187 whereas similar population counties pay much less (generally around $30,000.) Total compensation in Chowan ($8,349,963) is approximately $3 million more than counties of similar population. These numbers have not been validated and could be in error, but are taken from the state treasurer's website. Tax base has not been factored in. From the data it appears Chowan is paying its employees (or at least the top-tier employees, who would raise the overall average) far above that of similar population counties.

The county commissioners need to examine this data closely to see if it is correct. If so, this could be where the budget overruns occurred that led to draw down of the Hospital Fund, and further analysis can point toward future budget savings.