economy
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro will enter its second phase next week when the group removes its tents from Peace and Justice Plaza on Franklin Street, according to press release issued this morning.
Occupiers have been holding camp in front of the Post Office there since Oct. 15, but amid the coming cold, and safety and morale concerns drawn from sleeping on the street in close quarters each night, the group is shifting strategy.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Durham County to levy 1/4-cent sales tax in April
With the approval of almost 57 percent of voters, Durham County Commissioners officially adopted a resolution Monday night to begin collecting a new quarter-cent sales tax on April 1, 2012. The tax will apply to the sales of goods, but not food, medicine, housing, gas or utilities.
Voters approved the tax, which will benefit public education in Durham County, through the Nov. 8 ballot.
That ballot also included a new half-cent tax for mass transit, which voters also approved by 60 percent. But the transit sales tax won't be levied until Durham leaders see whether leaders and residents in Wake and Orange counties will also consider a similar tax to move forward on regional commuter and light-rail projects.
The first full year of collections for the education tax in 2013 is expected to generate as much as $9.2 million. Most of the revenue will preserve teaching jobs and pay for school facility improvements in Durham Public Schools. Durham Technical Community College will also receive funds that will be used for scholarships, and Durham's Partnership for Children, which provides educational and other programs for young children.
Monday, November 14, 2011
UPDATE: Clerk's 31-percent raise was for professional certification
- courtesy Durham County
- Durham County Manager Mike Ruffin
UPDATE, 11/15: County Manager Mike Ruffin responded this morning to let us know the 31-percent raise for commissioners' clerk Michelle Parker-Evans was awarded after she obtained a two-year professional certification for clerks, which she didn't have when she was originally hired. "This certification was factored in to her recent raise and is one of the reasons the increase is so significant," Ruffin said in an email Tuesday.
UPDATE, 11/14: Durham County provided detailed salary information late Monday afternoon, which shows the salary increases commissioners approved for five top-level county administrators (as mentioned by County Manager Mike Ruffin in the earlier story).
According to the interview with Ruffin, the following raises were awarded by county commissioners, based on analyses of what people in similar jobs in other municipalities were making. The salary increases, which all took place on the first day of the fiscal year, July 1, 2011, included a 31-percent raise for the commissioners' clerk:
— Durham County Sheriff Worth Hill, increase of $5,189 for a total salary of $127,279, a 4.25-percent raise (Hill is now retired. Salary information for his replacement, Mike Andrews, was not immediately available.)
— Register of Deeds Willie Covington, increase of $7,693 to salary of $119,693, about a 7-percent raise
— Clerk to the Board of County Commissioners Michelle Parker-Evans, increase of $19,313 for total salary of $80,313, a 31-percent raise
— County Attorney Lowell Siler, increase of $9,154 for total salary of $164,154, a 6-percent raise
— Tax Administrator Kim Simpson, increase of $7,074 to total salary of $104,574, a 7.25-percent raise
Market-rate adjustments are necessary to keep experienced employees from leaving Durham County for similar positions in other counties with better salaries, Ruffin said last week. All of the county's 1,800 employees will be eligible for merit-based raises when they have their annual reviews between now and June 30, 2012, Ruffin said. They will also be eligible for market-rate increases in the spring when a comparative study is complete, he said. The market-rate increases are the same, in theory, as the raises given to the top managers, as listed above.
The county on Monday also provided salary information for other department heads, some of whom also received raises this fiscal year as part of an annual review:
— Director of General Services Motiryo Keambiroiro received a $4,505 increase in August for a total salary of $110,505; this represents a 4.25-percent increase
— Director of Budget and Management Services Pam Meyer received a $4,869 raise in July for a total salary of $119,435; this represents a 4.25-percent increase
— Director of the Criminal Justice Resource Center Gudrun Parmer received a $4,082 increase in July for a total salary of $100,132; this represents a 4.25-percent increase
— Veteran Services Officer Louis Washington received a $2,205 increase in August for a total salary of $54,076; this represents a 4.25-percent increase
Original post: Durham Republicans criticize county manager's 10-percent raise
The Durham Republican Party issued an open letter Friday to county commissioners, asking the board of all Democrats to rescind the 10-percent raise they awarded County Manager Mike Ruffin on Monday, saying the raise is a "slap in the face of every Durham County citizen" because of the state of the economy and unemployment.
Ruffin had no comment on the criticism. Durham commissioners stood behind their 4-to-0 decision to boost Ruffin's salary from $179,000 a year to $197,000. The fifth board member, Commissioner Joe Bowser, was not present for the vote but expressed his support for Ruffin, his colleagues said.
"I’ll see what they have to say," Vice Chairwoman Ellen Reckhow said of the Republican Party's request. But, she added, "The past three years have been extremely stressful and difficult years for the manager. And he has actually managed the county extremely well in terms of moving us forward at a time when resources were tight, trying to find efficiency in the government. We felt that, as point person for this difficult time, he has led us very well and that he deserved an adjustment."
Raises for other department heads
Ruffin's raise is the most recent in a series of salary adjustments for several top-level county employees appointed by the board since the beginning of the 2011-12 fiscal year. Commissioners made the pay raises after requesting a market analysis of the going rates for similar positions in July, Ruffin said Friday.
Since July, the register of deeds, sheriff, county attorney, tax administrator and clerk to the board of commissioners all have received pay increases based on the analysis of about a dozen other jurisdictions, Ruffin said. (Exact percentages and figures were not immediately available, but will be posted here as soon as they are made available to the Indy.) The pay increases were the result of two factors—both the market analysis, as well as the employees' annual performance evaluations, which all occurred in June, Ruffin said.
In Ruffin's case, his performance evaluation and market-rate adjustment happened this week because it was the annual anniversary of his employment with Durham County, where he became manager in 2000.
Ruffin and all other county employees and commissioners have had their pay frozen since 2008. Employees became eligible for salary hikes when the new fiscal year began on July 1. This year, employees will again be eligible to receive a 3.25- to 4.25-percent raise based on whether they met or exceeded expectations, Ruffin said. Employees will be eligible for those raises after annual performance evaluations which occur near their anniversary dates.
The percentage increase was a point of attack for Theodore Hicks, Republican Party chairman, who pointed out in the Friday letter the margin between Ruffin's 10-percent hike and the lower percentages other employees could receive.
- courtesy Durham County
- e county's human resources department.
"Neither the peer evaluation data nor the performance evaluation justify a 10% raise," Hicks wrote of Ruffin's raise, "even in a thriving economy." (Click on the chart at left for peer evaluation data from the county's human resources department.)
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Durham City Council Chambers were standing-room only last night as concerned citizens told the N.C. Utilities Commission that they opposed Duke Energy's proposed 18.6 percent rate hikes for residential customers.
The proposed rate hikes, spread over Duke Energy's 1.8 million North Carolinian customers, would generate $640 million for Duke Energy. Almost three-quarters of that would go toward recouping the $4.8 billion the company says it has spent since 2009 building new plants, updating existing ones and complying with new federal and state environmental rules.
Duke Energy operates under the regulated utility system—the state essentially grants it a monopoly in parts of the state and, in return, the utilities commission regulates certain aspects of its business such as new plant construction and proposed rate hikes.
The Durham hearing was the fourth the utilities commission has held across the state, following ones in Marion, Franklin and High Point. Citizens at those meetings turned out in force, with posters and demonstrations.
The people of Bull City were not to be outdone. About 40 people from Occupy Durham marched down Main Street with a hip-slung snare drum keeping time for the crowd's chanted slogans: "No hike, no way! Duke Energy, we won't pay!" Passing cars honked at signs like "Hey Duke Energy! YOU take a hike!"
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Three dozen Carrboro community members, including social justice activists, day laborers and elected officials, assembled in solidarity at the corner of Davie and Jones Ferry roads Tuesday morning and called for an end to the town’s anti-lingering ordinance.
The controversial local law, which passed in 2007, forbids anyone from standing, sitting, reclining, lingering or otherwise remaining on that corner after 11 a.m. Day laborers often assemble on that corner trying to find work.
Supporters of the ordinance say it’s needed to address a few people, many of whom aren't looking for work, who allegedly drink and cause public disturbances on the corner.
On some days as many as 60 day laborers, many of them Latinos who live across the street at Abbey Court apartments, await trucks coming buy to pick them up for a shift.
- Photo by Joe Schwartz
- Day laborer Angel Martinez addresses the crowd of supporters who are pushing to rescind Carrboro's anti-lingering ordinance
“This is one of the only venues where we can provide for our families,” he said, adding that many who want the ordinance abolished did not attend the event for fear of retribution. “Once we are asked to leave, there’s nowhere else we can go.”
Chris Brook, staff attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which is challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance, read a petition signed by 112 residents. Among the signatures are representatives from the Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the Orange County Democratic Party, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP, local business owners, former Board of Aldermen members and candidates.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Aaron Zalonis, who participated in the Occupy Raleigh Protest and March on Sunday, Oct. 16, shared the following photos with us.
To learn more:
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Dispatch #1
The formal name is actually Occupy Chapel Hill/ Carrboro, but there is a strong argument that Carrboro has been "occupied" for years.
Regardless, the first General Assembly of Occupy Chapel Hill, started around 2:30 p.m. Sunday after a three hour rally at Peace & Justice Plaza in front of the Franklin Street Post Office.
The plaza is so named because it was site of numerous civil rights and anti-war rallies during the 1960s and 70s and has been a rallying point for movements of all kinds since.
>The assembly of about fifty people was organizational in nature, a straightforward discussion of the concerns and logistics about what to do next. Had they stopped to listen, the lack of strident anti-capitalism speeches might have disappointed the occasional hecklers interspersed through the crowd of UNC and Miami fans spilling out of Kenan Stadium after the football game.
Some fans stopped for a while to take it in, standing in full Carolina blue regalia as the assembly discussed phone trees, supplies and legal issues.
After a long discussion about the possibility of a longer stay, a group of 30 participants opted to camp out and began assembling tents and supplies. Another General Assembly is scheduled for 6 p.m. today (Sunday).
You can tune it at http://occupychapelhill.org/
Friday, July 8, 2011
The June jobs numbers are out and they are not good, even though economists expected a big bounce back from May's dismal report.
Non-farm payroll rose 18K. Nationwide, the unemployment rate is now 9.2%
Via Marketwatch:
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. economy added jobs at a slower pace in June than in May, suggesting that the sudden slowdown in the economy might be longer-lasting and more severe than feared.
This is really disturbing since both federal and state leadership seems to have forgotten what counter-cyclical spending is all about. Instead, we're cutting thousands of state workers, who use their paychecks to, you know, purchase goods and services. At 9.7 percent, North Carolina's May unemployment rate was higher than the national rate. We'll see when the state numbers come out if that's still the case. There was a significant drop in the state's initial unemployment claims, but not a lot of other data to suggest even a slight turnaround.
Joe Stiglitz from this morning:
The remedies to the US deficit follow immediately from this diagnosis: put America back to work by stimulating the economy; end the mindless wars; rein in military and drug costs; and raise taxes, at least on the very rich. But the right will have none of this, and instead is pushing for even more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, together with expenditure cuts in investments and social protection that put the future of the US economy in peril and that shred what remains of the social contract. Meanwhile, the US financial sector has been lobbying hard to free itself of regulations, so that it can return to its previous, disastrously carefree, ways.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Bank postpones Greenbridge June 27 foreclosure auction to allow negotiations for potential debt purchase
Bank of America has indefinitely postponed the auction for Greenbridge, a prominent mixed-use development at 601 W. Rosemary St. in Chapel Hill that is facing foreclosure, Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton confirmed. The auction was previously scheduled for June 27.
Bank of America postponed the foreclosure auction to give potential investors time to negotiate the purchase of more than $29 million in outstanding debt on the project, according to a Saturday story in The News & Observer. There have been three formal offers to buy the debt, which totals over $29 million, Toben told The N&O. Toben could not be reached Thursday for comment.
Greenbridge Development took out a $43 million loan from Bank of America in 2008, but had problems filling the pair of 10- and seven-story buildings offering energy-efficient retail space and condominiums. Currently only 37 of the 97 condos are occupied. After Greenbridge Development failed to make payments on the loan from December 2010 to March 2011, Bank of America filed for foreclosure in April.
Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Economic Development Officer Dwight Bassett have met with potential investors to answer questions about investing in Chapel Hill and the community, Bassett confirmed this week. However, he said that he and Kleinschmidt have had no direct role in the negotiations.
Bassett said he hopes that by avoiding foreclosure, the stalled Greenbridge project could change hands and begin contributing to the community and local economy.
“It certainly isn’t good for any market to have foreclosures period,” he said.
In related news, a lobby at the Greenbridge condos was the site of protest and vandalism Saturday. According to news reports, an estimated 15 to 20 people sprayed Silly String, broke furniture and moved couches to block the elevators. Chapel Hill Police arrested three people, charging each with one count of felony rioting and two counts of misdemeanor damage to real property.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The “best life in town,” as the commercials promised, is being sold to the highest bidder on June 27, when Bank of America plans to foreclose on Greenbridge—the 10-story, 217,000 square foot residential and retail development on West Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill.
The property will be put up for public auction at the Orange County Courthouse at 10 a.m. that day, following months of financial troubles for the developers.
The property will be sold to the highest bidder, who will have to deposit either no more than 5 percent of the price bid or $750 at the auction, and will have to pay the full balance in cash or certified check when the deed is signed over to them.
Bank of America filed the foreclosure proposal in April, and since then has been in negotiations with the Greenbridge developers to resolve the close to $30 million in principal, interest and late fees Greenbridge Development has not paid on its $43 million loan from Bank of America. They have failed to reach an agreement and Greenbridge has failed to pay, so Bank of America is going ahead with its plans to auction the property.
Less than half of the 97 units in the development are occupied. The Community Home Trust owns deeds to some of the condos, so people living in those condos will not face foreclosure, but any Greenbridge tenants who wish to terminate their rental agreement after the sale can do so with 10 days written notice to the landlord.
and of course the durham cult classic:
the beaver queen pageant
http://beaverlodgelocal1504.org/ …
by katchup on 2012 summer calendar highlights (Summer Guide)
Just weeks ago prior to the removal of the fence it had fallen down out of neglect, nearly causing me …
by Amy Leigh Brown on Greenfire's green wall: Fence is gone, but problem remains (Durham County)