by staff

Creation of a new Central City police district, replacement of aging police, fire and public works vehicles, emphasis on community appearance and further pay adjustments to address attrition in the Police and Fire departments highlight the $442 million budget for 2016-17 that City Manager Lee Garrity has recommended to Mayor Allen Joines and the City Council.

Thanks to growth in sales taxes and the tax base, the recommended budget addresses pent-up demands in the areas of personnel, equipment and facilities that were put on hold during the economic recession.

“The city has reached a critical point,” Garrity said, “where more investment is needed in our employees, facilities and equipment to maintain our excellent city services, enhance the quality of life in the community and position the city to be more competitive in attracting jobs and growing economically.”

The proposed budget allocates $326.5 million for operations, $41.5 million for debt service and $74 million for capital improvements. The property tax rate would be 58.5 cents for every $100 of value, an increase of 2 cents.

In his budget message, Garrity noted that even with the 2-cent increase, “Based on the current tax rates of the other large cities in North Carolina, Winston-Salem’s rate would remain in the middle of the group.”

He noted that tax increases in recent years, with the exception of the bonds passed in 2014, simply made up for revenue lost through actions of the General Assembly and did not actually address these needs.

The City Council’s Finance Committee will begin reviewing the budget June 7 and will hold a public hearing June 9. The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and vote on the budget on June 20. By state law, the council must adopt a budget for 2016-2017 by June 30. The budget would take effect July 1.

Garrity is recommending that the city add a net gain of 40 more employees (45 new positions and five eliminated) to implement a broad range of improvements:

• The Police Department would pick up 14 positions. Five positions would allow creation of a fourth police district that would reduce response times in the central part of Winston-Salem and improve coordination during special events downtown. Five positions, paid for by the county, would result from consolidation of the Sheriff’s Department forensic services staff into a combined city-county forensic services unit. Four positions would be added for crime analysis and information systems.
• The Fire Department would add five positions: three fire training and safety officers, a fire truck mechanic, and the first of three fire inspectors to be hired over the next three years. The latter would eliminate the need for firefighters to conduct fire code inspections, giving them more time for training and other duties.
• Stormwater Management would add a civil engineer and four-person drainage crew that would work with citizens whose property is affected by stormwater runoff.
• Property and Facilities Management would add six positions to create two crews that would collect litter along roadsides and in city parks.
• Six positions would be added for facilities built with money from the 2014 bonds: three in recreation to maintain new spraygrounds, and three property maintenance personnel to maintain new buildings, such as the district police stations.
• A total of nine other positions would be added to a variety of departments, including Transportation, the Fairgrounds, Utilities, Human Resources, and Community and Business Development.

The operations budget would include raises for city employees. Police officers and certified firefighters would receive a 2 percent increase in January, on top of the 2 percent increase and the 7.5 percent increase in starting salaries they received in February. To address continuing attrition among experienced police officers, all officers with 5 to 15 years of service would receive additional pay raises, effective July 1, ranging from $1,200 to $2,300.

Garrity is recommending that all other city employees receive a 3 percent pay raise to make city salaries more competitive with the private sector. All city employees, including police and fire personnel, would also be eligible for a merit-pay increase of 1.5 to 3 percent based on their performance. “The city’s pay plan continues to lag behind average actual salaries in our market,” Garrity said. “As a result, we constantly experience challenges with retaining employees.”

To improve employee retention across the board, Garrity is also recommending that the city initiate a 401(a) supplemental retirement plan under which the city would put an amount equal to 2 percent of each employee’s pay in a retirement account that would become vested after five years of service. If approved, it would take effect Jan. 1.

The proposed budget for capital improvements includes $3.54 million in lease payments to replace aging police cars, fire trucks, dump trucks, garbage trucks and other public works equipment, as well as computers and other equipment used by city employees, all of which have been kept in service longer than planned.

It also includes $56.1 million for water, sewer and stormwater projects and $550,000 to continue upgrading the fiber-optic network that connects city facilities. The capital budget does not include the bond projects that voters approved in November 2014, which were handled in a separate appropriation.

User fees would remain the same except for Utilities Division fees: Sewer rates would increase 3 percent, water rates would increase 1.5 percent and the bimonthly base charge for residential water and sewer service would increase $2.49. Landfill fees for high-volume users would increase 50 cents per ton, to $32.

The proposed budget includes $544,270 for downtown improvements, financed by the 9 cent levy recommended by the Downtown Winston-Salem Business Improvement District Advisory Committee. The money would be spent in five areas: improving cleanliness, increasing safety, improving marketing, accelerating development and enhancing downtown appearance.

How to participate in the budget process:

• Copies of the proposed budget will be available for review at public libraries, city recreation centers and City Hall, 101 N. Main St. Suite 30. The proposed budget will also be posted online at www.CityofWS.org.
• The City Council’s Finance Committee will hold workshops on the budget at 3:30 p.m. June 7 and 4:30 p.m. June 13 in the Council Committee Room (Room 239) on the second floor of City Hall. A workshop will be held at 2 p.m. June 14, if needed. These workshops are open to the public but are for the purpose of allowing council members to study the proposed budget. Citizens may watch these workshops live on WSTV on TimeWarner Cable channel 13 and AT&T U-verse channel 99 in Forsyth County. WSTV can also be viewed live online at CityofWS.org.
• The Finance Committee will hold a public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. June 9 in the Council Chamber (Room 230) on the second floor of City Hall. This hearing will be televised live by WSTV.
• The Public Safety Committee will review the budgets for the Police, Fire and Emergency Management departments at 6 p.m. June 13 in the Council Committee Room. This meeting will be televised live by WSTV.
• The mayor and City Council will hold a public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. June 20 in the Council Chamber before voting on the budget. This hearing will be televised live by WSTV.
• Citizens can also phone in comments about the budget on the city’s Citizen Feedback line, 734-1400, or submit comments through a form on the city website.

By Staff

This is part two of a two part series on the 2016 State of our City Report. This part covers infrastructure improvement and economic development. You can read Part 1 HERE.

Income Disparity and Poverty

Tommy Hickman, Vice Chair of the Winston-Salem Foundation, spoke next and provided a stark look at numbers related to income disparity and poverty in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County. He thanked Forsyth Futures for gathering the data he used in his presentation. Mr. Hickman first turned to poverty – and what he had to say was at times disheartening. 20% of the residents in Forsyth County live in poverty. 29% of those under the age of 18 live in poverty. The poverty has disproportionately affected the black and Latino communities. 28% percent of the the black population in Forsyth County are living in poverty, while 47% of the Latino population are living in poverty and 11% of the white population is living in poverty.

According to statistics, location- where you live- in Forsyth County also determines your chances of living in poverty. There are “concentrations of poverty” in our city that tend to also be heavily populated by minorities, while the generally “white” areas have better outcomes and mobility. What are considered “Poverty Census Tracts” are areas where 40% of the population lives at or below national poverty levels. 14% of our entire population lives in these areas. 17% of our children under the age of 17 live in these areas. 2% of those in High Poverty Census Tracts are white, 22% are African American and 60% are Latino.

Homelessness remains an issue, but still only hovers at about 2.7 homeless for every 10,000 residents.

According to Mr. Hickman the median household income in Forsyth County is $45,220. 20% of our households make an average income of $19,067 or less. 40% of households make $36,646 or less. 60% of households are getting by with $57,051 or less and 95% of our population in Forsyth County makes $166,984 or less a year.

Mr. Hickman reported that the low infant birth-weight still hovers around 9.5%, or one in 10 births. That would be babies being born below five pounds, eight ounces or less. 14% or 1 in 7 African American children were born with low birth weight, 6% of Latino babies and 8% of white children. This is a metric often looked at as an indicator of overall women’s health in a given community. It can indicate access to medical care, socioeconomic conditions, and public health practices.

The suicide rate was approximately 11.5 per 100,000 residents which is not a big change from previous years.

Another quality of life indicator is the level of education for citizens over the age of 25. There is a direct connection between education and the chances you’ll be living in poverty. A more educated populace is a more prosperous populace. 13% of our population has less than a high school degree. The poverty level for those folks is 34%. Another 26% of our population has a high school degree or its equivalent, and 18% of those live in poverty. 21% of our population has some college, but no degree, and 15% of those folks live in poverty. 8% of our population has an associate’s degree and just 8% of them live in poverty. 20% of the population has a bachelor’s degree, and only 5% of those individuals live in poverty. 11% of our population has a professional or graduate degree, and 3% of them live in poverty.

Arts & Innovation

The next up was President of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, Jim Sparrow. Mr. Sparrow informed the audience about the major art initiatives that are underway to improve the quality of life here in Winston-Salem and to make us a more attractive location for business. For projects designed to further Winston-Salem’s aesthetic realization of the Arts & Innovation ethos, Mr. Sparrow highlighted the following initiatives:

For public Art:

• Commission on Public Art has been appointed in 2016
• Creative Corridors- Vargrave scheduled to be completed in 2016 and plans are moving forward with creating a land bridge joining Winston and Old Salem.
• Highly Visible private investment- Artivity Park

For crafting a creative, welcoming vibe:

• Efforts to coordinate activity to be more than the sum of our parts.
• Public gatherings & community- multiple Festivals, SSO4, Salute, Gallery Hops, and the greater “Metro” parks series.

The Arts Council is working to be the engine behind creative entrepreneurship by expanding community engagement grants. There are efforts to use the Arts Innovation Lab as a tool to bring various disciplines together. The Kenan/UNCSA Arts Entrepreneurship Lab, the Center for Creative Economy/Flywheel, Swerve, South East Arts Accelerator, and Startup weekends are targeted at trying to bring some venture capital into local, arts based entrepreneurship.

Education

Dr. Beverly Emory, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Superintendent, gave a presentation that should have been the most critical of the meeting, considering that the conclusions the other speakers were coming to is that everything begins with education. To understand what Dr. Emory told those assembled is to recognize that our schools are in serious trouble. While she stressed that the infrastructure is in place to make real changes, but often the money and budgets are not there to meet even the most basic needs. Slashing budget cuts out of Raleigh over the last few years seem to be at the root of many of the system’s woes. Our system is home to eleven failing schools and our Cook Elementary is the school with the worst outcomes in the state of North Carolina.

Dr. Emory stated goals by 2020 of having 90% of our third graders on reading level and be graduating 90% of the students. By 2018 the system hopes to close the achievement gaps between subgroups by 10 percentage points while increasing the overall performance of all subgroups.

Graduation rates over the year did increase from 83.5% to 85.4%. Among those schools where the graduation rate have risen are Glenn High School, Kennedy High School, Parkland High School, Reynolds High School, Walkertown High School, and Winston-Salem Prep Academy. There were decreases in graduation rates at Carver High School, Mt. Tabor High School, North Forsyth High School, Reagan High School, and West Forsyth High School. Most of these had not, however, fallen below targeted goals of 90%.

“Our reading outcomes were not good,” Emory stated. “We seem to be on a flat, ten-year trajectory.” They saw a decrease in third grade reading scores from 58% overall to 56%. The K-3 READ 3D Composites for all district elementary schools now show reading growth in all but two schools. This still does not bring us up to desired levels, or even really close. Elementary schools with a +10 increase in Read 3D scores included Bolton Elementary, Kimmel Farm Elementary, Konnoak Elementary, Mineral Springs Elementary, Old Town Elementary, Rural Hall Elementary, and Sedge Garden.

On closing the achievement gap, Dr. Emory said that they have not “lost ground, but we have not made huge improvements.” According to Dr. Emory the system has made significant progress in closing the achievement gaps in several areas including:

• 4th Grade reading
• 6th Grade reading & math
• 7th Grade Math I
• 8th Grade Math I
• 8th Grade Science
• Biology

Dr. Emory then indicated that there is work underway in addressing these issues, including training teachers how to better teach to children living in poverty. She stated that the district culture is that, “Yes, there is poverty. No, poverty can’t be an excuse for us to not be doing the most we can in these classrooms to make sure that kids learn.”

Even with these innovative programs, Dr. Emory pointed out, without support and competitive salaries the school system will continue to struggle with hiring quality teachers. She stated that as of right now the district needed 73 school teachers (30 of these elementary teachers) for positions they cannot currently fill. She pointed out that these positions have traditionally been the easiest to fill. Singling out Cook Elementary, however, Dr. Emory said that they had 124 applicants for 25 positions in that very challenged school. She went on to highlight several expanding programs from summer school to hiring more reading interventionist for elementary schools that they hope will begin to address these inequities faster.

In closing Mayor Joines reiterated several points. Among them:

1. It will take time to absorb past losses and move on up indexes.
2. We should view these new initiatives as planting seeds for the future. For instance Whitaker Park has a potential for 10,000 jobs.
3. Our poverty rate is unacceptable.
4. We are in need of more entrepreneurial and innovation space. We have a shortage of already built industrial space.

“We’re an old manufacturing city,” Mayor Joines said pointing out that a recent Pew article clearly outlined the decline of America’s middle class. “Here in Winston-Salem we are having to replace those jobs and we are absorbing the losses of these jobs.” It’s going to take time to get over those losses, the Mayor stated, but we are heading in the right direction.

This is part one of a two part series on the 2016 State of our City Report. This part covers infrastructure improvement and economic development.  You can read Part 2 HERE.

By Staff

On May 17th, a particularly rainy, spring Tuesday, Mayor Allen Joines was joined by several local leaders in delivering a State of the Communityreport which provided an overview of where we are right now as a city. The Mayor was accompanied by Bob Leak, Gayle Anderson, Bobby Hickman, Jim Sparrow, and Dr. Beverly Emory, who gave those in attendance a picture of how Winston-Salem is fairing in 2016.

Mayor Joines began by reiterating a goal that he has articulated in the past. “By the end of the decade we would like for Winston-Salem to be one of the top 50 metro areas in the country. Last year we were ranked as 145 so that’s a big move up for us.”

What will reaching that goal require and look like? Winston-Salem will have to create just over 27,000 net new jobs over that time period, or about 5,400 jobs per year. He stated that this future economic development would be created by focusing on three of our major assets: the Wake Forest innovation Quarter, Whitaker Park, and fostering our entrepreneurial culture.

The Mayor went on to provide some data for context. In the past five years we have seen our population grow from 229,617 in 2010 to an estimated 239,629 in 2015- a 4.2% increase. He described our growth as “moderate” and “manageable”. The City’s workforce has grown from 306,400 to 320,500- a 4.6% increase. This is something we have done better when compared against other North Carolina cities. For comparison the state average was 3.4%, Greensboro was 4.5%, and Raleigh was 3.6%.

Joines pointed out that while sometimes the number of new people in the workforce can actually make the unemployment number rise, overall our unemployment number has been falling. In February 2014 the unemployment rate was at 6.6%. By February of 2015 is had fallen to 5.5%, and then saw a much slower decline until March of 2016 when we posted at 5.2%.

Mayor Joines kept to the good news pointing out that from 2010 until 2015 we had a net gain of 7,500 jobs. This is well below they 5,400 jobs a year required to reach the stated goal of 27,000 in 2020. The Mayor stated that a survey of local businesses indicated that 15% of Forsyth County’s employers plan to add jobs over the next year and none of them responded that they would be cutting jobs.

The Mayor gave an update of activities in the Innovation Quarter. He stated that the Bailey Power Plant Building project was underway. Construction of the new WFU medical building has begun. The building of the Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering is underway. The financing needed there for a parking deck has been secured at both the city and the county level. And the Mayor said that the Northern District of the Quarter, or Phase 2, is in the initial recruitment phase. Currently there are 3,200 jobs in the IQ. By the end of 2017, 400 new jobs are expected to be created. Currently there are 5,800 students in the IQ, by the end of 2017 they expect as many as 7,000. Sixty-one companies are operating in the IQ right now with a projected 66 to be in place by the end of 2017. Currently there is $563 million dollars invested in the Innovation Quarter. By the end of 2017 there will be an estimated $800 million.

Five key efforts to foster and encourage entrepreneurship were named by the Mayor. The Dioko Health Ventures Accelerator which has a goal of securing $25 million to use as seed money had an early stage funder in order to foster expansion and innovation in our “local health care entrepreneurial ecosystem.” The fund’s managers will work closely with Inmar Inc., the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, local universities, regional academic medical centers. The Flywheel Ventures Fund has $350,000. The Mayor indicated that planning was underway for a minority business accelerator, that a study of our strengths and weaknesses had been completed, and that a best practices study of St. Louis, Missouri was complete. He pointed out that the beltway is under construction and all segments have been funded and that 250 out of the 301 bond projects voters approved will be underway by June.

The podium was then turned over to Bob Leak, the President of Winston-Salem Business Inc. He reported on capital improvement projects that are already underway. Among those are:

• Benton Convention Center renovations.
• The Union Station renovation and make-over.
• Bailey Park & Power Plant renovations.
• Forsyth County Central Library renovations.
• Merschel Plaza installation.
• Several downtown residential projects.

Mr. Leak pointed out other projects which have been funded by the bond and total $139.2 million.

• Recreation – 15 total projects including:
• Quarry Park
• Winston-Salem Park
• Jamison Park
• Salem Lake Marina

Public Safety:

• Three police stations.
• Three fire stations.
• Beaty public safety training and support center.

Streets & Sidewalks:

• Resurfacing roads
• building sidewalks
• adding bike and pedestrian lanes.

Housing:

• Pepper Building
• 757 North Apartments

Economic Development:

• Enterprise Drive at the Union Cross Business Park
• Possible Spec Building at Union Cross Business Park

Additional projects include:

• Happy Hill Park
• Hanes Park
• Park land acquisition
• Public Safety Center renovations
• Meadowlark Park
• Business 40 corridor improvements
• TURN (Transitioning Urban Neighborhoods)

As for upcoming transportation projects, Mr. Leak reviewed the following:

• The W-S Beltway (eastern portion)
• Idols Road Extension
• Salem Creek Connector
• Highway 52 improvements
• Business 40 improvements

Gayle Anderson, President of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce gave her presentation and had more challenging data for attendees. She jumped right into talking about jobs, pointing out that Moody’s Analytics job growth projection for Winston-Salem was 19,800 jobs added by 2020. Ms. Anderson reported that from September 2014 to September 2015 Forsyth County netted 2,715 jobs. That is only 1.5% net job growth over the year. She compared that number to Guilford County(6,310), Buncombe County(4,834), New Hanover County(3,452), Wake County(22,309), and Mecklenbeurg County(25,036). Winston-Salem/Forsyth County is only on pace to add half of the jobs needed to hit the 2020 targets.

Forsyth County ranked 46th out of 100 North Carolina Counties in people experiencing a change in employment. That places us right in the middle of the 100 counties. We are sixth overall in jobs added and number five in weekly wages.

Ms. Anderson reported that our positives right now outweigh our negatives and the trends are headed upward. She pointed out that our strengths are Medical Research, proximity to other high growth areas, low cost of living and low cost of doing business. Our weaknesses include soft growth in the financial industry and low industrial diversity.

This is part one of a two part series on the 2016 State of our City Report. This part covers infrastructure improvement and economic development. You can  READ PART 2 HERE which focuses on poverty and income disparity, arts and innovation, and education.