Presented by H. Parks Helms, Chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners on January 25, 2006. View rebroadcast on Channel 16: January 27, at 11:30am and 11:30pm; January 28, at 11:30am and 11:30pm; January 29, at 11:30am and 11:30pm; January 30, at 9am.

Good Morning, and welcome to the State of the County for Mecklenburg, North Carolina. I'm Parks Helms, Chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. 

The Board of County Commissioners has nine members and we were elected in 2004.  We are halfway through our two-year term.

As we begin a New Year and a new budget cycle, it's important to consider where we've been, where we are, and where we want to go as a community. So these remarks are a prelude to our strategic planning conference in a few days, where we will develop our business plan for the coming year. 

In considering where we've been, we can look at some of our accomplishments, as well as some of our unmet goals.

In considering where we are, it's important to do so in the context of the political, social and economic environment existing today.

As we look to the future, as we ask ourselves where we want to go and who we want to become, we need to look ahead at what looms on the horizon.  And we should revisit our Vision Statement for the year 2015 to make sure we are still on course.

I will comment first on the progress this community has made. I will also suggest areas where we must continue to improve our performance. That is to say, I will ask "Where have we been?" 

WHERE ARE WE NOW? 

The political, social and economic environment in which we live will have a dramatic impact on our success or failure in meeting our goals for the year 2015. The elected leaders who are entrusted with decision making will be influenced by a variety of factors – factors that present fiscal, moral and ethical challenges.

While there are some irresistible forces at work, we now have the ability to shape the future course and direction of Mecklenburg County.The question then becomes "Where do we want to go?" and are we willing to do what it takes to translate a vision for the future into reality?

WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?

In 2001, the Board of County  Commissioners created a vision for our community for the year 2015. This became the blueprint for the community we want to build. Using a tool called the Balanced Scorecard, we developed a process for determining if we were meeting our goals.

Last week, county staff presented a performance report on our progress. With ten years remaining in our quest, we have already achieved 50% of our scorecard goals. We have shown improvement in another 18% of our goals. This is significant progress toward achieving the vision of becoming a community of pride and choice for people to live, work and recreate by the year 2015.

Let me highlight just a few of the more significant accomplishments we have achieved so far.
• We opened another 14,600 feet of greenway with the opening of the Six-mile Creek Greenway and Westfield Drive portion of the Little Sugar Creek Greenway
• Our air and stream water quality are improved from last year.
• 632 new businesses opened in Mecklenburg County last year, providing more jobs and other economic opportunities for Mecklenburg residents.
• Our unemployment remains relatively low, coming in under 5% for the past fiscal year.
• We continue to have a Triple-A bond rating from all the bond rating agencies, indicating the highest level of financial management and insuring taxpayers get the lowest possible interest rate on bonds and other capital financing.
• We also have improved the knowledge and skills of County staff over the past year, enhancing their ability to serve our residents.
• One by-product of this is that customer satisfaction with county services has increased for the third consecutive year.
• We also partnered with the City of Charlotte in the successful launch of the city/county 311 customer call center to provide a centralized point of contact for city and county residents.
• The Board also created a paygo capital reserve that allows us to build schools or other public facilities without incurring the cost of borrowing money.
• We also invested in the stewardship of existing pubic buildings by dedicating a half-cent on the property tax rate for major repairs and renovations of County-owned facilities.
• The Public Library opened ImaginOn as an innovative partnership with the Children's Theater.
And there are many more accomplishments I could list.  

These and other accomplishments are worthy of celebration. We can see why the Performance Institute has conveyed on Mecklenburg County the 2005 City/County Performance Management Award. Indeed, these accomplishments reflect the strong professional leadership of manager Harry Jones and his staff.

Although we need to recognize and relish these achievements, we also must acknowledge our work is not yet finished. We cannot forsake those opportunities for improvement that still exist. We must not rest on the progress of our past. Instead, we must build on this momentum of achievement to continue to help Mecklenburg residents improve their lives and their community.

Mecklenburg County is a wealthy community. We have many people who enjoy financial prosperity. Being the home to people of many faiths and houses of worship, we also are a spiritual community. We are a generous people, donating our time and money to others through crisis assistance ministries, the United Way Agencies, Arts and Science Council and more.

We have built jobs and businesses, and skyscrapers of commerce. We are home to 306 Fortune 500 Companies, and are the second largest financial center in the Country. We're also a regional center for health care, renown for two the finest health care systems in the world.

And we should not ignore the bounty of our natural resources. We boast one of the best climates in the Country. When combined with our wonderful parks and growing greenway system, our quality of life is a worthy rival to any community.

Yet amongst these many definitions of wealth, we continue to have several forms of poverty. Our scorecard reveals the quality of the air we breathe and the water in our creeks still needs improving despite recent advances.

We continue to break records in the number of people receiving public assistance, with nearly one in 8 Mecklenburg residents receiving some form of assistance.  And while we are making progress in several aspects of public health, we still are well below our desired goals in reducing HIV/AIDS, breast and colon cancer deaths, teenage pregnancy, and the incidence of obesity. Most notable are the health disparities for African-Americans in Mecklenburg County, who are more likely to have specific health problems, such as diabetes, infant mortality and sexually transmitted diseases.

Our jails are becoming overcrowded. Violent crime, particularly homicide, has increased in our community beyond levels of recent years. We have a court system that is often stagnated by lack of resources from the State of North Carolina. And we continue to see substance abuse as a common denominator of crime, arrests, jail overcrowding, poverty, homelessness, domestic violence and so many of our community problems.

We also have in one school system both exemplary performance and instances of unacceptable results.  We have a school system lauded as one of the finest urban school systems in the Country, outpacing other similar systems in student achievement. For example, Charlotte-Mecklenburg students outperformed their peers in the state and in the nation on three out of four areas measured on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.  The 2005 average score for CMS students increased over 2003 in fourth-grade reading and math, and in eighth grade math.  In fact, CMS has the third highest score among all states in fourth grade math, and the eighth highest score among all states in fourth grade reading.

Yet, too often, we also are failing to educate many children. This is most acute at the high school level but we also see achievement gaps in several grades among African-American students, Hispanic students, economically disadvantaged students, children with limited English skills and students with disabilities.Although we are shrinking many of these gaps, we will have ample room for improvement.

Finally, we must remain aware of how property taxes impact our residents, particularly senior citizens and others on fixed income. When compared with some of our neighboring counties, we have a relatively high property tax rate. Although many of those who recently relocated from other parts of the Country probably would consider our tax rate relatively low, we continue to be challenged by having few options other than property taxes to pay for services. We must continue to find creative, efficient and effective ways to serve the needs of our citizens at reasonable costs.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

The Emerging Issues Forum has undertaken a multiyear program to lay the groundwork for change in the state and local government systems of tax and finance. A recent report, entitled Financing the Future, notes that – and I quote -- "Over the past 20 years state and local governments have seen their share of overall government spending in the United States grow from 38% to over 50%. At the same time, state and local governments have seen their share of revenue remain constant. On top of everything else, the cost of both state and local governments of public education and health care are set to rise significantly. This means that state and local governments depend increasingly on the federal government – an unreliable financial partner, to say the least – and are filling budget gaps with ad hoc, band-aid type solutions."  Unquote.

For example, Mecklenburg County taxpayers pay nearly $30 million in local property tax dollars for the federally mandated Medicaid Program. This share of cost is borne by state governments in every state except North Carolina.  This $30 million amounts to approximately 3-and-one-half-cents on the County property tax rate.

When considering where we are, we must also consider the public mood.  Are citizens prepared to support initiatives designed to solve problems and prepare the future for a new generation? Will we make decisions and set priorities in 2006 that will make life better in 2015?

Can we compete with the ever escalating media attention placed on the men and women who serve in public office? Men and women who make difficult decisions – even when they are not politically popular?

We are living in a time of change.  The inevitability of change is one of the factors that will shape our future. Michael Lewis, in an article in the New York Times Magazine, wrote that "A stable society has the ability to reject or adapt to change. A stagnant society has the change imposed upon it, unpleasantly. The only issue is from which direction the change will come."

The question for us today then, is whether change will be forced upon our community unpleasantly – or will we shape the future by embracing change, adapting to it in a way that reflects our best instincts for the common good?

The 35-member School Building Solutions Committee chaired by former North Carolina Governor Jim Martin will help us answer this question. I encourage those who care about our community to become engaged in this effort – to support the hard work of governing in an ever changing landscape. We must listen to those who feel disadvantaged, frustrated, or overwhelmed.
 We must not allow our public mood to deteriorate. We must create an environment equal to the enthusiasm, excitement and support, even in defeat, of the Panthers. And we can.

WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO?

With all of this as a backdrop, let's ask ourselves where we want to go?

I believe communities have characters. They have personalities. Cities and counties are known not so much for the geographical features that surround them – but for the men, women and children that live in them and sustain the quality of life. While rivers and lakes and mountains may provide a scenic background, the heart and soul of a community is the people who live and work and play in its homes and businesses and playgrounds. People will determine if we are a stable society or a stagnant  society. People will determine from which directions change will come. And it will come!

Are we still committed to the 2015 VISION STATEMENT?  Do we want to preserve and protect our water supply from Mountain Island Lake? Do we want clean air? Do we want adequate healthcare for our aging population?

Whoever we are and whatever we become will be decided by the citizens of Mecklenburg County and the men and women they choose to lead. We live in a time of change – change that brings New Beginnings, New Challenges and New Opportunities. How will we proceed? Will we be stagnate or stable? Will we be guided by our best instincts or our worst fears?

These are real issues for real people as we gather here today. I suggest there are three issues of primary importance. These issues also present new opportunities.  While there are numerous challenges, I believe there are three that deserve special attention.

PUBLIC EDUCATION
I believe public education is the greatest challenge facing our community. It is not just an education issue – it is also an economic stability issue. We know that our public schools are going to change as we anticipate 50,000 more students in the next decade. The CMS Task Force chaired by Cathey Bessant with Bank of America and former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt has presented an excellent framework for improving our schools. The report has recommendations for every child. We must be receptive of the recommendations as we experience the inevitability of change.   We must be receptive!

DIVERSITY AND DEMOGRAPHICS
The changing human landscape of our community is becoming a giant mosaic. Immigrants from all parts of the world are coming here to make their home. Cultural differences are becoming more evident. More of our population is "aging" gracefully.  Sexual orientation has presented a challenge of acceptance of persons - all made in the image of God. If we are to become the great community envisioned by the 2015 Plan, we must balance our concern with compassion. We must commit to embracing this changing human landscape – it must not be forced upon us unpleasantly.  We must proactively find a way that binds us all together for the common good. We must find a way!

POVERTY
We must continue to address the underlying causes of poverty. Social Services Director, Jake Jacobson tells us that more than 107,000 people need public assistance in Mecklenburg County.  Is this acceptable to us as a community?  As I noted earlier, communities have character. They have personalities. The way we treat those least fortunate among us will shape our character – and convey our personality. As impossible as it seems, we must continue our efforts to wipe out poverty. In so doing, we will solve many of the other challenges that confront us at the beginning of a New Year.

You will note that I have not talked about taxes or growth or a host of other issues that challenge Mecklenburg County. If we deal responsibly with the three I have mentioned, we will go a long way toward stabilizing taxes, reducing crime and protecting our environment. We are at a point in our evolution that we can shape a framework that makes a positive impact on our future.  But we can't do it as a divided community.  We can't do it as a partisan community.  We can't do it as a community of individuals unable to come together to solve problems.   We can't be afraid to be creative and try new ideas.  We can't tiptoe into the future, frightened of what might be around the corner. 

Change is inevitable, and our community is changing.  We are quickly becoming a global community. Just as our business community has embraced this new reality, we the people also must prepare for the social and human elements that come with being part of an international community.
How we manage this and other changes will define us as individuals and as a region.  Can we live up to the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., who showed us that we can satisfy our individual needs only by serving the needs of others?

We often refer to ourselves as taxpaying citizens.  Some of us also think in terms of being a citizen customer, concerned with those county services available to us, such as the quality of our parks and libraries.   I believe we need to expand our perspective to also think of ourselves as engaged citizens. The engaged citizen has a role beyond that of taxpayer or customer.  Engaged citizens own their government and are actively involved in shaping the goals and results for their community.  Engaged citizens go beyond individual concerns about taxes and services.  Engaged citizens consider the greater good…the quality of life in their community….and how they can make a difference.
Mecklenburg County has a long tradition of engaged citizens.  It is one of the reasons our community is so blessed and so affluent in many ways.   Their consideration and work on behalf of future generations distinguished them and distinguished Mecklenburg County as the greatest community in this country.

As we consider the future of our community, I leave you with two questions:  Are you committed to the vision for Mecklenburg County?  Are you actively engaged in building a community of pride and choice for people to live, work and recreate?   Your answer will determine our success or failure.
I'm hopeful – I'm optimistic – that we will succeed in achieving the vision for this community.   We must begin by reminding ourselves of the inherent worth and dignity and purpose in life of every person.   We must be committed to transforming our vision into action.  And we must work together to govern our County as if our future depends on us – because it does!  

Thank you.