News

GOOD JOB!/NEEDS WORK: ‘Gold standard,’ DMV, NIMBY nation

By Lightning Editorial Board, Published: January 25, 2024

GOOD JOB! As we report in this issue, a statewide organization of budget crafters and finance directors presented its highest honor to Amy Brantley, the assistant county manager known for her steel-trap grasp of numbers and innovation in creating a system to draft spending plans. Megan Powell, one of the many coworkers Brantley has mentored over the years in the county finance office, presented the N.C. Local Government Budget Association’s Jack Vogt Award to Brantley last week during a meeting of the Board of Commissioners. Brantley is “the gold standard of what we should strive to in local government both as an employee and as a leader,” County Manager John Mitchell said in a nomination letter. Outside her numbers-crunching job in the Historic Courthouse, “she’s known as a resource for professionals across the state,” Powell said. “Before most of the budgeting software that local governments use today was available, Amy created a budget process and Excel resources that were shared and replicated by countless jurisdictions across the state.” Brantley took the opportunity to share the news — lamentably, for her bosses and colleagues and the county’s taxpayers — that she’s retiring after 32 fiscal years. She’ll be missed.

NEEDS  WORK … Sheriff Lowell Griffin said out loud what every driver that needs a license renewal is thinking while shivering in the predawn cold waiting for service. DMV is broken and needs fixing. “Recently I’ve had family and I’ve had friends that have attempted to get their driver's license and they've had to attempt on numerous occasions, and it's not because they're not eligible,” Griffin told county commissioners at their first meeting of 2024. “It's because of the extensive lines here in North Carolina at the DMV.” Griffin cited county residents forced to drive to McDowell, Polk, Transylvania and Haywood counties to try to get service. “This is not an indictment on the men and women that are working here at the local DMV. I think they're overworked and underpaid. We need additional staffing here. … It's incredible that it's this overran and nobody seems to want to address the issue.” This paragraph is a Good job! too, however. Some might say the high sheriff’s portfolio does not include the state Division of Motor Vehicles. We say, so what? He sounded to us like a dedicated public servant standing up for working people abused by a broken bureaucracy.

GOOD JOB! A developer who specializes in building affordable housing for lower-income families and seniors is seeking the city’s OK to construct 60 apartments on 2.2 acres on Greenville Highway at Chadwick Avenue. Even if the City Council approves the rezoning request, we won’t know if the project is a go until the N.C. Housing Finance Agency acts on the developer’s application for tax credit financing. What we can safely predict is that NIMBY nation will once again rise up to spout the usual exaggerated grievance-fest: parking, stormwater runoff, traffic, outdoor lighting, the “transient” character of “renters,” etc. There is already a stoplight at this intersection. There’s a bus stop across the street. The site is within walking distance of four supermarkets and six pharmacies. The project would not contribute to urban sprawl. The City Council, which has just formed an affordable housing task force, ought to recognize the noise for what it is — fear-sowing without evidence — and authorize a rezoning for these desperately needed senior dwellings.