For more than 100 years, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and North Carolina League of Municipalities have advocated policies for local governments to state lawmakers.
Alamance County Manager Craig Honeycutt and Burlington City Manager Harold Owen said these advocates are vital in making sure that local issues are heard and understood by state lawmakers. All 100 counties statewide are members of the NCACC and there are 545 municipalities that are members of the NCLM. Both the NCACC and NCLM charge their members an annual fee.
The Times-News decided to ask questions about the two groups after a call from a reader with questions about the groups.
Burlington paid a $24,875 fee to the NCLM for 2010-2011 for its services, while Alamance County paid a $14,462 fee to the NCACC for the same period.
These fees help ensure that Burlington and Alamance County can participate in the process and local issues are advocated for in Raleigh on their behalf. Honeycutt and Owen said it’s important for local governments to continue their working relationships with NCACC and NCLM.
“We tell them what our goals are and they widen the goals on a state level,” Honeycutt said.
Alamance County participates in the NCACC’s Debt Setoff Program, which allows local governments to submit outstanding debts of at least $50 to the state Department of Revenue and attempts to match the debt with an income tax refund. Alamance County has collected more than $1 million in unpaid debt through the Debt Setoff Program since it started in 2002.
The NCACC has a board of directors with 18 districts. All counties are allowed to have at least one member from their county represented in a district. The voting board is not weighted by counties’ populations so larger counties don’t have more influence in making policy recommendations.
“It’s one county one vote,” NCACC spokesman Todd McGee said.
The NCACC met earlier this year during a conference to develop 54 legislative goals for the General Assembly to consider. McGee said the goals are designed to keep Raleigh from pushing more state costs down to the county level.
“We are advocates for counties at the General Assembly,” McGee said. “The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners’ priority is to help counties find ways to save money and keep up with trends.”
Founded in 1908, the NCACC was established to partner with county governments to help the state better provide services. The association employs a professional staff to run the day-to-day operations and to provide expertise to counties in the areas of lobbying, fiscal and legal research, communications, intergovernmental relations, information technology, field visits and risk management services.
NCACC also works at the federal level on behalf of the state’s 100 counties to promote their agenda. McGee said the public is sometimes confused about the association’s role.
“People think we are a type of police agency for the county boards,” McGee said. “We get calls from citizens about something their county board has done and want us to do something about it.”
McGee said the NCACC doesn’t encroach on how county commissioners do their jobs.
“We work for them,” he said.
NCLM was also founded in 1908 as the Carolina Municipal Association by 22 cities including Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem. The name for the organization was changed in 1922 to North Carolina Municipal Association.
The NCMA adopted a new constitution in 1934, which named the organization the N.C. League of Municipalities. In 1935, the league helped generate $500,000 in direct state aid for state gasoline tax revenues for streets inside municipalities.
During the past few decades, the league has helped secure local option sales tax authority for local governments, helped lead national efforts to reauthorize general revenue sharing, won more home rule provisions for cities and towns in electing and structuring their governing boards and led efforts to get several clean water bond issues passed.
“The league represents cities in the General Assembly from the cities’ viewpoint,” Owen said. “We are represented on a number of issues.”
Owen said the league was instrumental in helping present Burlington’s concerns about the Jordan Lake Rules. In 2009, the General Assembly passed a law requiring governments in the watershed feeding the Jordan Lake reservoir to reduce levels of nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into the Chatham County lake that provides water for several communities in the Triangle. Some local leaders have said the Jordan Lake Rules are too restrictive and don’t allow enough time for compliance.
“The league has the ability to unite cities on similar issues,” Owen said. “If we have a problem, we can call them.”
Owen said the league doesn’t make policy decisions since that is left up to local elected-officials but the league does have the power to establish a framework for policy discussion based on its members’ needs.
NCLM spokesman Matt Lail said the league provides consultation and lobbying services for its members. Lail said there are several misconceptions about the NCLM.
“Some people think that we are a shadow government run by the legislators,” Lail said. “That is so far from the truth.”
Lail said that some also believe that the NCLM has hundreds of lobbyists working one block from the General Assembly. The NCLM’s entire staff is fewer than 100 workers and the agency’s governmental affairs staff has 10 lobbyists who work on behalf of its members.
The NCLM recently held a conference where it established 25 goals for the General Assembly this year. The NCLM will hold its annual town hall meeting on May 4 in Raleigh for its members.
“We will provide a brief on what is happening with our legislators,” Lail said. “Our charge comes from what our members want us to do.”
Lail said some believe that the NCLM is unwilling to budge on annexation reform. The General Assembly discussed last month issues about cities’ power to implement involuntary annexations and whether a moratorium should be placed on these types of annexations.
According to Lail, the NCLM has provided at least 20 suggestions over the past two years on how the state’s annexation reforms should be implemented. Lail said the NCLM is opposed to a moratorium on annexations.
Two of the 25 legislative goals established by the NCLM included enhancing the authority of cities to own and operate broadband systems for their residents and for cities to establish vacant housing receivership programs to help rehabilitate structures not meeting the minimum housing standards.
Another service the NCLM provides Burlington is consultation on personnel matters, Owen said. Owen said the city makes all its decisions on hires but the NCLM provides expertise on how to best implement hiring processes if there are any questions. The NCLM also offers insurance coverage for its members for workers compensation, health, property and liability.
Additional services provided to Burlington include contract consulting, networking opportunities, access to attorneys and services to save public funds. The NCLM and NCACC are based in Raleigh offices.
March 01, 2011 5:43 PM
Chris Lavender / Times-News
